Is The MiM Job Market Softening? Concerns Arise From First 2023 Report by: Marc Ethier on February 05, 2024 | 1,875 Views February 5, 2024 Copy Link Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email Share on LinkedIn Share on WhatsApp Share on Reddit Georgetown McDonough 2023 master in management graduates earned an average salary of just over $80K, according to the school’s new employment report. Georgetown photo The MBA job market is down. From the available evidence — which is still scant — the master in management employment landscape may also be in trouble. Few business schools with top MiM programs on either side of the Atlantic have released employment data for 2023 graduates of their programs. (Some elite B-schools don’t bother to release official reports for their MiM programs at all.) But the first just did so — and Georgetown McDonough School of Business in Washington, D.C. has reported declines year over year in job acceptance rate, average graduate salary, and average signing bonus. Is Georgetown — which inarguably has one of the top MiM programs in the U.S. — a canary in the coal mine? Will master in management employment reports at other top schools — including the elite programs in Europe, where the degree is more widely known among employers — show a downturn? We’ll be watching! SIGNING BONUS FALLS MORE THAN 40% FROM 2022 Georgetown McDonough’s Master of Science in Management reports that Class of 2023 grads earned an average base salary of $80,294 and an average signing bonus of $6,292. The former is down from $84,030 in 2022, and the latter is down from $10,722 — declines of 4.4% and 41%, respectively. In job acceptance rate, too, the Georgetown program reports a struggle. According to the report, 93% of 2023 grads received a job offer within six months of graduation and 89% accepted their offer. That’s compared to an identical offer rate of 93% in 2022, but an acceptance rate 2 points higher: 91%. Georgetown’s program grew by about a third in 2023 in terms of total number of students, to 96 students from 63. This alone could account for some of the decline in salary and bonus average. Regardless, “We are proud of the Class of 2023 for remaining steadfast in their goals and securing impactful roles across a wide range of industries,” says Evelyn Williams, academic director of the MiM program, in a news release. “With a combination of management, innovation, and STEM-designated coursework, Georgetown’s MiM program equips students with the tools and expertise that employers value, and we are pleased to see our students’ hard work reflected in this year’s report.” INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS TAKE THE BRUNT OF SALARY DECLINE Not only have few among all the top MiM programs on either side of the pond released 2023 employment numbers — few, when they do, will release data as granular as Georgetown’s. Putting the school’s 2023 and 2022 reports alongside each other shows that international students (which comprise more than 50% of both classes) took the brunt of the year-to-year salary decline: U.S. citizen grads saw their base salary average drop from $83,077 to $79,890, a decline of 3.8%; but international grads’ salary fell from $86,889 to $81,294, a drop of 6.4%. In terms of bonus, however, Georgetown’s international MiM students actually did better this year, with an average of $10,667, up from $9,375, an increase of 13.8%. Their U.S. citizen classmates weren’t so fortunate, with an average bonus of just $4,833, down from $11,107, a more than 56% decline. International students’ placement rates were so strong in 2022 that they were bound to decline, and with them, the overall rates for the class. And decline they did. One hundred percent of the international students in the class of 2022 received job offers and accepted them, compared to 91% and 88%, respectively, of their U.S. classmates; in 2023, just 94% of international students received offers, while only 84% accepted. Compare that to 93% and 91% of U.S. students, respectively. CONSULTING CRATERS; FINANCE FALLS OFF, TOO One problem for Georgetown may have been the ongoing downturn in consulting hiring that has slammed the MBA job market. In 2022, 40% of the Georgetown MiM class found work in the sector, compared to only 29% of the larger 2023 class. Consulting by job function slipped 10 percentage points, to 28% from 38%. Financial services, too, saw a drop-off, to 23% from 33% (and by function to 23% from 29%); and so did tech, an industry with widely reported struggles, which slipped to 8% of the class from 11%. Picking up the slack: social impact/nonprofit, which traditionally sees lower compensation, exploded to 14% of the class from 2%. Top employers of Georgetown’s 2023 MiM grads include Deloitte, Goldman Sachs, Heidrick & Struggles, Kraft Heinz, World Bank, and World Wide Technology. “The Georgetown MiM degree is designed to equip students with a variety of educational experiences and tools to support career goals across a broad range of industries and functions,” Christy Murray, associate dean and managing director of the McDonough Career Center, tells P&Q. “As a result, the recent graduating class represented a diverse range of academic and professional backgrounds, including a blend of liberal arts, humanities, or social sciences (39%), business or finance (29%), STEM (18%), and economics (14%). “With so many different pathways to the MiM, it’s not surprising that they chose career opportunities unique to their own goals and experiences. We saw a significant increase in the number of students who pursued careers in social impact and nonprofit work this year, which is a rewarding career path but traditionally does not offer the same compensation as industries such as consulting or finance. “Additionally, the MiM outcomes reflect ongoing changes in the current job market, particularly in traditional post-business school career paths such as consulting and technology.” 2023 master in management employment data from other top programs is not yet available but will clarify the jobs picture when it is published. That includes top U.S. programs like Northwestern Kellogg, Duke Fuqua, and Emory Goizueta, as well as top European programs like HEC Paris, St Gallen, London Business School, IESE, ESSEC, and EDHEC. DON’T MISS SPOTLIGHT ON U.S. MiMS: THE MASTER OF SCIENCE IN MANAGEMENT AT GEORGETOWN McDONOUGH SCHOOL OF BUSINESS