Kellogg Posts Record MBA Pay With Jump In PE Jobs

MBA students at Kellogg’s Global Hub in Evanston, Ill. Photo by Jonathan Gibby

CONSULTING FIRMS HIRED 31% OF KELLOGG’S CLASS OF 2019

David Stowell, a Kellogg professor who runs the PE Lab, attributed the increase in MBA placement in the industry to increased internships in the field. “The PE Lab and growth of PE jobs is a testament to the strength of the Kellogg community,” he says. “Most of the firms participating in PE Lab have a Kellogg alum who acts as a mentor, giving assignments, answering questions and creating projects that align with the intern’s development goals.”

Those internships, of course, are often converted into full-time job offers. “During their internships,” adds Stowell, “many students have the opportunity to attend investment committee meetings to see how firms analyze and compete for different investment opportunities. Students run LBO financial models to help analyze potential investment return scenarios, complete research projects to better understand particular companies or industries, and are often exposed to the daily operations of portfolio companies to see the full range of activities that PE firms engage in.”

The increase in MBAs accepting jobs in finance occurred in a year in which tech hires slipped two percentage points to 26% while consulting ticked up a percent to 31% (see below for industry choices). Some 8% of the class took jobs in the consumer products sector, up a point from 2018, while 7% accepted positions in healthcare, exactly the same percentage as last year.

MORE MBA STUDENTS ALSO GOING INTO EARLY STAGE COMPANIES

MBAs headed into manufacturing fell by half to just 2% of this year’s class from 4% a year earlier, while graduates who went into real estate also slipped a percent to 2% from 3%. Kellogg MBAs who chose retail accounted for 3% of this year’s class, the same as last year.

“Consulting remains very strong here,” says Kirkpatrick. “We had a significant increase in tech last year and that has been maintained. But it is largely driven by student interst. The marketplace is responding to them very positively. More people are ago going into early stage companies. The fact that companies are appreciating the MBA skill set, particularly Kellogg MBAs, is a big factor.”

Kellogg said that 31% of the Class of 2019 landed jobs in the midwest, up from 26.1% a year earlier. Most of those gains came out of the West Coast, which still attracted a sizable 26% of this year’s class. But that was down dramatically from the 33% of the Class of 2018 that took jobs in the West.

Some 19.3% of this year’s MBAs from Kellogg went to the East Coast, roughly the same as last year, while 11% accepted positions in the south, up from 8.8% a year earlier. Some 12% of the Class of 2021 went overseas for their jobs, roughly equal to the 12.8% last year.

DON’T MISS: AT KELLOGG, TECH BECOMES NEARLY AS POPULAR AS CONSULTING IN 2018