LBS MBA Employment Trends: Consulting and Corporate Sectors Lead

London Business School has published the 2012 MBA employment report. There are some interesting findings. Here is the summary of the major trends in LBS MBA Employment:

1) 92% of MBAs found employment within three months of graduation
2) Corporate Sector attracted the most students – 35% of the class
3) 53% of Students chose to work abroad
4) Major Recruiters from China have for the first time visited London Business School for recruitment
5) Post-MBA Median Base Salary for the class of 2012 was $110,000

About the Employment Report

The 2012 LBS MBA Employment report is based on data collected from 400 students with an average age of 28 years with 5 years of average work experience, represented predominantly (31%) by European students excluding UK, followed by Asia(20%) and North America(14%). UK students represented 11% of the class.

The largest representation of the pre-MBA class is from the corporate sector (41%) followed by Finance (30%) and Consulting 29%.

Post-MBA Employment Sectors

The largest section of the class (35%) of the class chose corporate sector, followed by Consulting (33%) and Finance (32%). When you compare the pre-MBA and post-MBA sector transitions, it seems that the corporate and finance sectors have lost some ground while Consulting still remains the most popular sector  in terms of the net increase.

Career Switching Trends

What confirms the popularity of consulting as a sector is the career transition data for each sector.

MBA students who entered consulting from Corporate and Finance sector was 46%, while students entering corporate sector from Consulting and Finance was 39% and students who entered Finance from Consulting and Corporate sector totaled 42%.

Career Service team’s Effectiveness

Although career service team cannot guarantee MBAs with a job, their efforts to host job events, network with recruiters and inform students with relevant openings through alumni contacts are crucial in guiding MBAs. According to the report, 59% of all the opportunities were the direct result of the career service team, an important factor that MBA aspirants should consider in a challenging economy.

Going Back after MBA

The decision to go back to home country depends on the post-MBA goal of the student, the opportunities available in UK job market, visa regulations, and growth potential in home country.

100% middle eastern MBA students went back to their home country followed by Latin America (54%), Asia (45%) & Europe excluding UK(43%) .The recruiter list shows the reason why MBA students had the opportunity to go back to their home country.

Major Recruiters

In consulting, the major recruiters were McKinsey & Company, The Boston Consulting Group, Bain & Company, Booz & Company, A.T. Kearney, Accenture , Monitor Group, Oliver Wyman and ZS Associates.

In the corporate sector, the recruiters that attracted the most LBS MBA students were American Express, Amazon , BP, Google, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft , Royal Dutch Shell , Rocket Internet , Samsung Global Strategy Group, Vodafone, Anheuser-Busch InBev, BBC and Thomson Reuters.

Some of the leading banks were among the top recruiting companies in Finance sector. This includes Citi, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Barclays, Bank of America,  Merrill Lynch , Credit Suisse, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Santander, Actis, Canter Equity Partners, Coller Capital, Fidelity Worldwide Investment, First Reserve Corporation, GE Capital , International Finance, Corporation (IFC) Itaú Unibanco, and  Moelis & Company.

London Business School Post-MBA Salary

When you compare the median salary of the three sectors:  Finance leads with a total median salary of $191,806, followed by Consulting ($160,618) and Corporate Sector ($150,092). However, one controversial element of the salary (year-end bonus) contributed $46782 to the total salary in Finance sector while in consulting ($21832) and corporate sector ($17,543), this variable pay component is comparatively smaller.

When you consider the base salary alone, consulting leads with a median salary of $115,395 followed by the corporate ($109,158) and Finance ($101, 361) sectors.

For in-depth post-MBA trends and details - Download LBS MBA Employment Report 2012