Digging Deeper: More About Berkeley Haas’ Strong Jobs Report

The UC-Berkeley Haas School of Business community had a lot to be pleased with in the school’s newly released 2022 employment report, starting with big jumps in both job offers and acceptances. Of the 275 Haas MBAs looking for jobs out of a class of 320, 258 received offers by three months after graduation, and 255 accepted, for a 93.8% offer rate, up from 89.9% in 2021, and a 92.8% acceptance rate, up from 88.3%.

“We were pleased to see the jump in employment rates and average base salaries this year,” says Abby Scott, assistant dean of career management and corporate partnerships at the Haas School. “The percent of our MBAs employed three months after graduation came back to the level of some of our highest pre-pandemic years.”

Scott isn’t divulging any secrets, but the numbers are the result of lots of hard work, she says.

“We worked very closely with our graduates this year, who understandably were unsure about market conditions,” she says. “Our career team worked with our alumni group, school leadership, and our board to be sure our students had contacts and introductions to their target firms during the final stretch of their searches.”

TOTAL COMP AVERAGE FOR 2022 HAAS MBAs: NEARLY $180K

Scott says that economic undulations this year did not have the impact on Haas MBAs that some may have feared.

"What made this year so unusual was the extraordinary demand for our MBA graduates, despite significant declines in the stock market," she says. "We saw this in the tech sector in particular. The labor market showed an appetite for their skills, including an ability to lead and innovate in a changing, diverse world."

As she mentioned, 2022 was a good year not only for placement but for salaries, as well, with Haas grads' median and average salaries growing significantly, leading to growth in total compensation even as signing bonuses were flat. Haas MBAs made a median $155,000 and total compensation of nearly $180,000, as bonuses remained about $33K.

About 40% of grads received stock options at their new firms, as well.

"It was very exciting for our graduates to see the salaries, signing bonuses, and stock packages reach the levels that they did this year," Scott says, adding that the Haas careers team is always thinking ahead: "As we watch the macroeconomic environment and consider the future, we are encouraging our current students to pursue companies with divisions or product categories that are growing."

AMAZON, GOOGLE, ADOBE LEAD TECH HIRING OUT OF HAAS

After the release of Haas' 2021 employment report last fall, Scott drew attention to the stories behind the employment data. "We have diversity in what students are choosing to pursue," she said. "Our students, being so close to Silicon Valley here, tend to focus on what's next, and are at the center of things like the mobility wave, sustainable finance, blockchain. You don't see those stories in our numbers, but certainly some of our financial services, tech, transportation — those stories are embedded in those industries.”

What stories are embedded in the 2022 report?

"It's important to note that 75% of our students took roles in technology, consulting, and financial services, and the larger employers in these spaces continue to dominate our top employer ranks," Scott says. "McKinsey, Bain, BCG, and Deloitte hire the most students in consulting, whereas Amazon, Google, and Adobe continue to be our top hiring firms in tech.

"A few new firms hit our top employers list, including Cruise Automation, Nike, and ServiceNow. These first two reflect student interest in sustainability, and our school's recent addition of the Michaels Graduate Certificate in Sustainable Business has helped our students organize their curricula in compelling ways for employers seeking leaders with a mindset to tackle some of the world's greatest sustainability challenges. ServiceNow's hiring, along with Cisco's and Meta's, speak to active alumni and strong connections to our Career Management Group to support a strong pipeline for MBA talent.

"Embedded in our financial services outcomes are a few interesting trends. While continuing to see our graduates pursue investment banking roles on the West Coast in particular, we saw 5% of the class accepting roles in venture capital. A sizable number also found roles in Fintech."

DON'T MISS BERKELEY HAAS 2022 JOBS REPORT: MEDIAN SALARY CLIMBS 4%