At HEC Paris, ‘Triple Jumpers’ Dwindle — But Consultants Soar

MBA triple jumpers change countries, industries, and functions; at HEC Paris, the number of triple jumpers hit a three-year low in 2023

It’s a total reinvention — a complete transformation. And it’s the riskiest of career undertakings: the so-called “triple jump,” when MBAs simultaneously change their location, job sector, and function.

Rare among business schools, HEC Paris avidly tracks its grads’ rate of triple jumping, seeing it as a pertinent measure of the impact of adding the premier French business school’s name and bona fides to an MBA’s CV. Which is how we know, reading the B-school’s latest employment report for the MBA Class of 2023, released last month, that the ranks of triple-jumpers from HEC Paris were at a three-year low last year, with a little over one-third of the class reporting the 180-degree turn three months after graduation.

From a high of 45% in 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic was at its worst, the percentage of triple-jumpers at HEC Paris declined in 2023 to 34%.

HEC PARIS MBA JOB OUTCOMES, 2020 TO 2023

91% ACCEPTED JOBS 3 MONTHS AFTER GRADUATION

It’s not just the number of triple jumpers that is down. Double jumpers — those who changed at least two of sector, function, and location — dropped to 69% of the class, 10 percentage points less than their predecessors in the Class of 2022. Each of the individual measures also saw declines: 67% switched sectors, down from 77%; 64% changed function, down from 65%; and 61% changed location, down from 74%. In all, 68% of graduates secured positions outside their home countries, down from 75% in 2022.

Why does HEC Paris place so much importance on triple jumping? It’s a measure of grads’ preparedness for the vagaries of an often uncertain market. “Our MBA participants were invited to explore sectors early on during their HEC Paris journey so that they effectively designed the next steps of their professional life,” Jean-Amiel Jourdan, senior executive director of the B-school’s career prep division HEC Talents, says in the new jobs report. “Some pursued the exact path they had in mind prior to embarking on the journey, while many discovered alternate options via internships and landed dream opportunities in brand new sectors. The program has prepared them to be effective decision makers in a global business landscape.

“They have acquired competencies in high demand by worldwide employers, including agility, decisive leadership, and the ability to manage rare events that have disruptive consequences.”

Overall, HEC Paris MBAs had “robust” employment outcomes, Jourdan writes, with Class of 2023 MBA graduates maintaining a high level of employment despite the relative uncertainty of job markets: 91% accepted job offers within three months of graduation, down only slightly from 92% in 2022 and 93% in 2021, while the average salary package reached $123,911, up 7% from 2022. Still, that salary average is still down from a school-record $128,628 in 2021; and the class’s median salary ($109,260) remains the lowest it has been since before the pandemic.

Source: HEC Paris

TECH DECLINES TO 20% OF THE CLASS; AVERAGE TECH SALARY DOWN 17.5% IN 2 YEARS

Consulting in 2023 continued its domination of sectors as destinations for HEC Paris MBAs, jumping to 37% of the class from 25% in 2022. Consulting is up by 11 percentage points in the last four years, the leading sector in all but 2021, when tech was dominant. When the 2023 class entered the program, just 16% were in consulting (see above), 21 points below the eventual rate of employment in the sector when they graduated.

Consulting was not, however, the top sector for salaries in 2023, despite an average base salary of $133,597 that was up 7.5% in one year. That distinction went to government/nonprofit, in which the 2% of the class of 348 job seekers it comprised made an average of $141,405. Just below nonprofit, finance grads (17% of the class) reported an average of $141,398, up an incredible 25% in one year.

Tech, meanwhile, continues to struggle. In 2021, more than one third of HEC Paris’ graduating MBA class reported going into tech, at an average base salary of $136,884; in 2023, the numbers had dwindled to 20% and $116,468, the latter a drop-off of more than $20K and 17.5%.

Geographic distribution is important to note for a school with 95% international students. Fifty-nine percent of the Class of 2023 accepted jobs in Europe (including France), a four-year low; 11% went to Asia and Oceania, down 9 points in four years; and 13% in Africa & Middle East, up 4 points in a year and 7 in two. Nine percent of the class went to North America, and 8% to Latin America & the Caribbean.

Source: HEC Paris

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