Fewer Grads Want Wall Street Jobs

Fewer Grads Want Wall Street Jobs

If you asked a finance student ten years ago where he or she wanted to end up, the answer would most likely be Wall Street. Now, that answer is likely different.

A new survey suggests that jobs outside of Wall Street are becoming increasingly of interest to recent MBA graduates. The data by Training the Street, which includes responses from over 200 recent graduates, shows that just 19% of MBAs consider bulge bracket banks—big name banks such as JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley—to be a top employment choice. According to Bloomberg, that’s a 7% drop from last year. It’s also the lowest level in the eight-year history of the survey.

“Banks are still a dominant hiring force for MBAs and continue to attract top talent, but working for larger, established companies off of Wall Street is becoming more attractive to MBAs as they offer a different type of lifestyle,” Scott Rostan, founder and CEO of Training The Street, a company that offers technical training to financial firms and business schools, said in a statement.

According to the survey, top choices for employment included consulting firms at 20%, corporate development at a Fortune 2000 company at 13%, and boutique banks at 12%.

Declining interest in Wall Street can be found in the numbers. In 2008, just before the collapse of Lehman Brothers, 55.6% of Columbia’s graduating class went into finance. In 2015, the number was down to just 37.1%.

“MBAs want to make sure the job they accept is going to be a good, long term fit,” Rostan tells Bloomberg. “This also correlates with the finding that more are looking for that first job outside of Wall Street, a place known for sudden job moves, especially during the early stages of one’s career.”

To learn more about where Wall Street gets MBA talent, click here.

Sources: Bloomberg, Poets & Quants

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