The total salary (median) for Berkeley Full-time MBA program is $10,000 short of Stanford, but the salary for consulting is comparable to any top MBA programs. Despite the lower salary in Retail, the industry was the fourth favorite among Haas students. Technology – the strong point of California was also the strength of Berkeley with nearly 40% of the class entering the industry. 
As a function, interestingly, Marketing was the clear winner (27.3%) followed by Consulting (20.8%) and General Management (18%). Berkeley Full-time MBA program is the few top programs still managing to offer General Management program. 
Most top Business Schools have picked Finance or Consulting as a popular specialization, based on the close network they have developed with recruiters.
Reference: Berkeley MBA Employment Reports
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.
My work covers the full MBA application deliverable: career planning and profile evaluation, application essay editing, recommendation letter editing, mock interviews and interview preparation, scholarship and fellowship essay editing, and cover letter editing for funding applications. Full bio with credentials and admit history is here.
I am the author of the Winning MBA Essay Guide, the best-selling essay guide covering M7 MBA programs. I have written and updated the guide annually since 2013, which makes the 2026 edition the thirteenth.
The reason I still write and edit essays every cycle: a good MBA essay carries a real applicant's voice. Writing essays for F1GMAT's Books and Editing essays weekly is how I stay calibrated to what current admissions committees respond to.
Contact me for school selection, career planning, essay strategy, narrative development, essay editing, interview preparation, scholarship essay editing, or guidance documents for recommendation letters.