MBA Salaries Grew 5.6% In 2022 At This No. 1 European B-School

They started their business school journeys in the midst of a worldwide pandemic. By the time the IESE MBA and MiM Classes of 2022 graduated last year, the employment landscape had changed dramatically for the better.

IESE reported Friday (March 17) that 95% of graduates of the MBA Class of 2022 secured a job offer within three months of graduation, up from 94% for the Class of 2021. Just 87% of the Class of 2020, graduating in the teeth of coronavirus, had secured jobs after 90 days.

Once again in 2022, consulting was IESE MBAs’ most popular destination, attracting 33% of the class of 376, down slightly from 34%, followed by diversified industries (28%, up from 24%), finance (21%, down from 25%), and technology (18%, up from 17%). Within industries, the most popular sectors are health care (11%, up from 10%), energy & manufacturing (8%, up from 6%) and retail (7%, same as last year).

Overall base salaries grew 5.6% to €92,500, or just over $99,000, for graduates of the MBA ranked No. 1 in Europe by Poets&Quants. Base salaries averaged €87,613 for the Class of 2021, up from €85,046 in 2019. The lower end of the salary range dropped to €30,000 from €46,162, but the upper end climbed to €181,000 (nearly $194K) from €168,652, an increase of 7.3%. Average other compensation exploded, however, to €72,900 ($78K) from €50,480; and one lucky grad reported a high bonus of €286,600 — about $307K. Impressive — but not as much as the high bonus reported in 2021 of nearly $400,000.

IESE also released its Master in Management jobs report last week, showing that 96% of graduates were employed within three months of graduation.

FAR FEWER MAKE THE MBA ‘TRIPLE JUMP’

Twenty-two percent of IESE’s latest MBA class leveraged their experience to make the challenging career “triple jump” — a simultaneous change in industry, job function, and location. That may seem like a big number but it’s down one third from last year, when fully one-third of IESE’s 2021 MBA class (33%) made the triple jump, about the same proportion of the 2020 MBA class; both were up from 21% of the class in 2019. The return to a pre-pandemic rate of triple-jumping seems to be happening elsewhere, too: In the 2020 class of HEC Paris MBAs, 45% made the triple jump; in 2021, that number had shrunk to 40%.

The region most IESE MBAs work in does not involve a literal jump: Europe (excluding Spain) was the most sought-after region to work in, with 37% of graduates accepting jobs there, followed by Spain itself (23%). One-fifth of the class relocates to Latin America for work. Amazon, Bain & Company, Citi, Mastercard, McKinsey & Company, Pepsico and Uber were among the top recruiters.

“The class of 2022 initiated the MBA program in the middle of the global Covid-19 pandemic and graduated into a world and job market very different to the one they knew before this,” says Patrik Wallén, director of IESE’s Career Development Center, in an introduction to the new employment report. “However, our graduates have explored an increasingly broad range of career paths and 95% of them found employment within three months of graduation. The consulting sector remains the most popular destination for IESE MBA students, followed by diversified industries, which has increased from previous years.”

A CHALLENGING & REWARDING MBA

Founded in 1958, IESE in 1963 formed an alliance with Harvard Business School and launched the first two-year MBA program in Europe. It remains one of the few two-year programs taught almost entirely by case study. As Poets&Quants‘ Editor-in-Chief John Byrne wrote in February in announcing our 2023 international MBA ranking, which IESE topped for the first time by unseating long-time No. 1 INSEAD:

“To this day, the first-year workload (at IESE) in particular is highly challenging. Students are expected to essentially read and absorb three cases a day, five days a week. ‘It adds up to about 4,000 pages of reading,’ says Marc-Olivier Granger, a 2021 IESE grad who now works for the Boston Consulting Group. ‘Add on top of the academics the time spent on recruiting and extracurricular activities and you get very busy very fast. However, after having been through that first year and reflecting back, I can definitely say that all that effort pays off. Coming from a non-business background, my learning curve was steep and the academic rigor of IESE allowed me to become a full 360-degree manager now.

“‘When we started the MBA, we were told by faculty and students, to “trust the process” and I’m glad I did.'”

IESE’S MiM GRADS: POISED TO HAVE A ‘DEEP, POSITIVE & LASTING IMPACT’

Of the 96% of IESE 2022 Master in Management graduates, 40% chose consulting roles, while 21% chose finance, 14% either consumer goods or technology, 8% industry, and 3% retail. Forty-six percent stayed in Spain for work, while 38% moved elsewhere in Europe.

The IESE MiM was launched in 2019 and is taught from the B-school’s Madrid campus and attracts younger students with college degrees but less professional experience than their MBA counterparts.

“Talented individuals from every corner of the globe came to IESE with unique characteristics and diverse backgrounds,” Wallén says of the MiM Class of 2022. “They completed the IESE program, working together with their peers on myriad business cases and assignments, building the necessary skills for tomorrow’s business leaders, and being influenced by the pillars of the school’s mission: professional excellence, integrity and spirit of service. We strongly believe that they are in a unique position to have a deep, positive and lasting impact on people, companies and society.”

DON’T MISS MEET IESE’S MBA CLASS OF 2023 and IESE’S MBA CLASS OF 2021 EMPLOYMENT REPORT