After A 1-Year Slump, Tech Reasserts Its Dominance At Berkeley Haas

After a one-year stumble, tech roared back at Berkeley Haas – and it did so with money to match.

For the UC Berkeley MBA Class of 2025, technology reclaimed its long-held position as the school’s top hiring industry, while overall compensation surged to record levels, marking one of the strongest post-pandemic outcomes yet for the West Coast powerhouse – even as placement rates remained largely flat.

According to Haas’s newly released employment report, technology accounted for 38.6% of full-time MBA placements, vaulting back into first place after briefly falling behind consulting for the Class of 2024. Consulting followed at 26.8%, with financial services at 15.7%, restoring a familiar industry hierarchy after a year of uncertainty.

PLACEMENT HOLDS STEADY

The reversal is striking. In 2024, tech’s share slipped sharply amid widespread layoffs and hiring freezes across Silicon Valley. One year later, the sector not only rebounded – as it did, just as dramatically, at Stanford Graduate School of Business – it surged, reclaiming dominance with its largest share in years and reinforcing Haas’s deep ties to the tech ecosystem.

Hiring success, however, showed less volatility. Placement outcomes for the Class of 2025 were nearly unchanged from the year before, reflecting a labor market that has stabilized but not fully returned to peak strength.

Of the graduates seeking employment, 85.7% had received job offers within three months of graduation, and 84.1% had accepted them. That compares with roughly 86% receiving offers and 84% accepting them for the Class of 2024, and places 2025 squarely in line with recent post-pandemic norms – below the highs of 2022, but well above recession-era outcomes earlier in the decade.

PAY BREAKS RECORDS

Where 2025 truly stands apart for Haas MBAs is compensation.

Average total compensation jumped to $215,338, the highest ever reported by Haas, up 2.6% from $209,941 in 2024. The figure is a combination of expected performance bonus, base salary, and signing bonus; P&Q weights the bonuses by the percentage of those receiving them to come up with a total comp number. Seventy-five percent of Haas 2025 grads reported receiving a signing bonus averaging $35,826, while 65% reported an expected performance bonus averaging $36,210. (Excluding expected bonus, which P&Q did not include in calculating Haas MBAs’ total comp before last year, average total compensation for the Class of 2025 would still be $191,808 – a 4% increase over the 2024 total without that number, and still comfortably ahead of every pre-2024 cohort.)

Base pay continued its steady upward march in 2025, as well. Average base salary rose to $164,930 from $159,400, while median base salary reached a record $167,250, extending a decade-long climb that has seen the median jump more than $47,000 since 2014.

As in prior years, consulting continued to lead on median pay. The median base salary for consulting roles reached $190,000, compared with $159,000 for technology jobs. For techies, average base salary grew 3.4% from $154,167 last year to $159,457. At the extremes, the salary range was wide. The highest reported base salary hit $300,000 in general management, while the lowest reported salary was $66,500, for a graduate entering consulting — a reminder of how role type, geography, and employer mix can sharply influence individual outcomes.

UC-BERKELEY HAAS MBA JOBS BY INDUSTRY 2019-2025

Industry	2025	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019
Consulting	26.8%	25.4%	27.6%	28.2%	28.4%	25.1%	25.1%
Technology	38.6%	24.3%	29.8%	32.9%	34.1%	32.4%	32.9%
Financial Services	15.7%	15.6%	14.5%	13.7%	12.3%	14.5%	15%
Healthcare/Biotech/Pharma	3.3%	7.5%	7.5%	5.1%	6.6%	11.6%	6.8%
Energy/Utilities	5.2%	6.4%	6.6%	2.0%	2.8%	2.4%	2.4%
Real Estate	2.0%	2.9%	4.4%	2.4%	1.9%	2.4%	1.4%
CPG/Retail	3.3%	6.4%	3.9%	6.3%	6.2%	5.3%	9.2%
Nonprofit/Public Sector	0.7%	4.6%	2.6%	1.6%	1.4%	1.9%	1.9%
Manufacturing	NA	NA	1.3%	2.0%	0.9%	0.5%	1%
Transportation/Logistics	2.0%	2.3%	0.9%	3.1%	NA	NA	1%
Media/Entertainment	1.3%	0.6%	NA	0.8%	1.4%	0.5%	1.9%

Source: Berkeley Haas

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“Our students found incredible success at a time when AI is reshaping industries, climate change demands bold action, and social movements are redefining leadership,” Haas Dean Jenny Chatman says. “Haas leaders are the right leaders for these times; they harness technology while holding on to purpose and view uncertainty not as a threat but as an opening. We can’t wait to see how this class of innovators and changemakers move business forward.”

“We’re so pleased with the employment success of this class and this significant salary achievement, particularly in such a difficult year for hiring overall,” says Abby Scott, assistant dean of Haas MBA Career Management & Corporate Partnerships. “Our graduates worked incredibly hard, and it’s been a pleasure for our team to collaborate on their success during their Haas journeys.”

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