The MBAs At Google, Apple & Facebook

ONE SURPRISE: AT GOOGLE, KELLOGG MBAs OUTNUMBER STANFORD MBAs

When it comes to the top three tech firms that MBAs most want to work for today–Google, Apple and Amazon–it pays to go with brand and geography. LinkedIn data shows that the single biggest chunk of MBAs at Google comes from UC-Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, with 286 grads on the payroll. Surprisingly, given both its location in Philadelphia and its more primary focus on finance, Wharton is next, with 267 alums. Then comes Harvard Business School, with 226 MBAs, including Gretchen Howard, a 2002 alum who is director of global brand solutions and innovation.

Another shocker: Even Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management has more MBAs at Google than nearby Stanford: 170 to 162. At least, that’s what LinkedIn’s member profiles show.

After the University of Washington’s dominance in MBA employees at Amazon (there are 372 Foster grads), the University of Michigan’s Ross School shows up as a favorite. Some 177 Ross alums work for Amazon, followed by 124 from Kellogg, 120 from Wharton, and 104 from Harvard Business School. As for Apple, the only business school in triple digits is UC-Berkeley, with 129 MBAs. Harvard, with its substantially larger class sizes than Stanford, actually has more MBAs at Apple: 77 HBS grads vs. 55 GSB grads. In fact, even Texas’ McCombs and Kellogg has more alums at Apple than Stanford, 72 and 68, respectively.

IBM REMAINS A MASSIVE EMPLOYER OF MBA TALENT

Size matters–so does longevity. The single biggest tech employer of MBAs is good, old IBM in Armonk, N.Y. The company has been recruiting MBAs for so long in so many disciplines that it has thousands on the payroll. According to LinkedIn, some 361 MBAs from Harvard work for Big Blue, more than any other single tech company. IBM also has more than 200 MBAs on its payroll from each of the following schools: Wharton, Kellogg, Fuqua, Stern, Kenan-Flagler, and McCombs. It has more than 100 MBAs each from Booth, Sloan, Columbia, Johnson, Ross, Anderson, Tepper, and Goizueta.

Hewlett-Packard and Cisco Systems are also big MBA employers. HP boasts 114 Harvard Business School MBAs, including CEO Meg Whitman, a 1979 alumnus, and Executive Vice President for Human Resources Tracy Keough, a 1994 HBS alum. But there are also more than 100 MBAs from Wharton, Kellogg, and Haas at Hewlett-Packard. And at Cisco, where CEO John Chambers has an MBA from Indiana University, there’s more than 100 MBAs from Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Kellogg, and Haas (see table below).

MBAs From Top 25 Schools Who Work

For The Leading Tech Companies

School	Google	Apple	Amazon	Microsoft	IBM	H-P	Cisco	Oracle
Harvard	226	77	104	186	361	114	111	74
Stanford	162	55	32	80	47	97	126	48
Chicago	72	54	76	133	149	63	73	61
Wharton	267	53	120	218	257	118	118	91
Northwestern	170	68	124	378	232	146	107	75
MIT	104	48	99	95	131	57	59	61
Columbia	98	29	68	65	188	42	37	26
Dartmouth	40	6	38	34	48	29	13	10
Duke	42	47	62	101	240	49	95	43
UC-Berkeley	286	129	73	88	72	118	242	130
Cornell	15	14	34	50	102	58	22	23
Michigan	108	42	177	165	126	99	79	40
Virginia	19	6	31	61	75	29	16	14
UCLA	112	27	56	70	116	67	77	48
New York	125	24	42	76	336	30	54	45
Carnegie	34	21	77	47	106	37	44	18
Yale	35	8	18	28	56	12	7	9
UNC	32	13	19	37	213	36	95	27
Texas	53	72	45	95	202	157	78	47
Indiana	28	35	70	75	89	53	38	45
Emory	37	10	22	25	102	20	28	18
Georgetown	27	10	13	22	85	11	12	18
Wash U	14	6	12	20	42	17	11	13
U Wash	43	18	372	889	35	54	20	29
Vanderbilt	5	11	15	16	24	22	8	3

Source: LinkedIn member profiles as of Jan. 24, 2014

(See following page for stats on MBAs at tech companies, including Intel, Dell, Facebook and Yahoo)