A $249,504 Bonus For A London MBA

London Business School said yesterday (Dec. 12) that 92% its Class of 2012 landed jobs within three months of graduation, just slightly below the 95% numbers for Harvard and Wharton and 96% for Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management this year.

In its newly released 2012 employment report, the school said that the average starting salary for the class was $113,779. That compares with Stanford’s $129,652 mean and Harvard’s $120,000 median. The London number was just slightly ahead of last year: 72,964 British pounds versus 72,955 in 2011.

HIGHEST STARTING SALARY: $225,000 FOR A FINANCE JOB IN NORTH AMERICA

London said the highest paid starting salary of 2012 was for an MBA who landed a job in North America in finance for a $225,000 base salary. But the school reported that another MBA in the Class of 2012 who also took a finance job in the United Kingdom had received a promise of a year-end bonus that exceeded the highest base pay. The year-end bonus would total a whopping $249,504. The highest reported sign-on bonus by London, also for a finance job in the U.K., was $155,940. The school did not report a total compensation number for any of these graduates.

London said that the largest percentage of its grads took jobs in the corporate sector this year. Some 35% went corporate, up from 30% in 2011. MBAs headed into consulting fell to 33% this year from 36% a year earlier, while MBAs who took jobs in finance also fell to 32% from 34%.

MCKINSEY LEADS TOP EMPLOYERS WITH 36 HIRES FROM LONDON THIS YEAR

The school’s three biggest employers were McKinsey & Co., which hired 36 of its 400 graduates, Boston Consulting Group, which put 31 London grads into jobs, and Citicorp, which hired a dozen this year after only hiring four a year earlier (see table below).

The highest average salaries were paid in consulting, $119,580 with average sign-on bonuses of $25,497. The category of finance was next, with average base salaries of $111,161 and sign-on bonuses that averaged $43,495. The corporate sector paid average base salaries of $110,602, with sign-on bonuses of $24,399.

Some 70% of the class accepted a job offer with a new employer, while 17% returned to their pre-MBA employer. About 5% of the graduating class at London reported starting a business upon graduation.

SOME 53% OF THE CLASS GOT JOBS OUTSIDE THE UNITED KINGDOM

The London Business School typically has one of the more interesting employment reports every year, in part because of the international nature of its graduates. This year, the school said, 47% of its graduating class found work in the United Kingdom. The rest left the country for their jobs. Also, unlike Harvard or Stanford, the school offers detail on the major employers of its graduating MBAs.

“The past year has also seen more and more of our MBA graduates heading outside the UK following graduation,” said Fiona Sandford, executive director of careers and global business at the London Business School. “With 53% of our students choosing to work abroad, it is a testament to the international mobility and global perspective of our graduates.”

Not surprisingly, the largest chunk of grads left the U.K. to work elsewhere in Europe, some 18% of the class. Some 11% found jobs in Asia, while 9% accepted jobs in the U.S. and Canada. Latin America claimed 7% of the school’s 2012 grads, while the Middle East took 4%.

THE LOWEST AVERAGE SALARIES WERE FOR JOBS IN AFRICA

The lowest starting salaries were paid to graduates who took jobs in Africa. They earned an average $77,326, according to the school. The highest? MBAs headed to Australia where average starting salaries were $150,063.

Sandford said her Career Services team has been busy working closely with student clubs to organize Career Treks to New York, Geneva, Paris, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai to provide organizations with the opportunity to meet students in-house.

“Our ongoing focus on China is also beginning to reap rewards with major recruiter Fosun International making its first visit to campus, and the School’s faculty and students hosting two major events in November for our first China Week,” she added in her introduction to the school’s 2012 employment report.

(See following page for a table of London Business School’s major employers for the past three years)

DON’T MISS: LONDON MBA LANDS HIGHEST STARTING SALARY OF 2011 or WHAT HARVARD MBAS MADE IN 2012