Top 10 MBA Programs for Landing a Job in the Post-Pandemic World

Despite the coronavirus pandemic Stanford’s MBA Class of 2020 notched up the highest starting compensation of MBAs at any school anywhere in the world: $159,544 was the average base salary with a $32,551 signing bonus, along with an expected performance bonus of $78,299. This is the sixth consecutive year that Stanford has set a new record for salaries. That said, Stanford recorded a slide in the number of job offers received by its class, from 94 percent down to 91 percent, with the offers led by the finance industry. But the overall picture is still impressive given the economic dislocation. 

At the Owen school, an impressive 96 percent of the graduating Class of 2020 had job offers, as students overcame the economic fallout from coronavirus. The median salary also rose to $115,000 from $117,500, while the signing bonus held steady at $25,000. Finance became the top employment destination, with 27 percent of the class going into banking especially. Tech was the second most popular sector, scooping up 21 percent of the cohort. 

At the Kellogg School of Management an impressive 95 percent of MBA graduates landed jobs during the depth of the pandemic and the school also set a new record for median base salary, which reached $144,000, with a signing bonus of $30,000. Encouragingly, 96 percent of overseas students also received job offers, suggesting that American employers are still willing to hire foreign talent despite the disruptions to global travel and visa processing. Consulting is king at Kellogg, comprising 39 percent of accepted job offers. 

Cornell reported strong jobs numbers last year with 93 percent of graduates receiving offers after three months, down only one percent from the year before. What is more, year-over-year average base salaries rose six percent to $138,767. Bonuses were up as well by one percent to $35,976. The strong figures reflected robust summer internship placements. The top destination for MBAs was consulting, with 34 percent of graduates entering this market, up from 29 percent in 2019. Finance was the second most popular destination at 30 percent, down from 37 percent, followed by tech. 

At Chicago Booth, average base salaries rose by $5,000 to $150,000 from 2019. The top three industries stayed the same, with job offers led by consulting, followed by finance and then technology companies. But the gap between consulting and finance widened. The number of offers dropped, from about 96 percent to 93 percent. A larger number of students chose to stay and work in America, reflecting the travel restrictions that have limited global mobility. 

Harvard’s MBA Class of 2020 set another record in terms of annual median pay, despite the economic fallout from Covid-19. Total compensation including signing bonuses and other fixed compensation for the first year hit $173,500. But the proportion of students with job offers fell four percentage points to 90 percent. Career choices also narrowed because of the pandemic, with most of Harvard’s graduates entering the historically popular financial services and consulting industries. But within finance, the range of career paths widened, with a larger proportion of students entering venture capital and private equity firms. 

At London Business School, the number of job offers for the Class of 2020 also slipped down from 92 percent to 90 percent, but the school still put in a strong performance. Consulting was the most popular industry for LBS graduates with 40 percent of the class entering the sector, with McKinsey and BCG the top employers overall. However, technology has made inroads with 28 percent of the graduates going into the sector, a record sum, with the gains led by Amazon. Meanwhile, finance has fallen in popularity, with just 21 percent of graduates entering the industry. 

Median pay at Columbia held fairly steady in 2020, falling just two percent to $174,313 year-on-year. Approximately 90 percent of the graduating class received job offers, down from about 94 percent last year. The top recruiting sector was consulting followed closely by finance, with most of the students going to Wall Street institutions on Columbia’s doorstep. Technology took a far larger share of the graduating class, reaching a record of nearly 20 percent from around 14 percent the year before. 

At Carlson, a leading Midwestern public institution in the US, 90 percent of graduates had jobs three months out, only a slight decline on last year. Salaries and bonuses rose as well, reaching $116,995 and $27,967, respectively. Perhaps more significantly, a full 100 percent of the Class of 2021 received internship offers, suggesting that employers have gotten to grips with remote onboarding and are now hiring in full force again. 

At INSEAD, with campuses in France, Singapore and Abu Dhabi, 89 percent of the Class of 2020 received at least one job after three months. The overall compensation across sectors and regions was $104,200, with a $25,000 sign-on bonus. Europe was the region where the largest proportion of graduates — 38 percent — got job offers from. But a quarter of the cohort went to work in the Asia Pacific region, reflecting how economies there coped much better than western nations with coronavirus.