Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business today became the latest leading business school to share details from its Class of 2017 MBA Employment Report, revealing an all-time high average first-year base salary and signing bonus of $158,194. To get there, the mean base salary climbed to $127,986 from last year’s $123,934, and the mean signing bonus increased 4 percent to $30,208. The median salary and signing bonus, meanwhile, remained constant year over year, at $125,000 and $25,000 respectively. Eighty-five percent of the Class of 2017 received a signing bonus, down from 87 percent of the Class of 2016.
Strong demand for Tuck graduates was evidenced by the fact that 95 percent of the Class of 2017 received job offers within three months of graduation and 92 percent accepted positions within that same time frame. That is slightly lower than the year before, when 98 percent received job offers and 96 accepted offers within three months of graduation. But according to Jonathan Masland, Tuck executive director of career development, that slight slippage is not cause for concern. “We did have some pursue more niche opportunities this year that took a little longer to procure,” he said in statement. “But graduates confidently pursuing jobs that they’re passionate about is, too, a sign of strength.”
The Allure of Tech Firms and the West Coast
Tuck students taking jobs in the technology industry this year rose to 20 percent—another record—from 16 percent for the Class of 2016. Increased hiring by tech firms also boosted the percentage of Tuck grads heading to the West Coast. Marking yet another all-time high, 23 percent of graduates went west, an 8-percent jump over last year. Perhaps not surprisingly, the majority of these graduates landed in the San Francisco Bay area and Seattle, the school reports.
Interest in post-MBA jobs in the financial services industry remained constant, drawing 20 percent of graduates in both 2016 and 2017. The allure of consulting, though, slipped slightly year over year. Whereas 36 percent of the Class of 2016 opted for the consulting lifestyle, just 33 percent of T’17s did. Still, consulting outpaced all other industries in terms of preferred destination, as it has for several years running.
Consumer goods came in fourth, drawing 11 percent of the most recent graduating class. The remaining students were dispersed across multiple sectors, including healthcare/pharma/biotech (5 percent), manufacturing (4 percent), energy and nonprofit/government (each 2 percent), and media/entertainment and real estate (each 1 percent.)
“We’re excited about the diversity of industries among our 2017 graduates and their locations,” Masland said.
The full Tuck 2019 Employment Report—including specific number of hires made by individual recruiters—has not yet been published. A list of top hiring firms for the Class of 2017 is here. Last year’s top hiring firms for full-time positions were McKinsey & Co., which hired 21 Tuckies; Bain & Co., which hired 18; and Amazon, which took 11.
“This was another solid year for career placement at Tuck,” Masland said, summarizing the latest stats. “Our graduates are prepared to lead in a dynamic world, and I think the continued interest that we see from recruiters is a testament to Tuck’s academic rigor as well as the quality of our students.”
To view more of Tuck’s Class of 2017 Employment Statistics, click here.
