It’s not the full picture, leaving out the context that has made 2020 a year to remember — or forget. But a preliminary employment “summary” posted last week by UCLA Anderson School of Management gives a glimpse of how a top-20 business school survived coronavirus, even if it shows only a standard array of salaries and employers with no mention of offers, acceptances, or employment rates at graduation or three months later.
The most striking thing about the preliminary statement — a complete employment report is promised “during first quarter of 2021” — is the predominance of tech, which at 31.8% was the top industry for Anderson MBAs this year. Consulting was next at just over a quarter of the class.
Anderson MBAs made a median base starting salary of $130,000 in 2020, and an average of $132,460, with a range of $55K to $210K. The highest salaries overall were in consulting, at an average of $152,316, though the highest reported salary of $210,000 came from someone in investment management. Tech salaries overall lagged their counterparts in consulting and finance, at $125,385.
Interestingly, by function most of UCLA’s Class of 2020 MBAs went to work in finance, with 27.5% reporting they had accepted finance/accounting positions, and 27.1% taking on consulting roles. Another 21.6% took marketing roles.
Signing bonuses were in the same arena as UCLA’s peer schools, at a median of $30K and a mean of $31,239. Someone in consulting reported a bonus of $80K, highest in the class, while the upper range for both investment banking and investment management was $70K. Tech bonuses ranged from $5K to $55K.
As one might expect for a Southern California school, among the top employers were Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft, though they were joined by familiar consulting names like Bain, EY-Parthenon, Deloitte, McKinsey, PwC, and Boston Consulting Group. In addition to 17 top employers, which UCLA did not provide any details for, another 130 hired at least one full-time MBA Class of 2020 graduate, the school says.
Internships perhaps better reflected the reality of the summer health crisis, with the vast majority occurring in tech: 31.3%. No other industry was higher than 20%. Finance — including investment management, private equity, and investment banking — accounted for 19.7%, and consulting 12.5%.
Investment banking salaries were highest for Class of 2021 Anderson MBAs, at more than $12K per month, while consulting interns made about $10,700. Tech interns made just $7,882 per month, though their upper range — $13,607 — was in the same neighborhood as their classmates in finance and consulting.
By far the most popular function for Class of 2021 interns was marketing, at 32.2%, while another 24.5% fulfilled finance/accounting roles. The list of companies employing UCLA MBA interns is similar to the list of hiring companies, with a note appended: “180 additional companies hired at least one full-time MBA Class of 2021 student for a summer internship.”
AND DON’T MISS OUR CONTINUING COVERAGE OF MBA EMPLOYMENT AT THE MAJOR SCHOOLS:
