Big Jump In Tech Hires At Kellogg

Mark Gasche, managing director of Kellogg’s Career Management Center

ONE IN THREE KELLOGG GRADS WENT INTO CONSULTING

Even so, consulting remained the No. 1 industry of choice at Kellogg which has a reputation for turning out graduates that are highly desired by the top-tier global consulting firms. All told, consulting hired slightly more than one of three Kellogg MBAs, 35% of the class, higher than any other M7 school, including Harvard where 23% went into consulting and Stanford where only 16% ventured into the field.

“We had a discussion with one of the top four firms the other day and they said they were estatic about the students here,” recalls Gasche. “I asked what makes them different and appealing to consulting and she said, ‘I could put Kellogg MBAs in any geographic location with any client on any project and I never have to worry about them fitting in and making an impact. And then they are going to say thank you for the experience. I’m happy to go.'”

Not surprisingly, the four leading employers at the school are all consultants: McKinsey & Co. hired 29 MBAs from Kellogg this year, Deloitte took 26, Bain & Co. employed 24, while Boston Consulting Group hauled away 21 graduates from the Class of 2014. Accenture also hired 10 Kellogg MBAs, while Strategy& took seven, AT Kearney employed six, and Oliver Wyman recruited a trio of grads.

KRAFT FOODS GROUP WAS AMONG THE TOP FIVE EMPLOYERS, HIRING 15 KELLOGG MBAS

Gasche, who joined Kellogg last January, expects this trend to continue as well. “If you look at the big firms, they want more. That’s the message. They want more qualified students. They are acutely aware of the increasing competition from tech. To the extent that the consulting firms have worked hard to differentiate themselves from investment banks, this is another opportunity for them to differentiate from the technology field.”

Kellogg, long known for its strength in marketing, also sent a good number of this year’s class into consumer products companies, with 11% of the class accepting offers from the likes of Kraft Foods, General Mills, Nike, Unilever and Mattel. If you add in acceptances at retail firms, roughly 14% of the class went into consumer products and retail, highest among the M7 schools.

Kraft Foods Group, in fact, hired 15 MBAs, placing the company among the top five employers at Kellogg this year and the only non-consulting firm in that group. “Kraft Foods has done exceptionally well the past few years,” adds Gasche. “They brought their leadership team on campus. They made sure they had their alumni back to help recruit students. Kraft listened closely to the studnets in terms of what they expect and need and had a very successful recruiting year here.”

HIGHEST REPORTED BASE SALARY: $240,00 FOR A JOB IN FOOD & BEVERAGES

Surprisingly, the highest reported base salary–$240,000–in the class went to an MBA who joined a food and beverage company in New York, obviously for a candidate who had previous experience in that industry. Two other MBAs who took jobs in finance–one in investment management and the other in private equity–recorded the next highest starting salaries this year, $225,000 and $190,000, respectively. The highest salary landed by an international student was for $189,000 for a job in Canada, followed by a $170,000-a-year job in Latin America.

Gasche says he doesn’t expect finance to have a comeback from its 13.9% acceptance rate at Kellogg. “If it’s not a record low, it’s probably right near the mark in 2009 or 2010,” he says. We’ll probably see finance stay flat or go down a little depending on technology. Our students are all too aware of how hard you need to work on Wall Street and believe that there are not as many opportunities for growth.”

The only three finance firms to make the list of 30 major employers at Kellogg this year were Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, which hired five MBAs, Goldman Sachs, which brought aboard four, and J.P. Morgan, with three. Kellogg said that 5% of this year’s MBAs went into investment banking/brokerage jobs, 2.7% accepted positions with investment management firms, 2.3% landed jobs in private equity, another 2.3% in diversified financial services, and 0.9% in venture capital.

(See following page for a breakdown of how Kellogg’s numbers compare with the M7 and other business schools)