The Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania is considered to be one of the most elite management institutes in the world - only the very best make it to the Wharton MBA classroom. Given the reputation that the b-school enjoys, it's a given that Wharton MBA grads earn top salaries and are highly desirable in the job market. In this employment report, we analyse the careers and salaries that Wharton MBA graduates pick up in their first year post-graduation, based on data for the past five batches that have graduated from the business school.
Wharton MBA Employment Report - Important Employment Statistics For Previous Batches
- The highest median base salary for a Wharton batch over the past five years stands at $150,000 - one of the highest across top business schools in the same league.
- Wharton grads opting for Legal Services or Private Equity roles tend to earn significantly higher than the rest of the batch, but they don't even make up a fifth of the batch.
- Consulting remains the most popular job profile at Wharton. In all five years taken into consideration, almost a third of the class opted for Consulting roles.
- Based on trends over the past five years, a Wharton MBA graduate is likely to be hired by a firm in the Consulting or Financial Services industry in his/her first year as an MBA graduate. Also high in demand amongst Wharton grads is the Technology industry.
- In all five years, over 3/4th of every batch sought employment, but less than 5% (with the exception of 2016) of the class opted to start their own companies.
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Wharton MBA Employment Report - Important Employment Statistics For Previous MBA Batches
[Please Note: All data has been sourced from the official Wharton website.]
The table below tells us the median base salaries Wharton MBA graduates have earned in their first year post graduation, for batches graduating between 2015 and 2019. Only data for the median base salaries was available for the 5 batches. For the batch of 2019, the median signing bonus was $30,000, while the median other guaranteed bonus was $25,000.
While there was no increase in the median base salaries between 2015-2016, they grew by about 4% every year. The batch of 2019 saw a 11% rise in the median base salary over the previous year - one of the highest jumps recorded in half a decade.
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Wharton MBA Employment Report - Legal Services, Private Equity Top Paying Roles
'-' indicates missing data
Wharton graduates who pick up offers for Legal Services and Private Equity roles in their first year tend to earn the highest in their first year post-graduation, compared to their batch mates. It's interesting to note that these students make up for less than a fifth of the batch.
Outside of Legal Services and PV, roles in Consulting emerge as the functional areas with the highest 75th percentile base salary for the class of 2019 at Wharton.
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Wharton MBA Employment Report - Function Wise Hiring Trends
What are the types of roles that Wharton graduates generally prefer to go for post-MBA? Which are the most sought-after and least sought-after domains for Wharton MBA graduates? The graph below helps us visualise trends in hiring at Wharton for major business and management related domains.
Wharton MBA Employment Report - Industry Wise Salary Statistics
- indicates missing data
In line with salaries based on functional domain, Consulting and Legal Services emerge as the top paying industries for Wharton grads.
Social Impact industries make up for the least paying roles, hiring about 2% of the graduates, which is surprising since Legal Services hires even less candidates despite the salaries offered being almost twice as much as Social Impact. Technology emerges as the third most popular industry to be placed in, followed by Consumer Products and Health Care.
Wharton MBA Employment Report - Industry Wise Hiring Trends
The graph below helps us visualise trends that emerge in terms of industry wise recruitment of Wharton MBA graduates. Consulting and Financial Service industries make up for over 50% of the hiring. Legal & Professional Services, which is the highest paying industry, makes up for less than 2% of the hires.
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