UCLA Anderson MBA Salary: By Function (2025) (Analysis)

In this in-depth analysis of the UCLA Anderson MBA Employment outcome for the 2025 graduating class by job function, we cover:

•    Consulting Demand Shift: From Strategy to Delivery
•    Finance: Execution-Focused Finance Roles Drove Up Hiring 
•    Marketing / Sales: Revenue Accountability and Performance Marketing Drove a Pay Upgrade Despite a Drop in Hiring
•    General Management: Operational Leadership Roles Persisted as Rotational Leadership Opportunities Narrowed 
•    Operations / Logistics: Supply Chain Normalization Expanded Hiring from a Low Base

Consulting Demand Shift: From Strategy to Delivery

Consulting accounted for 24.4% of UCLA Anderson MBA placements in 2025, a slight decline from 26.3% in 2024, while median base salary remained unchanged at $175,000, and the median signing bonus held at $30,000, keeping total median compensation stable at $205,000. 

The stagnation in Consulting Pay is a trend across top schools, except for a few elite schools.

Why the Downwards trends in Consulting at UCLA Anderson?

Between Q3 2024 and Q2 2025, consulting firms continued to expand delivery capacity for post-merger integration, AI implementation, operating-model redesign, and cost transformation, particularly for technology, healthcare, and media clients on the West Coast. However, many clients increasingly internalized parts of this work, hiring MBAs directly into corporate strategy, transformation offices, and PMO-style roles rather than relying exclusively on external consultants. This explains why consulting’s share edged down while overall demand for consulting skill sets across other functions increased.

What is the IMPACT of the UCLA Anderson MBA Curriculum on Hiring?

From a curriculum perspective, UCLA Anderson’s consulting outcomes are closely aligned with its general management and analytical core, which emphasizes structured problem-solving and decision-making under uncertainty. 

Core courses such as Strategy, Business Analytics, and Managerial Economics provide the analytical foundation expected in consulting roles, while electives like Advanced Strategy, Competitive Analysis, and Pricing Strategy directly map to consulting casework.

Experiential learning plays a significant role as well. 

Programs such as Applied Management Research (AMR) allow students to work on real consulting-style engagements with corporate and nonprofit clients, mirroring the execution-heavy consulting work that dominated 2025 demand. 

Recent Pivot of AMR Projects at UCLA Anderson

Importantly, AMR projects in recent cycles have skewed toward implementation and transformation problems, which aligns with the market shift away from pure strategy advisory and helps explain why Anderson graduates remained competitive in consulting even as hiring share slightly normalized.

Finance / Accounting: Execution-Focused Finance Roles Drove Up Hiring 

Finance and accounting roles represented 24.4% of UCLA Anderson MBA placements in 2025, up from 23.4% in 2024, but the more meaningful change was in compensation. Median base salary rose sharply from $149,000 to $175,000, while the median signing bonus remained at $50,000, lifting total median compensation from $199,000 to $225,000. This jump reflects a material upgrade in role seniority and responsibility, not just incremental hiring.

Reason Behind the UCLA Anderson MBA Finance Compensation Jump

The shift is directly linked to developments in financial markets during Q4 2024 through Q2 2025. While capital markets activity remained selective, large-cap M&A, refinancing, and restructuring activity increased, particularly in sectors such as technology, healthcare, infrastructure, and consumer products. Financial institutions and corporates therefore expanded hiring for MBAs in investment banking execution, corporate finance, FP&A, restructuring advisory, and capital allocation roles, all of which command higher base pay than the more rotational finance roles common in earlier years.

Demand in Strategic Roles and Deal Execution

Relative to 2024, Anderson’s finance hiring moved up the value chain. Fewer roles were tied to early-career analytical rotations, and more were embedded in deal execution, transaction support, and strategic finance teams, which explains both the rise in hiring share and the substantial increase in median base salary without a corresponding increase in bonuses.

IMPACT of UCLA Anderson MBA Finance Curriculum

UCLA Anderson’s curriculum provides a strong underpinning for this shift. The school’s finance core, combined with advanced electives such as Corporate Finance, Investment Analysis, Valuation, Mergers and Acquisitions, and Financial Modeling, equips students with the technical depth required for execution-oriented finance roles. 

Integration of Finance and Technology in the UCLA Anderson MBA Curriculum

Additionally, Anderson’s Easton Technology Management Center and cross-disciplinary finance-technology offerings have become increasingly relevant as finance teams integrate advanced analytics and automation into decision-making.

Opportunity for Student-Managed Funds

Experientially, student-managed investment funds, finance practicums, and project-based electives allow students to engage with live financial decisions and real capital constraints, mirroring the conditions faced by employers in 2025. These experiences help explain why Anderson graduates were able to step into higher-paying finance roles as firms reopened hiring for execution-critical positions.

Marketing / Sales: Revenue Accountability and Performance Marketing Drove a Pay Upgrade Despite Drop in Hiring

Marketing and sales roles accounted for 21.7% of Anderson MBA placements in 2025, down from 24.9% in 2024, yet the median base salary increased to $144,000 from $135,000, with the median signing bonus rising to $30,000 from $20,000, lifting total median compensation to $174,000. The data points to fewer but more senior, revenue-linked roles, rather than a broad pullback.

Increased Demand for Marketers in AI and Media Tech

Between Q3 2024 and Q2 2025, firms across consumer products, media, and technology restructured marketing organizations around measurable ROI, shifting spend toward performance marketing, pricing, revenue operations, and growth analytics while trimming brand-heavy expansion teams. This reduced overall hiring volume but increased compensation for candidates who could tie marketing decisions directly to revenue and margin outcomes. In Southern California, this trend was amplified by media and ad-tech ecosystems where data-driven customer acquisition and monetization became central to profitability strategies.

What is the IMPACT of the UCLA Anderson Marketing MBA Curriculum on Hiring?

From a curriculum standpoint, Anderson’s marketing outcomes align with its emphasis on analytics-first decision-making. Core foundations in Marketing Strategy and Managerial Economics are complemented by electives such as Pricing Strategy, Marketing Analytics, Digital Marketing, and Customer Analytics, which map directly to the skills employers prioritized in 2025.

Experiential components, particularly Applied Management Research (AMR) projects focused on go-to-market optimization and customer growth, mirror the execution-heavy marketing mandates that dominated hiring, helping explain why compensation rose even as hiring share normalized.

General Management: Operational Leadership Roles Persisted as Rotational Leadership Opportunities Narrowed 

General management represented 13.3% of placements in 2025, broadly stable relative to 12.9% in 2024, while median base salary edged up to $142,800 from $140,000. The median signing bonus declined to $32,963 from $40,000, signaling a shift toward steady leadership roles rather than high-incentive rotational programs.

Throughout 2024–2025, many corporations, particularly in healthcare, manufacturing, logistics, and consumer services, scaled back broad rotational leadership pipelines in favor of role-specific managerial hires with clear operational accountability. As a result, Anderson graduates entering general management roles were more likely to assume defined P&L or team leadership responsibilities, which supported stable base pay but reduced the need for large upfront bonuses.

What is the IMPACT of the UCLA Anderson General Management MBA Curriculum on Hiring?

Anderson’s general management placements reflect the school’s generalist training model, rooted in a rigorous core that spans strategy, operations, finance, and organizational behavior. Courses such as Operations Management, Strategy, and Organizational Behavior prepare students for cross-functional leadership, while experiential learning through AMR and leadership-focused electives exposes students to real organizational constraints. The stability in hiring share suggests Anderson graduates remained competitive for these roles, even as the broader market narrowed entry points.

Operations / Logistics: Supply Chain Normalization Expanded Hiring from a Low Base 

Operations and logistics roles increased meaningfully to 7.2% of placements in 2025, up from 1.9% in 2024, with a median base salary of $132,600 and a median signing bonus of $36,500, resulting in $169,100 in total median compensation. This is one of the most pronounced functional shifts in the dataset.

Why the Big Jump in Operations and Logistics Role at UCLA Anderson MBA?

The increase reflects changes in supply chain and operations priorities between Q3 2024 and Q2 2025. After years of disruption, firms moved from crisis response to structural optimization, investing in inventory rationalization, network redesign, and cost efficiency. This created demand for MBAs who could manage complexity across procurement, logistics, and operations analytics, particularly in consumer products, healthcare distribution, and industrial sectors.

How UCLA Anderson MBA Curriculum Supports the Demand for Operation Roles

Anderson’s curriculum supports this functional shift through offerings such as Operations Management, Supply Chain Management, and analytics-driven electives that focus on process optimization and data-informed decision-making. Experiential projects tied to operational improvement, often delivered through AMR, align closely with the types of roles employers were filling in 2025. The rise in signing bonuses reflects competition for candidates who could immediately contribute to cost and efficiency initiatives, even as base salaries remained moderate.

Reference

• UCLA Anderson MBA Employment Report 2025