The MBA Job Market: Up Yet Again!

Strongest Increase in Recruiting From Consulting Firms

Source: The MBA Career Services & Employer Alliance, Spring 2015 Recruiting Trends Survey

THE POOL OF MBAS FROM TOP 20 SCHOOLS HAS FALLEN BY AS MUCH AS 25% IN THE PAST 20 YEARS TO MAINSTREAM RECRUITERS

One explanation for the bigger increases at lower ranked schools is that demand is outstripping supply at the Top 20 MBA programs which have shown little growth in enrollment in recent years. Generally, most Top 20 schools are producing only slightly more MBA graduates than they did 20 years ago, but larger numbers of those grads are doing their own startups, joining relatively new startups as employees, entering the non-profit and social enterprise sectors, and returning to their home countries for job opportunities. The result: The available pool of MBA graduates from the Top 20 schools has shrunk by as much as 20% to 25% in the past 20 years for mainstream recruiters of MBAs, estimates Rich Lyons, dean of UC-Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

Meantime, the economic recovery, now in its fifth year, has significantly increased demand while the Top 20 supply has fallen. How long can growth continue? “I keep pinching myself and asking the same question,” confides Zikakis. “I wish I had a crystal ball and could tell you. For now, all signs point to it (the strong job market) going along. There’s been no falloff in registrations for fall recruiting.”

The latest survey found that the strongest increase in demand for MBA hires is from consulting, the survey found, though significant increases were reported by schools in consumer products and pharma/biotech/health care. Manufacturing, non-profit, and media/entertainment recruiting also showed gains.

Consulting firms—already the largest single industry recruiter of top MBA graduates—stepped up their game again. Some 64% of the schools reported increased recruiting by consulting, up from about 48% last year. And many firms have also upped their standard $135K base salary offer to $140K this year. Zikakis sees that more as an “inflation adjustment.” “It’s creeping up relative to the consumer price index and partly because consulting firms find themselves competing more with the technology firms for talent,” he says. “But generally salaries are relatively flat, and I don’t see that changing significantly.”

More than a third of the schools reported increased recruiting from consumer product companies and well over half said health care recruiting has picked up from last year (see table above).

TECHNOLOGY STILL STRONG BUT NO LONGER GROWING, WHILE FINANCIAL RECRUITING IS STABLE

The high tech sector, which has been siphoning off an increasing number of MBA graduates in recent years from financial services, also remains very strong, according to the survey, with 64% of the schools reporting increased recruiting, but that is slightly less than the 66% a year ago. About 45% of the schools reported increases in recruiting efforts by financial services, about the same level as last year.

The largest single decrease occurred in energy and petroleum, due to lower gas prices which have dampened drilling and fracking activity in the U.S. Schools reporting recruiting increases in this sector fell to just 6% from 32% a year earlier (see below table). Increases in on-campus recruiting efforts from real estate and media/entertainment firms also fell this year, according to the survey.

Biggest Decrease In MBA Recruiting From Energy Firms

Source: The MBA Career Services & Employer Alliance, Spring 2015 Recruiting Trends Survey