Consulting, Banking and Tech: Business Schools With The Most Alumni In Top Firms

Jeff Schmitt
·7 min read

Consulting, Banking and Tech: Business Schools With The Most Alumni In Top Firms

Where you earn your MBA matters. However, the prestige of a business school isn’t necessarily a one-size-fits-all approach, especially when it comes to starting salary and landing jobs in top industry employers.

In a new study, GradReports combed through Linkedin profiles to calculate which business schools had the highest total number of alumni working in the top firms for Consulting, Finance, and Technology.

Here is GradReports’ findings…

CONSULTING

The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College ranked first for number of MBA alumni who landed jobs at leading consulting firms, which GradReports defines as McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Bain & Company, Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), EY, Booz Allen Hamilton, and Accenture. Nearly 5% of Tuck alumni were employed in these top consulting firms. Overall, Bain & Company and McKinsey & Company were the top employers for Tuck MBA grads.

The Goizueta Business School at Emory University ranked second best for consulting. 4.8% of Emory MBA alumni went on to work at leading consulting firms. EY, Deloitte, and PwC ranked among the top consulting employers for Goizueta alumni.

INVESTMENT BANKING

If you’re hoping to land a job at Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, or JP Morgan, it helps to get an MBA from either New York University's Leonard N. Stern School of Business or Columbia Business School.

New York University's Stern School had the highest number of alumni working at these top investment banks at 2.49%. In total, a whopping 434 Stern MBA grads landed jobs at Morgan Stanley, which stands as the number one investment banking employer for the top five MBA feeder programs.

Columbia Business School came in second with 1.99% of MBA grads working at top investment banking firms, with 312 alumni at Morgan Stanley.

TECHNOLOGY

The Michael G. Foster School of Business at the University of Washington holds the highest number of alumni employed at top tech companies. These companies are defined as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, and Facebook by GradReports and account for 17.3% of Tech hires from Foster. Despite having fewer grads landing jobs in consulting or banking, the Foster School of Business is a popular choice for tech recruiters. Top tech employers for Foster MBA grads include Amazon and Microsoft, both of which are headquartered in Washington.

Santa Clara University's Leavey School of Business came in second for Tech, with 7.28% of Leavey MBA grads landing jobs at top tech companies. Google is the top employer for Leavey MBAs, with 111 alumni employed. The Leavey School of Business, despite ranking lower in prestige, had more alumni employed at top tech companies than the nearby Haas School of Business at the University of California-Berkeley, where 6.85% of alumni landed jobs at top tech companies.

Overall, these findings highlight a few important insights. For one, having a specific career goal prior to attending a B-school may help exponentially. MBA programs such as the Foster School of Business and the Leavey School of Business are top recruiting spots for tech companies. Not surprisingly, New York-based schools such as Stern and Columbia still perform the best for careers in investment banking.

Check out the full analysis at GradReports, which includes the top employers for each of the Top 5 MBA programs in each industry and pay data for 2016-2017 grads.

Sources: GradReports, Forbes

Next Page: Why Wall Street is Losing Its Luster Among MBAs.

Wall Street

Is Wall Street Losing Its Lure?

Investment banking, often seen as a prestigious career path, is losing popularity among young professionals.

The New York Times looked at how the business school data has tracked in recent years for investment banking and how the industry’s high salaries, alone, may not be enough to appease young professionals.

DECLINE TO MBAs HITTING WALL STREET

Since 2016, B-school data shows that fewer MBA grads are choosing investment banking jobs.

NY Times analyzed data from five top B-schools in the US and found that in 2020, only 7% of graduates from the top five U.S. B-schools went into full-time investment banking roles – a roughly two point decrease from the 9% in 2016.

The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, where more than 20% of its MBAs went into banking a decade ago, only had 12% of MBAs from the Class of 2020 go into full-time investment banking roles.

MONEY OR WORK LIFE BALANCE?

Base salary for a first-year investment banking associate lands around $150,000, with year-end bonuses ranging from $90,000 to $120,000, according to numbers by WallStreetPrep. However, experts say that the pandemic has shifted employee demands. This is especially true for young professionals, who place a greater emphasis on work-life balance and flexibility.

“The industry is not as attractive as it once was,” Rob Dicks, a consultant at Accenture specializing in recruiting in financial services, tells the NY Times. “Employees want a hybrid model, and the banks are saying no.”

When it comes to in-person and remote work, Dicks says banks are hesitant to stray far from the status quo. “The message is: ‘The bank knows best, we have a model for doing this, and you will conform to that model.’”

TECH IS A THREAT

To lure younger bankers, investment banking firms have announced a number of changes ranging from increased salaries for junior bankers to offering $20,000 “lifestyle bonuses.”

Still, many young professionals and future grads simply don’t think the industry’s long hours and tough work are worth it. More and more, the tech industry is seeing an increase in MBA demand. At schools such as the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business, Michigan State University’s Broad College of Business, and UC-Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, more than 30% of each MBA program’s Class of 2020 went into the tech industry. And many tech companies are hungry for MBAs. GMAC’s 2021 Corporate Recruiters Survey highlighted that 96% of tech recruiters plan to hire MBA’s this year, up 16% since 2019.

“The technology sector has just completely changed the game,” Jamie Lee, who left banking and started a venture-capital firm, tells the NY Times. “The opportunity cost is simply too high to be sticking around in a job where you’re not getting the treatment that you want.”

Sources: The New York Times, WallStreetPrep, The New York Times, Bloomberg, P&Q, GMAC

Next Page: 3 Types of MBA Interview Questions.

3 Types of MBA Interview Questions

Landing an MBA interview is a huge feat.

An interview invitation signals that a business school is interested in your application. The interview allows admissions officers to get to know who you are beyond the numbers from your resume.

Fortune recently spoke to experts on the different types of interview questions that applicants might be asked during an MBA interview.

1) WHO YOU ARE

Typically, MBA interviews will start out with general questions that allow applicants to add color to their resume highlights.

“Many people work for McKinsey or Google or Morgan Stanley,” Eli David, cofounder and managing partner of Ivy MBA Consulting, tells Fortune. “If you want to stand out, it’s your interests or hobbies that can help you do that. Volunteer experience and interests are really an opportunity for candidates to differentiate themselves.”

2) SELF-REFLECTION

MBA interviews may also include scenario questions that aim to better understand how an applicant responds in times of failure or uncertainty.

“Whether you’re asked about an area of weakness, an example of a failure, or why you left a certain position or industry, the key is to respond with honesty and humility,” Malvina Miller Complainville, Head of Interview Practice and Expert Coach at Fortuna Admissions, writes. “Present yourself in a positive light by focusing on your personal growth, lessons learned and ability to be introspective. Showing how you’ve stretched yourself in the past can be a compelling success story.”

3) FUTURE GOALS

Questions around your future goals will typically ask what you hope to accomplish after your MBA. The caveat of this question is to find ways to align whatever goals you have to the MBA program.

“This is a way to show your enthusiasm and your sincerity and commitment to the school,” Devi Vallabhaneni, managing director of consulting firm MbaMission, tells Fortune.

Sources: Fortune, Fortuna Admissions

The post Consulting, Banking and Tech: Business Schools With The Most Alumni In Top Firms appeared first on Poets&Quants.

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