London B-School’s Impressive Job Stats

Fewer numbers of MBAs from London Business School streamed into the traditional MBA jobs in consulting and finance this year, with a record 43% landing positions in the corporate sector, according to the school’s just released 2013 employment report.

For the 398 graduates in London’s Class of 2013, only 29% ventured into consulting, significantly down from the peak of 36% only two years ago. The decline in finance was far more significant. Only 28% accepted jobs in the financial sector, down from a high of 46% in 2007 before the Great Recession wrecked havoc with Wall Street and financial services.

“The growth in the Technology, Media and Telecoms (TMT) sector’s demand for top-quality MBA talent and students’ interest in this sector is the main driver behind this, with Amazon and Google among our high quality MBA employers,” said Fiona Sandford, executive director of careers and global business at London Business School.

Though the three largest single employers of London’s Class of 2013 were all consulting firms—McKinsey (24), Boston Consulting Group (20) and Bain (13)—a wide variety of corporate sector companies scooped up MBAs from London. They included Amazon (11), Google (7), Shell (6), American Express (5), Microsoft (5), British Petroleum (4) and Samsung (4) (see table listing largest employers and the number of London MBAs each hired on following page).

JOB PLACEMENT RATE THIS YEAR WAS HIGHER THAN HARVARD OR STANFORD

All told, London said that 96% of the Class of 2013 had at least one job offer three months after graduation, the highest job placement rate in six years for London. It is also a job offer rate that bested Harvard (93%) and Stanford (94%) and trailed only four U.S. schools, including Wharton (97.8%) and Columbia (97%).

It’s an especially impressive placement rate because 55% of London’s graduates headed into employment outside the United Kingdom. The school said that the Class of 2013 went to work at organizations in 69 cities in 42 countries around the world. After the U.K. (where 45% took jobs), the most popular regions were Europe (17%), Asia (11%), Latin America (10%), and North America (10%).

The school said that 95% of its graduates accepted an offer three months after graduation, with 79% of them taking on jobs with new employers and 16% returning to pre-MBA employers. Some 20 graduates were self-employed or started a new business.

MEDIAN BASE SALARIES WERE HIGHER THAN ALL BUT EIGHT U.S. BUSINESS SCHOOLS

According to the report, the median base salary for London MBAs this year was $112,000, with a sign-on bonus of $26,282 and a year-end bonus of $22,382. The highest base salary in the class—$193,877—went to a graduate who took a job in finance in Europe, while the highest sign-on bonus—$75,882—was received by an MBA who landed a position in the corporate sector in the United Kingdom.

The median base for London Business School this year was above all but eight U.S. business schools: Stanford ($125,000), Wharton ($125,000), Harvard ($120,000), MIT Sloan ($120,000), Northwestern ($120,000), UC-Berkeley ($120,000), Dartmouth ($115,000), and Chicago ($115,000). London’s $112,000 base was equal to Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School and the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.

The highest median base salaries went to LBS grads who accepted jobs in consulting: $119,539 vs. $106,235 in finance and $108,365 in the corporate sector. The world region paying the highest base salaries for LBS grads was the Middle East this year: $130,001 versus a low of $90,143 in Africa.