Median Salary Flattens For 2023 Emory Goizueta MBAs

Median base salary for Emory Goizueta Class of 2023 MBAs were flat at $165,000, though average base salary inched up less than 2%. Courtesy photo

Another top business school in the United States is reporting a drop in consulting placement — but to be fair, it would be difficult for Emory Goizueta Business School to send more of its MBAs into the industry in 2023 than they did in 2022.

Last year, Emory sent 55% of the 145 graduates of its two-year MBA program into consulting — among the highest percentages of a graduating class for any school, anywhere. In its recently released 2023 MBA employment report, the Goizueta School reports a decline — to 54%. However, median base salaries for the B-school’s consulting-bound MBAs grew to $175,000 from $170K, the largest starting salaries of any group of the school’s 165 grads.

Much has been made this year of job-hunting hardships for consulting MBAs (see here and here for more Poets&Quants coverage), but the industry was a bright spot for Emory in 2023. Because not only was the hiring robust for two-year MBAs — it was also the main source of jobs for one-year MBAs, 56% of whom found consulting jobs in both 2022 and 2023.

EMORY GOIZUETA 2-YEAR MBA EMPLOYMENT 2022-2023 

AVERAGE SALARY FOR GOIZUETA 2-YEAR MBAs GREW JUST 1.7%, WHILE MEDIAN WAS FLAT

In Emory’s two-year program, finance, which drew 12% of the class, was another bright spot, with median salary growing to $173,000 from $162,500, a 6.5% increase. But overall median salary for the Goizueta School’s 2023 class was flat at $165,000, and average salary grew only 1.7%, to $152,317.

Salaries were flat for another beleaguered industry, tech, where 14% of 2023 Emory MBAs found jobs, up from 13% in 2022. Grads in both classes made a median $130,000. Healthcare salaries were up nominally even as placement dropped by half to 4%, while consumer packaged goods salaries declined to $112,500 from $127,500, a drop of nearly 12%.

Overall job placement took a small hit, as it has at every U.S. B-school that has so far released a 2023 employment report — but at Emory that means a decline from stupendous to merely terrific. Ninety-six percent of Emory grads reported receiving offers by three months after graduation, down from 98% in 2022, while 96% reported accepting, also down from 98%.

MEDIAN BASE SALARIES FOR GOIZUETA 2-YEAR MBAs 2022-2023

*2022 ‘Other’ includes Construction, Media/Entertainment, Retail, and Transportation/Logistics Services; 2023 ‘Other’ includes Manufacturing, Media/Entertainment, Non-Profit, Real Estate, and Construction

JOB OFFERS & ACCEPTS DROP BIG-TIME FOR ONE-YEAR MBA GRADS 

Emory Goizueta has one of the premier one-year MBA programs in the U.S., a fact brought into sharper relief since the October announcement of another elite program’s impending demise. But the 2023 employment numbers for Emory one-year MBA graduates were sobering. The class size declined to 34 students from 41, and job offers dropped to 83% after three months, down from 94%. As if that weren’t stark enough, job acceptances cratered to just 75% from 94%.

Average starting salary for one-year MBAs grew by just $47, to $148,297, while median salary actually declined, to $155,000 from $162,500, a drop of 4.6%. A search for a cause yields clues in the source of student jobs: Jobs from school postings dropped to 11% from 25%, while jobs from school-scheduled interviews were not listed in the 2023 report after accounting for 44% of jobs in 2022.

As a result, student-initiated jobs jumped to 61% from 19%. Jobs from other school sources also grew, to 28% from 12%.

EMORY GOIZUETA 1-YEAR MBA EMPLOYMENT 2022-2023

EXPLAINING THE SHIFT IN JOB SOURCES FOR 1-YEAR MBA GRADS

Maureen Manion-Leone, associate dean and executive director of the Graduate Career Management Center at Emory Goizueta, responded to a query from P&Q about the shift in job sources.

“In today’s market, many students do not consider jobs from the school-structured process,” Manion-Leone says. “For the one-year program, the jobs in school-structured recruiting are usually large consulting firm jobs.

“Last year, in 2022, one-year students were extremely successful in school-structured fall interviews because most one-year students wanted large firm consulting jobs, which hire through the school structured process. Therefore, the number of school-structured offers in 2022 was the highest it has been in the recent history of the one-year program.

“Historically, the one-year program reports about 50% of jobs being student-initiated, which is typical for a program without an internship. In our two-year program roughly 60% of our jobs come through the internship, and anywhere from 15-20% are from school-structured interviews.”

JOBS BY INDUSTRY FOR EMORY GOIZUETA 1-YEAR MBAs 2022-2023

JOBS BY INDUSTRY FOR EMORY GOIZUETA 1-YEAR MBAs 2022-2023

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