Applicants in 2015: Target Industries vs. MBA Jobs’ Reality

Almost half of all prospective MBA students worldwide (46%) have ambitions of working in the consulting industry post-graduation. This is a seriously sizeable number when you consider that only one in 10 respondents to the QS TopMBA.com Applicant Survey 2015 said they currently work in consultancy.

Is consulting industry interest matched by demand?

Then again, the consulting industry is one of the most traditional destinations for MBA graduates. However, is it the sector in which we currently see the highest demand for holders of the degree, or the highest salaries for that matter?

In a word, no – it doesn’t even have the greatest share of the global MBA jobs market. This share, as reported by international employers last year, was 12%. That may put it on a relative par with the 13% recorded by IT/computer services, but it is comfortably behind finance and banking’s share of 22%.

The financial services, that other traditional bastion of business education, are therefore where the greatest volume of MBA jobs worldwide can be found – even if the 22% figure recorded in 2014 represented a 2% decline on the year previous. Finance is a target industry for a third of this year’s prospective MBA students, placing it second in the preferred industry stakes.

When it comes to the growth in demand for MBAs witnessed last year, both the consulting industry and finance sector were beaten by the technology industry. Indeed, although the volume of MBA jobs in consulting and finance grew by a healthy 9% and 7%, respectively, in electronics/high technology, the global growth in demand was 11%.

Much has been made of the rising interest for skilled managers in the high technology sector, and it now accounts for 7% of the world’s MBA jobs. Among Applicant Survey respondents, meanwhile, technology is the third most-popular choice of target industry and under the consideration of 27% of prospective MBA students.

The 10 most popular target industries among prospective MBA students

Source: QS TopMBA.com Applicant Survey 2015

All three of the top industry destinations feature among the top 10 industries for the scale of average salaries offered to MBA graduates. But, they’re a long way off the top. When looking at employers solely in the established markets for MBA jobs in North America and Western Europe, financial services came out as being the fifth highest-paying industry at US$115,600 (base salary and bonus inclusive), while technology was seventh with US$112,200 and the consulting industry 10th with an average package of US$107,150 (it should be noted that some of the highest salaries offered by large firms in the US were excluded as outliers).

If you’re after the top salary earners, on average, these were found in metals/mining (US$167,700), energy (US$126,950), and pharmaceuticals/biotech/healthcare (US$126,550).  

Prospective MBA students and the highest-paying industries

How many prospective MBA students are targeting these high-paying industries?  Well, energy is pretty high up the table of interest in fifth place overall, where it registers the interest of 14% of applicants. A little further down is the health/medical field and pharmaceutical/biotechnology firms, at 12%. The single highest-paying industry, metal/mining, on the other hand doesn’t register enough applicant interest to warrant a separate category. This is by no means a disinterest in what is clearly a well-rewarded industry, but more of a signal of the limited opportunities the sector provides. In 2014, the industry accounted for a mere 2% of all reported MBA jobs worldwide, despite enjoying a growth in demand of 10%.

In 2014, energy also had something of a bumper year in terms of growth, with demand reportedly rising by 18% – something that could account for the interest in which it is now held among prospective MBA students. However, it too still holds only a 4% share of MBA jobs worldwide, and employers’ anticipations for 2015 are for a more conservative rise of 5% in demand. This is considerably more than the flat growth rate expected this year by employers in the pharmaceuticals, biotech and healthcare arenas - where the overall share of the MBA job market is also 4%.

In this light, it is much less surprising that industries known for the volume of MBA opportunities they provide remain the chief attractions to applicants, even if they aren’t the industries currently undergoing the greatest growth rates or offering the highest salary packages. Opportunities within changing and growing sectors are more likely to reveal themselves during the course of the program proper. For, although MBA students usually have a strong handle of why they are pursuing the degree and where they want it to take them, this can change a great deal as opportunities present themselves during the MBA. In terms of actual career destinations, only a minority will have one fixed idea of where they wish to work post-graduation, while the rest remain open to seeing where the experience might take them.