MBA graduates continue to be drawn to careers in the finance industry due to the large compensation packages, the chance to work on high-profile deals at investment banks, and the opportunity to invest in the next billion-dollar company at a venture capital or private equity firm. As we will see below, the top MBA programs really deliver on finance industry job placement and can accelerate finance careers. In particular, M7 business schools continue to dominate in the buy-side job placements for venture capital, private equity, and investment management.
In this analysis, we review Class of 2023 MBA job acceptances in key finance industry categories such as investment banking (IB), investment management (IM), private equity (PE), venture capital (VC), and other finance industry jobs.
In case you are not fully familiar with the finance industry job categories, we included a footnote below on sell-side vs. buy-side career categories in the finance industry.1
MBA Job Placement in the Finance Industry for the Class of 2023
All of the top MBA programs provide great opportunities for their MBA graduates to explore a finance industry career. You can see this in the following chart, which highlights the percentage of Class of 2023 full-time MBA graduates from 21 leading MBA programs who accepted a finance industry job:
These 21 MBA programs fall into four groups. First, there are six business schools (Stanford GSB, Wharton, CBS, Johnson, HBS, and Booth) where finance jobs represent over 33% of jobs accepted by Class of 2023 MBA graduates. There is another group of four MBA programs (Stern, Kenan-Flagler, Darden and McDonough) that placed 25-29% of Class of 2023 graduates into finance jobs. Next, there are five MBA programs (Tuck, Yale SOM, Kellogg, Fuqua and Sloan) that placed 19-23% of graduates into finance jobs. Finally, there are six business schools (McCombs, Ross, Kelley, Tepper, Goizueta and Haas) which placed 12%-16% of Class of 2023 graduates into finance jobs.
While all of these MBA programs send graduates into the finance industry, there are some interesting trends in terms of which business schools have competitive advantages in helping graduates receive buy-side vs. sell-side finance jobs offers.
M7 Schools Dominate Buy-Side Job Placement in Private Equity, Venture Capital and Investment Management
While many business schools can help their MBA graduates pursue a finance industry career, the M7 business schools (Stanford GSB, HBS, Wharton, CBS, Booth, Kellogg and Sloan) continue to have a strong track record of helping their graduates gain buy-side jobs in investment management, private equity and venture capital. This is apparent in the data that the business schools publish in their employment reports.
Here is a chart showing the total buy-side industry jobs accepted (venture capital, private equity and investment management) for 17 MBA programs:
Stanford GSB (33%), HBS (29%) and Wharton (22%) have the highest percentage of buy-side job acceptances for the Class of 2023. In fact, it is impressive that 22% – 33% of the jobs accepted by Class of 2023 MBA graduates of these three MBA programs were in prestigious buy-side finance industry jobs. It is a real testament to these programs’ competitive advantage in delivering strong buy-side finance job placement.
After Stanford GSB, HBS and Wharton, CBS (16%) and Booth (15%) are next on buy-side job placement, followed by Kellogg (12%) and Sloan (10%). In addition to the M7 programs, Haas (8%), McDonough (7%) and Yale SOM (7%) round out the top ten list for the highest percentage of Class of 2023 buy side job placements.
The M7 schools also lead in the total number buy side job placements by program. HBS (166) and Wharton (140) have the most, followed by CBS (87), Booth (73), Stanford GSB (69), Kellogg (47) and Sloan (29).
Now we will review the buy side job placements in more detail, starting with the Class of 2023 venture capital job placement.
Venture Capital Job Placement
Here is the chart comparing venture capital job placement for the full-time MBA Classes of 2023:
Stanford GSB (13%) has the highest percentage of Class of 2023 venture capital job acceptances, followed by HBS (6%) and Sloan (4%). Stanford’s high percentage is likely due to its close proximity and longstanding connections with the venture capital community in Silicon Valley. Next there are four MBA programs that place 3% of graduates in venture jobs, including Wharton, McDonough, CBS, and Haas. Finally, Booth (2%), Fuqua (2%) and Stern (2%) round out the ten MBA programs with the highest venture capital job placement for the Class of 2023.
Because HBS and Wharton both have class sizes that are more than twice the size of Stanford GSB’s class size, HBS actually placed the largest number of Class of 2023 graduates into venture capital jobs (34), followed by Stanford GSB (27) and Wharton (21).
Private Equity Job Placement
Now let’s review private equity job placement for the full-time MBA Class of 2023:
The data shows that 6 of the M7 business schools are the clear leaders in private equity job acceptances: Stanford (18%), HBS (17%) and Wharton (14%) have the highest percentage of Class of 2023 graduates accepting private equity jobs, followed by Kellogg (10%), Booth (9%) and CBS (6%). The remaining 9 of these 15 schools have up to 3% of their Class of 2023 graduates accepting PE jobs. In terms of the total number of Class of 2023 graduates accepting PE jobs, HBS leads with 98, followed by Wharton (89), Booth (45), Stanford GSB (38), Kellogg (38) and CBS (31).
Investment Management Jobs Accepted
Next up, we review buy-side investment management jobs accepted for the full-time MBA Class of 2023:
CBS (8%) and HBS (6%) lead the pack with investment management job acceptances, followed by Wharton (5%), McDonough (4%), Sloan (4%) and Yale SOM (4%). When reviewing the total number of Class of 2023 graduates accepting investment management positions, CBS leads the way with 41, followed by HBS (34), Wharton (30) and Booth (17), Sloan (11) and Yale SOM (10).
CBS is a long-time leader in investment management job placement due to its well-regarded value investment program and its many alumni in the New York based investment management industry. HBS and Wharton also have strong ties to the investment management industry in Boston and New York. Booth, Haas and Tuck are next with 3% each for investment management jobs accepted.
Sell-Side Investment Banking Jobs: Johnson and Stern Have the Highest Percentages
Now that we begin to review sell side investment banking job acceptances, a different picture emerges with Johnson and Stern leading the way.
The MBA programs with the highest percentage of investment banking jobs accepted were Johnson (25%) and Stern (23%), followed by CBS (16%), Kenan Flagler (16%), Wharton (14%) and Tuck (14%). However, since CBS and Wharton are two of the largest MBA programs with deep ties to Wall Street, they actually placed the most Class of 2023 graduates into investment banking jobs – each sending 90 Class of 2023 graduates into investment banking jobs. Continuing with the Class of 2023 numbers for investment banking jobs, we have Stern (69), Johnson (65), and Booth (55). Meaning, these business schools have a strong track record of placing their MBA graduates into investment banking jobs.
It is interesting to see that HBS only sent 3% of the Class of 2023 into investment banking jobs and Stanford GSB sent 0%. Meaning, while finance jobs accepted represent over 35% of jobs accepted by HBS and GSB Class of 2023 graduates, these graduates are mostly accepting buy-side finance jobs, not sell-side finance jobs. In contrast, while finance jobs accepted among Class of 2023 MBA graduates from both Johnson and Stern represent over 29% of jobs accepted, the majority of these jobs accepted are for sell-side investment banking jobs not buy-side jobs in venture capital, private equity or investment management.
Diversified and Other Finance Careers Post-MBA
In addition to sell-side or buy-side finance jobs, there is a final category of finance jobs that encompasses other areas of finance such as corporate finance, commercial banking and insurance.
Johnson (9%) and Booth (7%) are the leaders in this category, followed by Kenan Flagler (6%) and McDonough (6%). The diversified finance job placement data shows that these MBA programs provide their graduates with multiple paths to pursue a finance career.
Key Takeaways
While all of these MBA programs post strong finance industry job acceptances, there is a difference in the types of jobs accepted by graduates of different schools. To summarize this, here is the overall percentage of finance jobs accepted for 21 leading MBA programs.
Next, here is a chart showing the buy-side jobs (VC+PE+IM) vs sell-side jobs vs. diversified jobs accepted for 17 MBA programs as well as the four business schools (Darden, Kelley, Tepper and Goizueta) that do not report their percentage of finance industry jobs accepted by finance industry job subcategories.
There are clearly differences in the types of finance industry jobs that are accepted by graduates of these programs. For instance, most of the finance jobs accepted by Stanford GSB, Wharton and HBS Class of 2023 graduates are in buy-side finance jobs while most of Johnson and Stern Class of 2023 finance jobs accepted are in sell-side investment banking jobs (and diversified finance jobs for Johnson). Other programs like Booth, CBS and Kellogg have a more balanced mix of buy-side and sell-side jobs accepted by their Class of 2023 MBA graduates.
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- Sell-side firms sell financial products to institutional investors. Buy-side firms are investment firms with capital to invest in financial products. For example, a sell-side investment bank might help broker the sale of a company to a private equity firm. Sell-side firms such as investment banks typically offer formal training programs to new employees. This makes it easier for MBA students to enter the finance industry by joining an investment bank. In contrast, buy-side firms – whether a private equity firm or an investment management firm – often do not offer extensive training programs. Instead, they tend to hire MBA job candidates with prior finance experience. Thus, a common MBA career path in finance is to first work at an investment bank before transitioning to a private equity or investment management role.
