Tech Remains Top Industry in Haas 2018 Employment Report
This year’s MBA graduates at University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business took advantage of the school’s Bay Area location, with 31.7 percent going into tech.
Technology-interested Haas alums found jobs at companies like Adobe, Amazon, Google and Tesla, according to the list of top employers included in Haas’s 2018 employment report. Consulting heavyweights like Deloitte, Bain, BCG and McKinsey are also on the list.
Overall, 24 percent of the Class of 2018 went for consulting jobs, and 13.7 went into finance. That last number is up from 11.8 percent last year while the percentages for tech and consulting are down from 36.9 and 26.2 respectively.
It’s hard to say for sure why Haas graduates are opting for careers in tech en masse, but the pay certainly doesn’t hurt.
In Haas’s data, tech jobs edged out consulting and finance jobs both in terms of mean base salary ($132,784) and signing bonuses ($35,337). For the class as a whole, those figures were $127,571 (median $125,000) and $29,212 respectively, with 70 percent of alums saying they’d received signing bonuses.
As far as the particular roles Haas grads took on, consulting (24.6 percent) and marketing (23.5 percent) were both common. Finance was the job function of choice for 15.8 percent while business development and strategy accounted for 10.9 percent. Only 6 percent went into general management.
Haas’s employment report also includes data on the Class of 2019’s summer internships. Technology is similarly dominant, at 30.6 percent, but financial services is more popular (17.3 percent) and consulting less so (16.9 percent) than in the Class of 2018 employment data.
Many of the top internship providers are the same as the top employers for Haas grads, but there are also companies like Genentech and Goldman Sachs that aren’t represented in the Class of 2018 statistics. Overall, interns earned a median monthly salary of $8,000.
Eighty-three percent of the Class of 2018 received job offers by graduation, and that figure was up to 93.4 percent three months later.
Abby Scott, Haas’s assistant dean of career management and corporate relations, describes this year’s conditions as “just about as strong of a job market for MBAs that I’ve ever seen.”
She says that “salaries are up, thanks to stock options and bonuses,” and that Haas is happy with the results of its latest MBA cohort.
Clearly, a Haas MBA can be a ticket to a good job. But how do you get that ticket to begin with?
First, by having a compelling personal brand. In the highly selective world of MBA admissions, having a story and set of strengths that stands out is a must.
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