2 in 5 Business School Alumni in Careers They'd Never Predicted

GMAC interviewed 15,000 graduates were interviewed in the Alumni Perspectives Survey Report 2017, all of them business school graduates completing MBAs.

• 52% had made a career switch (industry and/or function) upon graduating from business school
• 39% of business school alumni had no idea they would find themselves in the industries they have now been recruited to.

For business school alumni who had not planned on changing their job function and/or industry, 88% of respondents said that they were happy with their role and their employer.

The sectors and jobs MBA graduates are most likely to work in

MBA graduates are most likely to be found working in products/services, technology, the nonprofit industry and consulting, according to GMAC’s report.

• 51% of all respondents who opted for careers with nonprofits
• 45% of those recruited into manufacturing hadn't considered these sectors before doing their management degree. Many business schools actively recruit candidates who work for nonprofit organizations, and there are even scholarships dedicated to this background.

In terms of job functions, MBA graduates are most likely to fill positions which include finance and accounting, sales and marketing, and general management.

GMAC also found that 92% of MBAs graduating between 2012 and 2016 have attained positions that are of mid-management seniority, with around a third holding senior-level roles and one in 10 holding executive or c-suite positions.

• 92% of GMAC respondents said they had no regrets taking the MBA
• 84% of full-time, two-year MBA graduates rating their programs as either 'outstanding' or 'excellent'. 

Top Tech MBA Schools

Foster School of Business at the University of Washington sent more than half its 2016 MBAs into tech. 

The high tech industry has become a major recruiter of elite MBA talent in recent years. Amazon hired 35 MBAs last year at INSEAD, 34 at Michigan Ross, 23 at both MIT Sloan and Northwestern Kellogg, 19 at Chicago Booth, and a 15 at Duke Fuqua. In the past five years, Amazon has hired nearly as many MBAs (49) from Columbia Business School as Morgan Stanley (51), consistently one of Columbia’s largest employers over many years (see table below).

Only five years ago, Google hired just four MBAs at Chicago Booth. Last year, Google had tripled its Booth hires to a dozen. In 2012, in fact, only one company–Google with those four hires–out of 26 major employers was a tech firm. Today, five of 26 are in tech, with two of the top six in technology. At Kellogg, LinkedIn, Facebook, Dell and Intuit made the list of major employers last year for the first time. At MIT Sloan, where Amazon, Google and Microsoft are among the top nine employers now, MBAs going into the software and Internet industries accounted for 23.9% of the class last year, up from a mere 4.7% in 2012.

It’s also a worldwide phenomenon. At Spain’s IE Business School, the tech industry for the first time become the largest employer of MBAs in 2016, overtaking consulting and finance. “We saw a dramatic upsurge in placements in the technology industry–25% compared to 16% last year–as innovations in the sector consistently generate new roles and functions,” according to IE’s 2016 employment report. In fact, many are using the MBA to transition out of other industries and going into high tech. At IE, for example, only 10% of incoming MBAs hail from technology, though 25% of outgoing MBAs land jobs in the field.

The University of California-Berkeley’s Haas School of Business sent 38.8% of its Class of 2016 the short trip down the road into tech, a percentage point increase from 2015, and Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business — smack dab in the heart of Silicon Valley — upped its tech output by 5 points, to 33% of its 2016 MBA class.

Yet neither of those schools — nor even another elite California school, UCLA’s Anderson School of Management (28.3%) — can compete with the University of Washington. Based in Seattle, the Foster School of Business is the only elite B-school to send more than half (52%) of its MBAs into the tech sector, and that’s after a 9-point jump from 2015. Foster shares a home with one of the biggest employers of MBAs in the world, Amazon. Though numbers for 2016 Foster MBAs aren’t yet available, it’s safe to say Amazon didn’t forget about the tech factory in its backyard.

Five schools pay a median base salary of $120,000; a few (three) pay $125,000; and one leads the pack with a median base salary of $130,000. The leader: Stanford. Harvard Business School and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, both of which boast a median base pay of $125,000 and a median bonus of $30,000. Columbia is a close third with a salary mark of $120,000 and a bonus of $33,840.

The other school that can boast of a $125,000 median base salary for tech workers: Haas, which only reports a mean (not median) bonus of $25,555.

The five European schools all have double-digit employment in the tech sector for their 2016 MBAs. Leading the way is London Business School’s 21%, up a tick from 20% last year, followed by INSEAD (19%, down 2 points), HEC Paris (17%, down 2 points), IESE (16%), and IE (10%). An MBA from INSEAD yields the highest base salary, US$99,500, with a median sign-on of US$21,100. Next is LBS, which reported a mean base salary of $93,408; and IESE, at median US$74,500 (and a median bonus of US$22,202).

LBS, meanwhile, may be interested in going the extra mile to attract new students. Anticipating a possible “student brain drain” in the wake of Brexit, the UK’s referendum to leave the European Union, experts expect full-time MBA tuition at England’s top B-school to fall somewhat from the current $93,000. They also look at the school’s opening of the new Sammy Ofer Centre, which increases LBS’ classroom space by 70%, and sense a move in the offing to appeal to more U.S. students in the growing fields of tech and entrepreneurship/innovation.

Big Data and Business: An MBA vs. Master in Business Analytics

2016 was the “Year of the Data Analyst.” According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the job market for various data analyst positions is growing far faster than average—around 27 percent annually. In fact, 85 percent of Fortune 500 companies have either launched big data projects or are planning to do so.

Big data, which refers to the practice of analyzing extremely large data sets to reveal trends and patterns, is reshaping the business world—and it’s here to stay. Companies like Google and Amazon have dedicated significant resources to big data, and a report by PWC estimates that the big data market for financial services is expected to increase to $53.4 billion in 2017.

As for the job market for data analysts, the McKinsey Global Institute estimates that by 2018, the United States could face a shortage of 140,000 to 190,000 workers with “deep analytical skills” and 1.5 million managers and analyst with the necessary “know-how” to interpret and apply big data.

The increasing emphasis on big data in business requires more workers who are able to analyze data and communicate the results effectively. Because employers want graduates who can do this work, many business schools are rethinking their curricula and integrating data science.

The MS in Business Analytics

Ninety-eight percent of companies believe that business school grads need to know how to use data to drive decisions. As big data has become a standard of business, it has also become a desirable part of a business education.

Beyond adding a business analytics concentration or a few big data electives, some business schools are making big data part of their core offerings. For example, UCLA Anderson School of Management is the latest of several leading business schools to offer a Master of Science in Business Analytics (MSBA).

In February, Anderson launched its newest academic degree program, the MSBA. It’s a 13-month long program that prepares students for a career in big data analysis with a combination of theory and application in a number of critical areas. The curriculum delves into mathematics, statistics, programming and data management as well as specific applications of business analytics including customer analytics, operations analytics and competitive analytics.

MBA Programs and Big Data

An MS in Business Analytics is typically a one-year program. The courses are largely focused on data analysis and interpretation, translating to a fairly narrow set of job outcomes after graduation.

For prospective students who are interested in a generalist experience, many MBA programs have begun to increase the emphasis on data in their curricula. For example, Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management offers a “re-engineered” MBA for the digital tech world: the Johnson Cornell Tech MBA. The program sits at the intersection of business, information science and technology. And when listing topics covered in the program, data science is one of the first mentioned, with courses such as “Data Analytics & Modeling” and “Designing Data Products.”

The University of Chicago Booth School of Business offers an MBA concentration in Analytical Management. Courses within the concentration include “Data-Driven Marketing,” which delves into actual market behavior of consumers, and “Data Mining,” which covers topics such as graphics, cluster analysis, multidimensional scaling, discriminant analysis, logic models, regression and classification trees, neural networks and issues in data collection and management.

MBAs who graduate with a focus on data analytics have the ability to work in a wide range of industries and functions. For example, graduates can work in marketing, given their ability to use data to understand advertising and consumer behavior. Or they can work for a firm like KPMG or Deloitte, using their skills to analyze risk and incorporated uncertainty to identify profitable customers and determine optimal pricing policies.

For the original article go to metromba.com.

Rise of One-Year MBAs In The USA?

INSEAD's topping of the Financial Times Global MBA Rankings for the first time in 2016, showed the rising popularity and usefulness of the one-year MBA. 

Within the United States, the traditional, two-year full-time MBA program is still dominant. Five out of the Financial Times’ global top 10 are two-year MBA programs from the US – including Harvard Business School, where the MBA was first introduced over a century ago.

However, according to GMAC, applications to two-year MBA programs fell in 53% of US business schools in 2016. At the same time, 55% of one-year MBA programs reported an increase in domestic applicants.

Vishal Gaur, associate dean for MBA programs at Johnson at Cornell University is the only Ivy League school to offer a one-year MBA program. Its associate dean Vishal Gaur sees a gradual shift towards more elite schools offering one-year programs. 

Applications to the Johnson at Cornell’s two-year MBA remain stable, but applications to the one-year MBA have increased steadily, with the program upping its intake from 40 to over 70 students in a matter of years. 53% of students enrolled on Johnson at Cornell’s one-year MBA are international, compared to 33% on the two-year program – the one-year MBA is still more accepted internationally than it is in the US.

The one-year MBA program is aimed at more experienced professionals; those looking to advance their careers in the same industry rather than switch career track. The current class has an average age of 29, and an average of five years’ work experience between them.

But Shashi Matta, MBA program director at The Ohio State University’s Max M Fisher College of Business, says around 60% of the school’s MBA students get jobs out of their internships and that many employers consider a one-year program not intensive enough.

While some US business schools are still getting to grips with the one-year MBA, in Europe the shorter MBA format has brought schools significant success. According to GMAC, 74% of full-time one-year MBA programs in Europe reported growing application volumes in 2016.

Michelle Sisto, MBA program director at France’s EDHEC Business School, says she’s seen a sharp increase in MBA applicants from the US in particular. The two-year investment in the US can cost upwards of $300-to-400,000 dollars including opportunity cost. 

For more information see BusinessBecause.

INSEAD Entrepreneurship Receives €10 Million Turbo Boost from Unnamed Alum

INSEAD has received a €10 million alumni gift to create several new academic positions and PhD scholarships to bolster entrepreneurship through strengthened research, expanded teaching and the cultivation of new talent.

“INSEAD changed my life for the better,” the anonymous donor said in a statement. “I want INSEAD to continue to excel in everything it does and to support it as an independent institution which needs donations from its alumni.” An entrepreneur himself, the donor called the decision of where to direct his investment a natural one. According to the school, the mystery alumni donor has long supported INSEAD—this latest gift bringing his total contributions to the school to more than €20 million.

INSEAD has been named the No. 1 MBA program in the world both this year and last by the Financial Times. With campuses in France, Singapore and Abu Dhabi, INSEAD offers its students the opportunity to study on three different continents and underscores this global education as one of its greatest strengths. 

Its accelerated MBA program—which students complete in a mere 10 months—also carries a much lower price tag than the two-year, full-time MBA programs more prevalent in the United States and requires less time out of the workforce.

For more information, please see the INSEAD press release

Record 46% Of INSEAD MBAs Go Into Consulting

INSEAD is well known as one of the top feeder business schools for the global consulting industry, sending more MBAs into the field than any other B-school in the world. But in 2016 46% of the graduating class last year accepted jobs in the consulting sector, up from 43% a year earlier and nearly 13 percentage points higher than just three years ago.

The three big global players, McKinsey & Co., Boston Consulting Group, and Bain & Co. took 29.8% of the graduates who reported their career choices to INSEAD. 

McKinsey employed 125, up from 102 MBAs last year. 

BCG hired 67 grads, slightly down from 72 a year earlier.

Bain employed 48, down from 52 a year earlier. 

Only three firms, all in technology, broke up the consulting party: Amazon, Microsoft and Google, which were among the dozen top employers. 

Many of these graduates returned to their firms after picking up their MBA in the 10-month-long program. The accelerated pace of the MBA experience makes the school particularly appealing to consulting firms who sponsor their employees. The McKinsey total, for example, includes 75 new hires and 50 MBAs who returned to the firm. At BCG, 26 of the 67 hires were of former employees, while at Bain 14 of 48 total hires had previously worked for the firm.

The total median compensation package, adjusted for the percentage of graduates reporting sign-on and year-end performance bonuses, totaled $134,268, a 2.9% decline from a year earlier. 

The total pay is composed of median salary of $102,500, sign-on bonuses of $22,800, reported by 65% of the class, and performance bonuses of $22,300, received by 74% of the MBAs. 

INSEAD’s $134,268 total, just behind the University of Texas McCombs School’s $135,885, puts INSEAD behind 19 U.S. business schools. The highest paid MBA graduates last year again came off the campus of Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and Harvard Business School. Stanford MBAs pulled down a total median pay package of $163,827, while HBS grads landed packages worth $158,080 (see What MBAs Make In Their First Year Of Work).

The pay gap is largely the result of many more INSEAD MBAs going to work in countries where pay levels are significantly lower than they are in more mature economies as well as many students who enter the program with salaries below those at many U.S. schools. Salaries across the world, even in the same industry from the same employers, can vary widely.  INSEAD revealed that graduates who took jobs in India earned median salaries of $47,360, or 3,200,000 Rupees, compared to overall median salaries for the entire class of $102,500, a sum that would include the Indian salaries.

The median starting salary for a consulting job in North America topped out at $145,000, exactly the number reported by leading U.S. schools, the median in Southern Europe was just $77,900. In Latin America, starting salaries in consulting were only $81,300, while in Asia Pacific they were $113,500, according to INSEAD. Moreover, the cost of getting an INSEAD degree are significantly lower than those who enter a more traditional two-year MBA program, resulting in one of the highest returns on investment for any MBA in the world.

INSEAD reported that 89% of its graduates had at least one job offer three months after graduation, down from 90% in 2015. That level of employment also trails many of the leading U.S. schools. At Chicago Booth and Wharton last year, more than 98% of the graduates had job offers three months after commencement, while at London Business School, 96% of the 2016 class had job offers at that point. Still, the 89% job offer rate was just a point below Stanford’s 90% job offer level last year. Given the unusually wide dispersement of INSEAD grads around the world, the 89% offer rate is impressive, or as Hastie pointed out, “a remarkable achievement given the intensive nature of our 10-month global MBA programme and the macro-economic uncertainty in some of our traditional sectors and geographies.”

While 46% of its graduates landed jobs in Europe, some 29% gained employment in Asia Pacific, 10% in Africa and the Middle East, 8% in North America, and 7% in Latin America. The school said that no single country accounted for more than 14% of the jobs its graduates landed last year.

Only 27% of the school’s MBA students came from the consulting sector, 46% of the graduates enter the field.  Among those who have joined the consulting sector, INSEAD reported that 25% of them will be based in Asia (compared to 22% in 2015), taking away geographical share from Europe (falling from 48% in 2015 to 45% in 2016), with the share of the other regions largely unchanged. This mix mirrors the growth expectations of these regions.

Average consulting salaries remained mostly flat for most regions, with the exception of Asia and the Americas. In Asia, average base salary increased by around 3% while the average base salary fell by 4.3% for the Americas. INSEAD said the fall in average salary in the Americas is mainly due to exchange rate impact and the reversal in regional mix between Latin America (65% in 2016 vs 33% in 2015) and North America (35% in 2016 vs 67% in 2015). This brought the overall average down despite the rise in average salary in the North and Latin America regions of 11% and 17% (without currency effects), respectively.

The 46% of the INSEAD class that was hired by consulting, moreover, compares with just 16% at Stanford, 25% at Harvard Business School, 27% at Wharton, and 30% at Chicago Booth. One other consequence of this is that the school’s representation in other sectors, particularly finance and technology, is much lower than many of its rival schools. Last year, only 14% of INSEAD’s MBAs went into financial services, while just 17% accepted jobs in technology. Similar to previous years, 6% of INSEAD’s graduates last year became entrepreneurs post-graduation.

The school reported that almost eight out of ten graduates used their MBA to switch industries, functions or geography. Some 48% of the class changed country, 52% switched industries, while 63% changed function. “This year, our students chose exciting roles with more than 300 different employers in 68 countries, which represents by far the most global and diverse reach of any top MBA programme,” wrote Hastie. “This is made possible thanks to strong employer relations with nearly 600 companies and an alumni network of more than 52,000 in more than 170 countries. In terms of career change, nearly 80% of the class changed one dimension of sector, function or country, with 27% of the class making simultaneous changes in all 3 dimensions.”

Financial Times 2017 Global MBA Rankings

INSEAD remained at #1 for 2017 but there were some major changes

1. Stanford GSB rose to 2nd

2. Harvard Business School fell to 4th

3. Cambridge Judge rose to 5th ahead of London Business School

Source: 2017 Financial Times Global MBA Ranking 

For the second consecutive year, the FT named INSEAD’s accelerated 10-month program the No. 1 MBA experience in the world. 

Stanford GSB replaced HBS to rank second, with Wharton in third place, and the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School in fifth. Judge rose five places this year and 21 places in the past five years to gain its fifth-place finish, putting further distance between Judge and its top rival, Oxford’s Saïd Business School, which fell five places to a rank of 33rd, its lowest FT ranking since 2003 when it finished 35th. Only five years ago, Saïd was ranked 20th, ahead of Judge by six places.

This year the FT ranked London Business School, the only other non-U.S. MBA program to ever grace the top of its list, sixth. Columbia Business School, always a strong performed in this ranking, was seventh, with Spain’s IE Business School eighth, Chicago Booth ninth, and IESE Business School tenth.

A trio of schools in the top 25 each gained six places to finish substantially higher this year: IESE Business School in Spain rose to 10th from 16th, CEIBs in Shanghai, China, jumped to 11th from 17th, and ESADE in Spain improved to 17th from 23rd. Switzerland-based IMD lost the most ground, dropping eight places to a rank of 21st from 13th last year.

It was a tough year for U.S. business schools: Not only did INSEAD keep Stanford, Wharton and Harvard out of the top spot; only half of the top ten ranked institutions are based in the U.S., down from seven on each of the previous three annual lists. When the FT began ranking MBA programs, INSEAD finished 11th, and nine of the top ten schools were in the U.S., including first-place Harvard. This year, HBS lost two spots, sinking to fourth place.

The FT calculations on currency exchange which impact its salary data–a major factor in these rankings–were done in the fall before the more recent rise in the U.S. dollar which also hurt U.S. schools. Overall, the impact of the strengthening US dollar has yet to be felt in the FT ranking, with many European and Asian schools performing well in the top half of the table. Six of the top 11 schools are from Europe and Asia, with the other places held by the fabled M7.

Failing to win a top ten rank were a group of world class business schools that have long dominated the top of most rankings. They include: No. 11 Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, MIT Sloan and UC-Berkeley’s Haas School, both tied at 13th, No. 15 Yale School of Management, No. 18 Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business, and No. 19 NYU’s Stern School. Eight of the U.S. schools lost ground this year, while only four U.S. MBA programs improved their position.

Still, it was not all bad. U.S. schools occupy 51 of the 100 places on the list, up from 47 last year. Some 30 of the U.S. players were up, with 19 down and two maintaining their ranks from a year ago. Many American MBA programs did especially well. Indiana’s Kelley School rose eight places to finish 47th, Ohio State’s Fisher School jumped 12 spots to rank 63rd, Brigham Young University’s Marriott School advanced 15 places to finish 65th, Washington University’s Olin School gained 12 places to rank 68th.

Kellogg Unveils New Global Hub

Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management opened its $250 million Kellogg Global Hub, a 415,000-square-foot home for the business school.

Construction began in April 2014. The resulting building—which entailed more than a million work hours put in by more than 1,500 people and incorporates materials from 17 countries from around the globe is touted as placing collaboration as a key defining principle.

Visitors to the Global Hub enter through its soaring Collaboration Plaza, a 6,000-square-foot, three-story central space modeled on piazzas of Europe, where the Kellogg community is expected to intersect and interact both by chance and by design. 

Grand “Spanish Steps”—34-foot-wide terraced seating inspired by the beautiful “Scalina Spagna” of Rome—form the plaza’s center and connect the building’s ground, first and second floors. They were designed as a convening space both where groups can plan to meet and where passersby can be lured into serendipitous conversation with peers as they move from one part of the building to another.

The building is designed to promote constant path crossing between students and increase energy levels and buzz. 

For more details see "A New Era for Kellogg" 

US News & World Report Top 25 Core Metrics

Here are the top 25 Schools for the 2018 US News & World Report rankings by core metrics:

For more information please go to US News & World Report 2018 U.S. News Rankings

2018 U.S. News Business School Ranking: 25~50

Here are the 2018 rankings for US News & World Report 25-50

2018 U.S. News Business School Ranking

U.S. News ranked 131 schools in total. 

Top 25 2018 rank (2017 rank in parentheses)

Analysis: 

1) Wharton rose in the rankings because of Strong employment and pay figures—85.6 percent of graduates employed at graduation and the highest reported average salary of all schools, $155,058.

2) Booth is confirmed as a Top 3 School

Last year, Chicago Booth tied Stanford for second place—its first time ever outranking Wharton and also the first time the Chicago school had secured a top-three spot in the history of the U.S. News rankings. A climbing GMAT average (726) and high employment numbers (84.9 percent employed at graduation) have played a part in its rise.

3) Stanford was damaged at least in terms of the U.S. News list—by the fact that its graduates are confident enough that they’ll land an excellent job so they often wait until accepting the best offers. Only 62.8 percent of its MBAs were employed by graduation—as compared to 85.8 percent at Wharton, 84.9 percent at Chicago Booth and 79.3 percent at HBS. 

But Stanford's GMAT average stood at #1 at 737;  average undergraduate GPA was 3.73, with an acceptance rate of just 6 percent. HBS acceped 10.6 percent, Wharton, 19.6 percent, and Chicago Booth, 23.6 percent. 

4) Yale SOM Defends Its Position in the Top 10

This year marks the third time since 2013 that Yale School of Management (SOM) has ranked in the top 10, giving the school an increasingly legitimate claim to membership in this elite club. In this most recent ranking, the New Haven school tied for No. 9 with CBS. Last year it tied at eighth with Tuck—a five-spot jump over the previous year.

Yale has been making improvements on several fronts. In 2011, the school hired Dean Edward Snyder—the very same dean who sat at the helm of Chicago Booth during its meteoric rankings rise in the early 2000s. Yale has also been poaching high-profile faculty from other schools over the last decade, including Andrew Metrick, professor of finance, and Anjani Jain, current assistant dean, both formerly Wharton faculty.

Add to that the opening of glittery new facilities in 2014 and the school’s traditional strength and reputation as a leader in the non-profit and corporate responsibility areas—currently in vogue with millennials—and the school’s continued top-10 showing makes sense.

5) CBS is battling to maintain its top-10 claim, and its tie this year with Yale for ninth is theoretically an improvement over its 10th place finish last year. But it’s still down from the No. 8 spot it successfully defended from 2012 through 2016. Contributing factors could include the rising cost of living in New York and declining interest among applicants in the financial sector—but that’s just conjecture.

6) NYU Stern Bounces Back from 20 to 12

For more information please go to US News & World Report 2018 U.S. News Rankings