This Year’s ‘Crazy Rich’ Stanford MBAs

INTERNATIONAL STUDENT JOB AND SALARY RESULTS VERSUS DOMESTICS AT STANFORD

While international students were less likely to accept a job at graduation or three months later than domestic students, there was little difference in the job offer rate for them. Only 63% of Stanford MBAs with non-permanent work authorization accepted their jobs offers at graduation, compared to 71% for grads with permanent work authorization. But when it came to actual job offers made, more international students actually had offers in hand by commencement, 83% for internationals versus 81% for U.S. citizens and those with permanent work authorization. Three months post-graduation, internationals were pretty much equal with domestics, 94% for those with non-permanent work authorization versus 95%. On accepts, it was pretty much the same story, with 87% of internationals taking up employers on offers, nearly the same as the 89% for graduates with permanent work authorization.

The employment report doesn’t reveal how many internationals wanted a U.S. job but had to settle for returning home where the salaries are significantly below U.S. levels. MBA graduates who took jobs in Asia, for example, reported that their median salaries were just $80,000, some $67,000 less than the students who landed jobs in North America. In fact, the lowest reported salary this year–$48,000–was reported by a Stanford MBA who accepted a job in Asia.

Starting median salaries were also lower in both Latin America and the Caribbean ($104,700) and Europe ($135,00), though graduates working in those world regions did not have to take anywhere near the haircut that MBAs took in Asia. The highest reported salary abroad was $215,000 for an MBA who went to work in Europe, $85K below the U.S. high of $300,000.

95% OF GRADS HAD JOB OFFERS WITHIN THREE MONTHS OF GRADUATION

As is often the case with Stanford MBAs, job offers and acceptances often trail other business schools. That’s because Stanford grads tend to be more choosy about landing the perfect offer. But it’s also due to the fact that many Stanford MBAs prefer to spend their summer internships at Silicon Valley startups and early stage firms and then seek full-time offers with more established companies during recruiting season. At most other schools, internships are converted into early full-time job offers that lead to better-looking placement stats at graduation and three months later.

This year, the school reported that 81% of the Class of 2018 seeking employment had received at least one job offer by graduation, up from 73% last year, and 95% of the MBAs had offers three months after commencement, up from 92% in 2017. Stanford also reported that just 69% of its graduates accepted their offers by graduation, better than last year’s 64%, while 88% said ‘yes’ at the three-month mark, exactly the same percentage as last year.

In 2018, Stanford MBAs fell back in love with technology. After tech hires dropped to their lowest level since 2014 last year at 25% of the class, some 33% of this year’s graduates accepted offers in the technology industry. That’s one major difference between Stanford and its East Coast rival in Boston where only 19% of the graduating MBAs at Harvard went into tech. Stanford also reported that participation by women landing job with tech firms continued to exceed that of men for the second consecutive year.

40% OF ALL WOMEN REPORTING SALARIES WENT INTO TECH THIS YEAR

“For the second year in a row, the proportion of women going to tech was higher than for men, and this year reached a record 40% of all women who reported salaries,” said Carly Janson, acting assistant dean and director of the GSB’s Career Management Center. “Also, the number of women going to private equity and venture capital has doubled since 2014. This number is still small, but heartening.” The school, however, did not disclose exact figures on that latter trend.

At Stanford, the tech haul was slightly more than the 31% who ventured into finance. The school even added to its list of tech industry jobs, tacking on new categories in artificial intelligence, which hired just a sliver of grads at 1% of the class, as well as fintech (2%) and edtech (1%). The bulk of the tech-bound MBAs, roughly 11% of the entire class, joined firms in the software and mobile app fields. Another 7% went into internet services, while 5% headed into e-commerce.

Consulting, which tends to have a harder time enticing MBAs at Stanford than most other peer schools, slipped two percentage points this year to 18% of this year’s hires, even though the median base salary in consulting was a record high $151,400, slightly higher than the $150,000 median for consulting at Harvard Business School this year.

16% OF THE CLASS OR 68 MBAS DID THEIR OWN STARTUPS THIS YEAR

After the big three industries–finance, tech and consulting–Stanford MBAs really spread their wings. Some 5% of the class went into healthcare and biotech, with another 2% taking jobs in consumer package goods (see table on following page for industry choices over the years). A mere 1% of the class accepted offers to work in real estate, while the non-profit sector drew 4% of the class. Some 3% joined media and entertainment companies, while 1% took jobs in the energy and clean tech field.

The school reported that out of 423 graduates, 292 sought employment this year. About 16% of the class–68 graduates–started a new business this year, roughly the same percentage as last year. The top four industry choices for these entrepreneurial graduates were software (18%), consumer products (10%), healthcare (8%), and private equity (7%). The energy, nonprofit, e-commerce and e-media and entertainment industries each attracted 5% of the MBA entrepreneurs.

Twenty-eight students were sponsored and returned to their employers, while another 18 students decided to continue their education.

NEARLY SEVEN IN TEN STANFORD MBAS LANDED JOBS ON THE WEST COAST

Only 14% of this year’s class said they landed their jobs through on-campus recruiting. nSome 9% were connected to their job opportunities due to an alumni referral, while 7% said they got their jobs by virtue of the school’s job board. Just 5% won positions through a school-assisted summer internship. All told, the school facilitated 42% of the jobs, leaving the remaining 58% of the positions gained through student efforts. In fact, 29% of the MBAs said they were able to get jobs through their own networking efforts.

MBA students who come to Stanford often find it hard to leave the West Coast when they graduate. That’s not only because of the job opportunities in the Bay Area; it’s also because students tend to fall in love with both the weather and sensibilities of the California lifestyle. This year, nearly seven in every ten MBA graduates—68%—stayed in the West. Only 15% of the students took jobs in the Northeast, with 3% each in the midwest and southwest. A mere 1% accepted offers in the mid-Atlantic states. Some 10% of the graduates landed jobs outside North America, with Asia representing 4% of the placements, Latin America 3%, and Europe 2%.

2018 MBA Employment Reports

Harvard Business School

University of Pennsylvania Wharton School

MIT Sloan School of Management

University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management

Columbia Business School

Dartmouth College Tuck School of Business

University of California at Berkeley Haas School of Business

University of Michigan Ross School of Business

Duke University Fuqua School of Business

University of Virginia Darden School of Business

Georgetown University McDonough School of Business

Vanderbilt University Owen School of Management