Finance & Consulting Down At Wharton

Like other top business schools, Wharton has pretty much made a complete recovery from the Great Recession. In the heart of the economic meltdown in 2009, 17% of Wharton MBAs still failed to have a single job offer three months after commencement. It took until 2011, when the job offer rate snapped back to normal at 97% and median starting salaries increased by $10,000 to $120,000. This year, 98.2% of the class had at least one job offer three months after graduation and 88% had offers at commencement.

What also has changed through the recovery is the diversity of employers hiring MBAs. The percentage of graduates who go into finance, long considered Wharton’s forte, has been steadily declining to the new low this year. Before the recession hit, Wharton would routinely send nearly half its graduating class of MBAs into finance. In 2008, when offers and acceptances were made well before the downturn hit, 47.7% of the graduates rushed into finance. Last year, only 35.5% went the finance route. Investment banking and brokerage has taken the single biggest hit, falling to 13.3% last year from the 2008 peak when slightly more than one in four (25.5%) Wharton MBAs went into i-banking and brokerage.

A historical look at the career stats shows that private equity jobs–which tend to pay among the highest total compensation packages to elite MBAs–had grown significantly in the finance mix until this year. While the number of i-bankers out of Wharton nearly fell in half in the past five years, MBAs headed into PE and buyouts just about doubled, to a high of 13.1% last year from only 7% in 2008. In fact, it’s the only financial sub-category that has shown an increase over the past eight years–until 2014 when the number of people going into PE and venture capital fell to 10.2%.

Otherwise, companies in consumer goods and retail, health care, and technology have been offsetting the decline in finance in the recession-impacted years. Another clear trend at Wharton: The increasing percentages of graduates who are starting their own companies. Some 7.4% of the class last year did a startup, up from just 3% in 2007. Entrepreneurship at Wharton took a big jump with the Class of 2011 when 7.2% of the grads went the startup route, double the year-earlier 3.6% rate.

A few things that haven’t really changed over the years: the number of Whartonites interested in social enterprise, which has become an increased focus at many other schools, and manufacturing. MBAs headed for non-profit, social mission and government jobs was just 1.9% last year–not much different than the 1.2% last year. It inched slightly higher when the economy went to hell in 2009 and 2.5% ventured into social impact jobs, but then fell back down to historical levels with the recovery. Similarly, manufacturing companies don’t seem to have much luck with Wharton MBAs. Last year, just 1.9% went into manufacturing, not much different than the 1.6% who chose that industry group in 2013.

For Wharton MBA Grads, The Great Recession Is Now A Distant Memory

Career Data	2014	2013	2012	2011	2010	2009	2008	2007
PAY & OFFERS
Median Salary	$125,000	$125,000	$120,000	$120,000	$110,000	$110,000	$110,000	$110,000
Median Signing Bonus	$25,000	$25,000	NA	NA	NA	$20,000	$25,000	$20,000
Median Other Bonus	$27,000	$31,500	NA	NA	NA	$30,000	$30,000	$25,000
Offers 3 Months After Graduation	98.2%	97.8%	95.5%	97.0%	86.0%	83.0%	93.0%	96.0%
INDUSTRY CHOICE
Finance	35.5%	38.5%	41.0%	38.5%	40.5%	42.5%	47.7%	47.6%
I-Banking/Brokerage	14.2%	13.3%	17.5%	16.6%	20.6%	17.5%	25.5%	24.4%
Private Equity/VC/Buyouts	10.2%	13.1%	11.8%	7.7%	7.8%	8.5%	7.0%	8.2%
Investment Management	6.7%	5.5%	6.7%	6.1%	5.4%	6.0%	7.2%	6.5%
Hedge Funds	3.4%	4.2%	3.7%	3.3%	2.6%	3.6%	3.4%	5.5%
Diversified Financial	0.9%	2.3%	1.3%	4.9%	3.7%	5.5%	4.5%	2.7%
Consulting	25.9%	29.3%	26.7%	30.1%	29.1%	26.6%	26.6%	27.4%
Technology	13.7%	11.0%	11.6%	7.6%	5.6%	8.3%	5.6%	7.1%
Consumer Goods/Retail	7.5%	6.5%	6.4%	6.5%	5.8%	5.7%	3.1%	4.5%
Health Care	5.8%	3.9%	5.5%	5.9%	7.0%	7.5%	5.1%	4.3%
Real Estate	2.2%	2.8%	2.2%	3.2%	2.7%	3.0%	4.2%	4.2%
Media/Entertainment	2.4%	2.7%	2.5%	2.7%	2.0%	1.3%	2.2%	1.6%
Energy	1.7%	1.4%	1.2%	1.9%	2.0%	1.1%	2.2%	1.2%
Manufacturing	1.9%	1.6%	0.8%	2.1%	2.4%	1.5%	1.7%	1.2%
Social Enterprise	1.9%	1.2%	0.8%	1.0%	1.7%	2.5%	1.1%	1.2%
Doing A Startup	6.7%	7.4%	5.7%	7.2%	3.6%	3.4%	2.6%	3.0%
UNDERLYING DATA
MBA Graduates	815	800	805	853	822	765	811	804
MBAs Seeking Jobs	610	590	640	661	684	660	708	736
Company Sponsored	53	80	56	69	61	39	50	27
Not Responding	6.7%	7.1%	5.2%	6.0%	4.0%	4.0%	2.0%	2.0%