Top MBA Employers At 24 Leading U.S. Business Schools

Who really hires the most MBAs at the leading business schools in the U.S.? Sure, you know McKinsey, Bain, and BCG are there, and so is Amazon and Google. But who else? And what percentage of the graduating class at top MBA programs are actually hired by these firms?

In a rare and exclusive look at elite MBA employment, we present the top ten employers of MBA graduates at 24 of the leading business schools over the past three years. Only a few business schools disclose a ranked listing of top employers, and when they do, the schools limit those lists to a single graduating class. Now, for the first time, an extensive analysis of MBA recruits by Menlo Coaching, the premium MBA admissions consulting firm, has pulled the curtain back on exactly which firms are hiring in a big way from these schools. Menlo Coaching’s research team analyzed 51,991 student profiles on LinkedIn to get to the bottom of it. To access the full report on all 24 schools from Menlo Coaching, you can click here.

This latest analysis follows the look at top employers of Harvard, Stanford and Wharton MBAs (see Who Really Hires Harvard, Stanford & Wharton MBAs These Days), a report on where McKinsey, Bain & BCG hire the most MBAs, and a look at the MBA hires by Goldman Sachs, JPMorganChase & Morgan Stanley.

THE MOST FREQUENT TOP FIVE EMPLOYER ACROSS 24 SCHOOLS? AMAZON

The data reveals some big surprises. For one thing, notes David White, a founding partner of Menlo Coaching, the top employers are not the same as the top feeders.”In unpublished research, we identified Deloitte as the #1 largest feeder company to the 24 U.S. MBA programs we analyzed, sending around twice as many students as the runner up, BCG,” he says. “However, Deloitte is only the fifth largest post-MBA recruiter across these same 24 programs.”

So which company is the most frequent Top Five employer? Amazon. “It made the list of the top five employers at every M7 school.” says White. “In total, it was a top five employer at 22 of the 24 MBA programs we examined. Beyond Amazon, Google was the other big tech company to appear frequently in the top five employer lists.”

Not surprisingly, perhaps some schools are local favorites of companies. “Although the top five employers at most MBA programs are national recruiters who appear in the lists for many different MBA programs, there are a few major employers with a regional recruiting footprint,” explains White. “For example, Dell was a top five employer at UT Austin McCombs and UNC Kenan-Flagler, but not at other MBA programs, and Microsoft was a top five recruiter only at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business.”

GEOGRAPHY MATTERS WHEN IT COMES TO SOME MBA EMPLOYERS

For prospective MBA students, the real takeaway might well be this: "Graduates can join McKinsey, Bain or BCG even if they are not at a top-ranked school," adds White. "We examined 14 MBA programs outside of (M7 + Haas, Tuck, Yale). In those 14 programs, all but two include one of McKinsey, Bain and BCG as one of their Top 10 employers. For example, UCLA Anderson and NYU Stern both have all three firms among their top 10 employers."

Once you expand to looking at the top 10 employers instead of the top five, Facebook pops up frequently as another tech recruiter, alongside Amazon and Google. In Menlo Coaching's top 10 employers report, you can see a larger number of employers who recruit disproportionately at MBA programs near their headquarters, with pairs like USC Marshall and Amgen, Emory Goizueta and UPS, Rice Jones and ExxonMobil and Chevron), as well as Washington Foster and Starbucks.

The company taking the largest percentage of MBAs out of any one school among the top 24 is the Boston Consulting Group at Kellogg: BCG has hired 11.5% of Kellogg graduates in the past three years. The only other double-digit employer from a single school is Amazon, which has hired 10.3% of the MBA grads out of Washington Foster in three years.

AT STANFORD, GOOGLE TIES BCG AS THE THIRD MOST POPULAR EMPLOYER

Overall, at the 24 leading schools, McKinsey and BCG are the #1 and #2 employers, respectively. Bain follows in fourth place. Amazon ranks #3 at 4.1% and represents the only non-consulting firm in the top five (see table below). "The high placement rate at Amazon reflects its position as a highly desirable company for MBAs targeting tech," says White. "It also reflects Amazon's own interest in hiring MBA graduates, especially outside the M7: Amazon is the top employer for UNC Kenan-Flagler, UCLA Anderson, Texas McCombs, Michigan Ross, UW Foster, NYU Stern, and Duke Fuqua (tied)."

Only one financial services company makes the top ten: JPMorgan Chase, employing just under 1% of the graduates in tenth place.

McKinsey, Bain and BCG maintain their attraction for MBA graduates from M7 programs. Indeed, for all M7 programs, MBB ranks at the top (though Google ties BCG at Stanford's #3, according to Menlo's analysis. "In addition to the clear relationship between M7 attendance and placement at an MBB firm, listings for programs outside the M7 reveal strong placement rates at the Big Four strategy consulting firms, or Deloitte, PwC, KPMG, and EY-Parthenon," adds White. "Placements at Deloitte and EY-Parthenon are especially high across the board."

Top Five Employers At Each Of 24 Leading U.S. Business Schools

Business School	Top 5 Employers	% Hired
Stanford GSB	McKinsey, Bain, Google, BCG & Amazon	12.8%
Harvard Business School	McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Amazon & Google	18.4%
Pennsylvania (Wharton)	McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Amazon, Deloitte & Google	19.8%
Northwestern (Kellogg)	BCG, McKinsey, Bain, Deloitte & Amazon	37.0%
Chicago (Booth)	McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Amazon & Strategy&	23.9%
Columbia Business School	McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Amazon & Goldman	14.7%
MIT (Sloan)	BCG, McKinsey, Bain, Amazon & Google	22.3%
Dartmouth (Tuck)	Bain, McKinsey, BCG, Amazon & Deloitte	23.9%
UC-Berkeley (Haas)	McKinsey, Amazon, Deloitte, Google & BCG	18.7%
Virginia (Darden)	BCG, McKinsey, Amazon, Bain & Accenture	20.6%
Yale SOM	McKinsey, Bain, Amazon, BCG, Deloitte	17.8%
Duke (Fuqua)	Amazon, Deloitte, McKinsey, BCG & Microsoft	18.9%
Michigan (Ross)	Amazon, EY-Parthenon, McKinsey, Deloitte & BCG	22.1%
Texas (McCombs)	Amazon, Deloitte, PwC, Dell, PepsiCo, JPMorgan & BCG	13.4%
Cornell (Johnson)	EY-Parthenon, Amazon, McKinsey, Deloitte & Citi	17.7%
UCLA (Anderson)	Amazon, Deloitte, BCG, EY-Parthenon & McKinsey	11.1%
New York (Stern)	Amazon, McKinsey, BCG, Deloitte & Credit Suisse	15.2%
Carnegie Mellon (Tepper)	Deloitte, Amazon, PwC, AlixPartners & McKinsey	18.4%
North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler)	Amazon, Deloitte, Dell, McKinsey & WalMart	9.5%
Emory (Goizueta)	EY-Parthenon, Deloitte, PwC, Accenture & Bain	19.3%
Southern California (Marshall)	Deloitte, EY-Parthenon, PwC, Cisco & Amazon	11.0%
Georgetown (McDonough)	EY-Parthenon, Deloitte, Amazon, Booz Allen & PwC	12.6%
Washington (Foster)	Amazon, Microsoft, PwC, Accenture & PK	23.0%
Rice (Jones)	EY-Parthenon, Deloitte, ExxonMobil, Alvarez & Marsal & Accenture	15.2%

Source: Menlo Coaching. Notes: Click on school name to see the top employers