Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business (GSB) recently revealed data that cemented 2016 as a banner year for MBA graduates when it comes to both employment and salaries, demonstrating how in demand the talent and flexibility of its graduates are in the marketplace. The mean compensation for graduating MBAs from Stanford’s most recent class was $179,345, a figure that includes the mean $23,636 starting bonus reported by 55 percent of the class and the record-breaking mean other guaranteed compensation of $74,665 reported by 35 percent of the class.
Median total compensation, meanwhile, was $163,827. This figure puts Stanford GSB grads ahead of Class of 2016 Harvard Business School graduates, whose median total compensation was $158,080, as well as every other leading business school that has reported its 2016 employment figures.
More technology firms scooped up Stanford GSB grads than firms from any other industry, drawing 33 percent of 2016 MBAs. An article on the Stanford GSB website announcing the 2016 employment statistics notes that the tech trend is “consistent with trends in the economy and with opportunities for job growth” but also that “tech” has become a nebulous and diverse classification for “organizations that impact both new and traditional industries.”
Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Yossi Feinberg says this reality is quite fitting since Stanford graduates “care deeply about a job’s potential for impact within the organization and beyond.”
The following statistics were among those the school was most excited to report regarding its most recent graduating MBA class:
- Roughly 95 percent of the MBA Class of 2016 landed a job within 120 days of graduation.
- Base salaries for the MBA Class of 2016 “topped last year’s record by 5 percent” at an average of $140,553.
- About 55 percent of students received signing bonuses.
- Approximately 15 percent of graduates “started a venture upon graduation.”
- The top two industries that lured the greatest percentage of ’16 entrepreneurs were software (17 percent) and internet services (12 percent).
- Approximately 65 percent of graduates stayed in the U.S. West, with 14 percent landing careers in consulting; 11 percent in software and 9 percent in venture capital.
Even graduates who did not immediately begin applying for jobs near or after graduation found their footing, like Jeff Barnes, who earned his MBA/MS in environment and resources. Speaking with the school, Barnes recalled, “I took some time to find the role I’m in now, partly out of the strength of the job market, but also because I wanted to be sure of my decision. I took time to refine what I wanted and to determine how to present myself to employers.”
Barnes graduated in March 2016, and by September he had connected with a former Stanford GSB guest speaker, which ultimately helped him line up his new role in the sustainable transportation industry.
Stanford MBAs Increasingly Switch Careers Along Four Dimensions
Ask the career services director at almost any leading business school, and he or she will tell you that candidates who hope to switch careers along more than one dimension—changing up both industry and function, for example—have their work cut out for them. At Stanford GSB, an increasing number of students are looking to change along four dimensions—and succeeding.
“It turns out a significant proportion of our 2016 graduates also changed geography and/or level of responsibility,” Feinberg said as part of the article on the GSB website.
“We’ve observed this qualitatively in the past. This year we set out to measure it,” said Maeve Richard, assistant dean and director of the Stanford GSB Career Management Center. Those measurements revealed that of the most recent graduating class, 86 percent pivoted from their pre-MBA career in at least one dimension: 57 percent reported changing industry, 61 percent changed function, 55 percent changed location and 43 percent changed level of responsibility. (The sum exceeds 100 percent since some students had more than one pivot, and these measures exclude sponsored students and entrepreneurs, the school notes.)
“Managing one or two pivots is difficult,” Richard said as part of the school’s article. “But a sizeable group of our 2016 graduates switched three or four.” Indeed, 17 percent of the class reported making one change, 24 percent reported two changes, 30 percent reported three changes and 15 percent reported four changes. The remaining 15 percent of job seekers reported no significant change in any dimension.
For the full Stanford GSB 2016 MBA Employment report, click here.
This post has been republished in its entirety from its original source, metromba.com.
