2013 MBA Recruiters Survey conducted early in the year had shown indications that the job openings in 2013 are slowly matching the Pre-2008 levels. This has been confirmed with the B-School Follow-up Survey conducted in September 2013. This survey was conducted for the Class of 2013 by surveying 915 students from 129 Business School around the world.
Here are the Key Findings
1) Small Dip in Employment: 90% of the Alumni was employed, a drop of 2% from 2012(92%)
2) Value of MBA: 74% of the Class of 2013 felt that Graduate Management Education helped them find the opportunities. 26% felt that they would have received the same opportunities without an MBA.
3) Rise of 2-Year Full-time MBA: 92% Full-time MBA students surveyed were employed (highest level in the past 5 years, a 2% increase from 2012)
4) Drop for 1-Year Full-time MBA: 82% International MBA students surveyed were employed (drop of 7% from 2012)
5) Drop in Employment Rate for Masters Students: 76% Masters Students (non-MBA) were employed, a drop of 8%.
6) Industry: Products/Services was the most popular industry (21%) for the Class of 2013 followed by Finance/Accounting (19%), Consulting (17%), Technology (15%), Manufacturing (9%), Non-Profit/Govt (8%), Healthcare (6%) and Energy/Utilities (5%).
7) Job Functions: For the Class of 2013, Finance/Accounting was the most popular job function (22%), followed by Consulting (19%), Marketing/Sales (19%), General Management (18%), Operations/Logistics (13%), IT/MIS (6%), and finally HR (3%).
8) Full-time MBA Compensation: Median salary for US Citizens completing Full-time Two-Year MBA in 2013 is US$90,000 with a bonus of US$10,000.
9) Part-Time MBA Compensation: Median salary for US Citizens completing Part-time MBA in 2013 is US$85,000.
10) Unemployment: 10% of the Class of 2013 was unemployed. The primary reason for this was
lack of relevant industry and functional experience. The second reason was the inadequate salary offered to them post-MBA and final reason was the inability to find an interesting job.
Understanding Surveys
Please note that only 19% surveyed responded. Therefore, don’t make hasty conclusions based on the response. Always check the data associated with the survey before making any decisions. The distribution of survey respondents based on nationality is also important to understand the trends. In this survey, 433 Alumni was from US, 129 from India, 109 from Latin America, 96 from Asia-Pacific, 89 from Europe, 25 from Canada, 20 from the Middle East/Africa region.
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About the Author
I am Atul Jose, Founding Consultant of F1GMAT, an MBA admissions consultancy that has worked with applicants since 2009.
For the past 15 years I have edited the application files of admits to the M7 programs: Harvard Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Wharton School, MIT Sloan, Chicago Booth, Kellogg School of Management, and Columbia Business School, together with admits to Berkeley Haas, Yale School of Management, NYU Stern, Michigan Ross, Duke Fuqua, Darden, Tuck, IMD, London Business School, INSEAD, SDA Bocconi, IESE Business School, HEC Paris, McCombs, and Tepper, plus other programs inside the global top 30.
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