Amazon Top Employer Of Ross ’14 MBAs

The Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan

The Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan

Amazon.com, which in recent years has emerged as one of the biggest recruiters of top flight MBA graduates, hired a record 27 MBAs from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business this year. Amazon hired nearly twice as many Ross MBAS this year as it did only two years ago when its acceptances totaled just 14 MBAs at the school.

Hiring at Ross by the giant of e-commerce exceeded Ross’ more typical No. 1 recruiter, Deloitte Consulting, which brought aboard two dozen members of Ross’ Class of 2014. Last year, Deloitte was Ross’ No. 1 MBA employer with 25 hires, just nudging out Amazon which in 2013 hired 23 MBA graduates from Michigan. Amazon’s MBA hiring binge was disclosed in the school’s newly released employment report for 2014. Other double-digit hiring at Ross this year came from McKinsey & Co. (16), Accenture (14), Citigroup (12), and Microsoft (11).

Ross, which provides one of the most transparent employment reports of any top business school, reported that many other prestige companies hired from the class, including Bain (9), PricewaterhouseCoopers (8), A.T. Kearney (8), Dell (8), Kraft Foods Group (7), General Mills (6), and Boston Consulting Group (6). Several firms, including Kearney and Dell, doubled their hiring at Ross this year (See complete report and year-over-year comparison on next page).

Business school employment reports for the Class of 2014 began trickling out this week, with the Tuck School of Business reporting highly positive results only yesterday. Most schools will release this data over the next month or so. The early indications from both Ross–one of the most highly ranked public business schools–and Tuck–one of the most highly ranked privates–show that 2014 is among the best years for graduating MBAs ever.

GREAT YEAR FOR ROSS: BASE SALARIES AND JOB OFFERS UP

For the 502 MBA graduates in Ross’ Class of 2014, it was a very good year, indeed. Median starting salaries rose 2.8% this year to $115,000, from $112,000 in 2013. Average starting salaries were slightly higher, rising 3.5% to $115,309 this year, from $111,417 in 2013. Median signing bonuses were exactly the same at $25,000, while other guaranteed first-year bonuses was $16,750, up from $15,000 a year earlier.

Some 89.2% of the class received job offers by graduation, up from 85.1% a year earlier, while 93.0% had job offers three months after commencement, up from 88.7% in 2013. Those numbers were even better for U.S. citizens: 90.4% had offers at graduation, while 95.2% had offers three months later.

Graduating MBAs from other countries trailed their U.S. counterparts in the class, but did significantly better this year than last. Some 86.4% of foreign grads had at least one job offer at graduation, up from 77.0% last year, while 88.0% had job offers three months later, up from 83.0% a year earlier. It is often harder for international students to land jobs because they either have to search for employment in their home countries or have to hope that a U.S. employer is willing to apply for a work visa for them.

CONSULTING PAID HIGHEST SALARIES & TOTAL COMP PACKAGES

The highest starting salaries were achieved by MBAs who went into consulting, which attracted slightly above a third of the entire class at 34%. The median base salary for consultants this year was $135,000, with 98% of the MBAs reporting that they had also received median signing bonuses of $25,000 and 60% reporting other guaranteed median bonus of $25,000. Students who collected all three forms of compensation in consulting–clearly the majority–would have left Ross with starting median pay packages of $185,000.

Some graduates who went into investment banking potentially could earn more in their first year, largely on the basis of bonuses. The median base salary in i-banking was $100,000, but 100% of the MBAs who took those jobs received median sign-on bonuses of $50,000–twice as large as those offered in consulting–and 19% expect other median guaranteed first-year comp of $45,000. For some very lucky MBAs going the i-banking route, first-year median comp could potentially total $195,000.

Excluding bonuses, the highest reported base salary–$165,000–was reported for an MBA who went into product management. The highest sign-on bonus was $75,000, while the highest reported other guaranteed first-year bonus was a whopping $95,000.

THE TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY HIRED 15% OF THE CLASS OF 2014

Consulting seems to be claiming more and more of Ross’ graduates. Only four years ago, in 2011, consulting firms hired 27.6% of the class. It rose to 31.9% in 2012 and 32.8% in 2013. This year’s 34% total is one of the highest ever for Michigan MBAs.

While consulting took the largest chunk of the class, technology was second with 15%. That is up from 14.3% last year and just 11.0% in 2011.

MBAs going into finance at Ross totaled 12.2% of the class, down significantly from 17.2% last year. Some 5.2% went into investment banking this year, versus 6.1% in 2013.

The decline in finance almost allowed consumer products companies to claim more MBAs at the school. CPG took 11.7% of the class, up from 9.4% in 2013.

(See following page for top employers of Ross MBAs from 2014 to 2012)