Masters Advantage: Finance vs. Accounting
If you’re analytically minded and good with numbers and money, then a Master’s in Finance or Accounting could be the right career move for you. Both options prepare you for a career in the finance industry, but in different ways. A career in finance is not the same as the career of an accountant though there is so much overlap that it can get confusing at times.
Continue reading…Top 5 Paying MBA Careers: Consulting
Consulting still is one of the top career choices for MBA graduates. Part of the reason is because consulting firms are very open to recruiting MBAs from a wide range of backgrounds.
According to the 2018 Prospective Student Survey conducted by the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC), consulting is the most sought-after postgraduate industry. An estimated 34 percent of applicants consider consulting their career of choice.
Salary is a crucial factor in that choice. Although consulting salaries depend on a lot of factors—time, location, office, and position, to name a few—the pay is relatively high across the board.
Below, we’ll break down the highest paying jobs in consulting, where to work to earn the most money, what MBA programs are best for the career, and the top companies to work for. Continue reading…
Wharton Reveals 2018 MBA Employment Report, Announces $25 Mil Gift
Lots of news out of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania recently. Employment statistics have been published for the most recent graduating class, and a big donation will fund a cool new building dedicated to entrepreneurship in West Philadelphia as well as more international scholarships for undergraduates.
Here’s what’s going on at the Wharton School.
Penn Employment Report (2018)
The 2018 MBA Career Report revealed a slight increase in job offers and salaries with finance drawing in more students than ever. In 2018, 36.9 percent of full-time MBA graduates went into financial services (up from 33 percent last year). Consulting lured the second most graduates at 25 percent, down from 28 percent in 2017. As for technology—the third most sought-after industry—this year there was a small dip down to 14.9 percent from 16 percent in 2017.
Employment Summary
Overall, of the 77.9 percent of Wharton MBAs seeking employment, 98.4 percent received a job offer 90 days post-graduation, and 94.6 percent accepted. For the remaining 17.2 percent not seeking employment—140 students—84 returned to their current company (60 percent), 34 started their own company (24 percent), 17 postponed their job search (12 percent), and five students gave another reason (3 percent).
As for top employers, many prominent companies hired two or more graduates including Accenture Strategy, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Bain & Company, Deloitte Consulting, McKinsey & Company, Microsoft, and Tesla.
Salaries Rise
Wharton MBA salaries continued their climb, with the school reporting a $5,000 increase in total median base salary, bringing that figure to $135,000 in 2018. The highest median salary—$180,000—went to graduates heading into professional services, followed by venture capital at $175,000 and hedge fund managers at $162,000.
As for regional differences in salaries, the 42.7 percent of Wharton MBA graduates who accepted positions in the Northeastern United States commanded a median salary of $140,000. Another 23.2 percent of grads headed to the West, where the median annual salary was $135,000. The Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S., with its median annual salary of $139,000, drew the third largest percentage of grads, at 7.7 percent. Interestingly, those who took jobs in the Midwest and South reported the biggest paydays, with a median salary of $150,000. This was trailed by the Southwest, with a median annual salary of $145,000.
Another 11.7 percent of the graduating class sought post-graduation employment outside the United States, where salaries on the whole were lower. In Latin America, the median annual salary is $92,000. Salaries are slightly better in Europe, where the median is $119,000, and best in Asia, at $126,000.
$25 Million Gift for Scholarships and New Hall
Right on the heels of publishing its employment statistics last week, the Wharton School also announced a $25 million gift. The transformative gift will go toward constructing Tangen Hall, the first-ever dedicated space for cross-campus entrepreneurship at the University of Pennsylvania. It will also establish an international scholarship fund.
“This gift not only represents a profound commitment to Penn and Wharton student financial aid; it also energizes our entire campus community through Tangen Hall, a game-changing facility for innovation, entrepreneurship, and technology,” Wharton Dean Geoffrey Garrett said in a press release.
Nicolai Tangen, W’92
Alumnus Donation
Nicolai Tangen, the founder of London-based investment partnership AKO Capital and 1992 Wharton undergraduate alumnus, encouraged the AKO foundation to donate as part of Wharton’s More Than Ever fundraising campaign.
“Katja and I are continually inspired by Penn students and pleased to have the opportunity to engage with them and set them up for success,” Tangen says. “We look forward to their many achievements in the years ahead and to witnessing how this new building will bring together the next generation of entrepreneurs, leaders, and innovators to share their talents with one another and for the greater good.”
Tangen Hall
Tangen Hall will be located at 40th and Sansom Street, offering students almost 70,000 square-feet of space to pursue entrepreneurial goals. The hall brings together students from across the university to participate in the new Venture Lab. Also, the building will become the new home of many entrepreneurship-focused programs including:
- Penn Wharton Entrepreneurship
- Goergen Entrepreneurial Management Program
- Weiss Tech House
- Sol C. Snider Entrepreneurial Research Center
- Wharton Small Business Development Center
- The Master’s Level Integrated Product Design Program
Tangen Hall will have dozens of meeting and collaboration spaces for students, retail space for student ventures, a test kitchen, a maker lab with 3D printers and laser cutters, a VR cave, and a café.
“Tangen Hall marks a new chapter for the entrepreneurial community at Penn and in Philadelphia, providing a central hub for the groundbreaking innovations that happen here every day,” Wharton Vice Dean of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Karl Ulrich says. “This physical space will allow faculty to more strongly support students who turn ideas into outcomes that will transform business for years to come.”
Construction will begin in 2019 with completion slated for 2020.
International Scholarship Fund
Beyond Tangen Hall, the $25 million will also go toward a new Katja and Nicolai Tangen International Endowed Scholarship, which will provide funding for international undergraduate students. The goal is to help students who could otherwise not afford a Penn education.
It’s the fourth scholarship made possible thanks to the AKO Foundation and the Tangens. So far, they’ve supported a total of 22 Penn students since 2012.
“We are profoundly grateful to Nicolai and Katja Tangen for their extraordinary commitment to extend opportunities for entrepreneurship to all Penn students,” Penn President Amy Gutmann says. “We are also grateful that Nicolai and Katja are expanding their steadfast scholarship support, enabling the best students from every part of the world to attend Penn, to thrive in their studies, and to serve communities worldwide.”
This article has been edited and republished with permissions from Clear Admit.
Top MBA Internship Opportunities in the London Metro
As a center for global commerce and business, London is one of the top cities in the world to earn an advance business degree and secure an MBA internship. Continue reading…
What is the Most Valuable San Francisco MBA?
There’s no doubt: San Francisco is a great city to earn your MBA. Located near Silicon Valley, business schools throughout the area provide not only an excellent education but also opportunities to interact with many tech and industry leaders in the area. But which MBA programs in San Francisco are the best?
This is not an easy question to answer. You can check rankings, to see which MBA programs perform well based on surveys and statistics provide to The Financial Times, U.S. News and World Report, and The Economist. And that’s a great place to start, but probably the most essential value when determining the right MBA program for you is your return on investment (ROI).
The ROI of an MBA program is one of the best indicators of what your MBA is actually worth. It looks at statistics such as average salary increase, post-graduation employment, tuition cost, cost of living, and more. To help you out, we looked in-depth at the best business schools in San Francisco to see which offer the best ROI. Continue reading…
Tech Grads Surge in New Northwestern Kellogg Employment Report
The Kellogg School of Management released new employment data and statistics from the Class of 2017. According to the school, 94 percent of Kellogg’s full-time MBA Class of 2017 received an offer within three months of graduation.
“Kellogg leaders take a multidisciplinary approach to solving complex business challenges,” said Matt Merrick, Associate Dean of MBA Operations. “The versatile skills they hone at Kellogg enable them to make an immediate impact across all types of organizations.”
MBAs were hired by a wide variety of companies across all disciplines and industries, shapes and sizes. Some of the top companies hiring Kellogg students include McKinsey & Company, The Boston Consulting Group, Amazon, Bain & Company, and Microsoft.
Employment data shows that the most popular industries were consulting (33 percent), technology (25 percent), finance (13 percent) and CPG (12 percent). The Kellogg Career Management Center helped students establish relationships with more than 50 technology companies in order to help secure these employment opportunities. Overall, the Career Management Center works with employers to create custom recruiting strategies, forging deep relationships with employers of all sizes, from all industries and regions.
According to our sister site Clear Admit, the 25 percent of Kellogg grads that landed jobs in the technology industry was a school record.
Jeanette Brown writes:
“Amazon hired 32 Kellogg grads, making it the third largest recruiter in 2017, behind only McKinsey and Boston Consulting Group (BCG). But Amazon was far from the only tech firm to hire at the school. ‘It’s not only the big employers like Amazon, Apple, Google—but the small companies as well, the ones that hire just one to two MBAs,’ explains Liza Kirkpatrick, Senior Director of the full-time MBA program at Kellogg’s Career Management Center. ‘We had over 50 unique tech employers that hired our students this past year, which demonstrates that we really have that depth.’ Kirkpatrick further noted that the types of jobs for which tech firms are hiring Kellogg grads is widely varied, including product management, sales, marketing, business operations, supply chain, product development, and others.”
Kirkpatrick notes that the surge in tech jobs stems from a concerted effort from the business school, which was also reflected in the number of technology industry internships for the Class of 2018.
“‘We started developing relationships in the tech space many years ago,’ acknowledges Kirkpatrick. ‘It has taken a while for firms to recognize that when an MBA comes on board, it really adds value.’ But they certainly have, which can also be seen reflected in the number of tech firms that now take on summer interns. ‘They have really organized themselves to bring on an MBA class as interns as a result,’ Kirkpatrick adds. The most recent employment report reveals that 26 percent of the Class of 2018 interned at technology firms.”
In a press release from the school, Jodi Washington, a Program Manager for the Networking and Security Transformation team, said, “Kellogg’s curriculum builds leaders who are strong analytical thinkers and are confident collaborating across organizations. The Kellogg graduates we hire jump in on day one, but also continue to mature at Cisco.”
2017 statistics/photo courtesy of Northwestern Kellogg.
The statistics show that the number of Kellogg MBAs to accept job offers on the West Coast has also increased (31.4 percent) from last year, a direct correlation to uptick in tech hires. Meanwhile, 30 percent of 2017 MBAs stayed in the Midwest and 33 percent accepted jobs on the East Coast.
You can read more on Kellogg’s latest employment stats and the Clear Admit interview with Kellogg Senior Director of Career Management Liza Kirkpatrick here.
