The Best (And Worst) Companies For MBAs

A student pumps his fist in celebration before receiving his diploma from Dean Levin. Photo by Nathan Allen

Depending on where MBAs decide to work, they could work as little as about 43 hours a week or as much as nearly 70. According to TransparentCareer data, there is nearly a 26-hour difference per week among first jobs for MBAs. The shortest work week goes to MBAs at Intel, which report working 43.7 hours on average. Next lowest is Liberty Mutual at 44.4 hours per week. Following in third, fourth, and fifth are Cisco, Dell, and Microsoft, respectively, where MBAs all report working less than 47 hours a week. Only nine companies have MBAs reporting less than 50-hour workweeks. On the other end, MBAs at nine other companies report working at least 60 hours a week. According to TransparentCareer, MBAs at McKinsey, arguably the most prestigious global consulting firm, work more hours than anywhere else at 69 hours per week. Up next is A.T. Kearney and Goldman Sachs, where MBAs work 68 and 67 hours on average per week.

Still, there doesn’t seem to be a correlation between hours worked and job satisfaction. No other organization exemplifies this more than A.T. Kearney. MBAs at A.T. Kearney work more than all but one other company, yet have the highest overall job satisfaction average. Likewise, MBAs at McKinsey, BCG, and Bain all work at least 63 hours a week on average, but also have job satisfaction scores higher than seven. The upshot: long hours don’t translate to being miserable on the job.

The above data is based on self-reported data points from more than 1,800 recently graduated MBAs. According to TransparentCareer, their data leans towards graduates from the top 25 schools.

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