Employment Stats

Question

So, I will use UW Foster school as an example, since I have their brochure right here.
2006 MBA graduates had:
70.8% employed at graduation
95.8% employed 3 months after graduation.
(These are, by the way KILLER numbers!)
For completion:
Average Salary of $84,069
Mean Salary of $78,750
etc. etc... bonuses, blah blah

I know the salary numbers are roughly comparable as most reputable school shave the little disclaimer about following some standard guidelines. Of course, the mix of finance/consulting and the geography of jobs needs to be taken into account as well. Anyhow, that isn't my question.

My question is about the employed percents: 
Does that mean that 25% of the graduates FIND their job after graduating, or are they just traveling around Europe for a couple of months between graduation and starting the job they had already lined up? are > 25% of business school students scrambling to find jobs AFTER they finish their MBA?

squali83 · Answer

It means that ~ 30% of the students have not accepted an offer at graduation. However, they could have a few offers or waiting for a decision from a company and so on. But essentially, it means that they are trying to tie up loose ends or generate offers from companies.

From the earlier part of your question, it seems to me that the status quo is to travel and relax after graduation until about August when you start, that is of course IF you have accepted and are all set.

westsider · Answer

I see, good to know. I would have found it a bit odd if they were still actively hunting.

89nk · Answer

How do they calculate the stats?

Reported by individuals? Is this 100% factual stuff?

westsider · Answer

Yeah, reported by students. so, maybe slightly inflated, but there really is no better way. Plus, all schools would be using the same technique

lepium · Answer

I agree, most people who travel do so having already accepted an offer (or being close to choosing among different offers). It's hard to imagine that people would travel around with no job in hand, specially since most students are close to broke by the end of their 2nd year.

The limitation I see with these statistics is the following:

- Do people who take jobs 3 months after graduation do so because they are waiting for their dream job and take longer to get it or do they give up after graduation and accept whatever job they can get?

I guess the answer varies by person, meaning the statistics would represent a combination of both options.

L.

vinviper · Answer

no bonus info?

westsider · Answer

yeah, they have that too.

aaudetat · Answer

Lepium -

Some students haven't found anything, and for some, the jobs just come later. Smaller companies and certain industries hire as-needed (as I am sure you know). Anyway, my point is that if you're looking into nonprofit or some start-up, you may not nail things down till June, because they posted in May.

togafoot · Answer

A few more flaws with the info :-

What % of students are reporting? If only 50% of the students are bothering to report then it can't be accurate.

Averages... can be easily skewed. If 5% of the class earn at least 50% more of the rest, it will seriously skew the mean. The median is a better indication of the salary wth data points at 1 standard deviation either way reported.

This can then be broken down into its component splits.. e.g. averages of students who find jobs abroad (developing countrries/developed countries etc.) Afterall, if a lot of people go to China and India, the averages will certainly go down.

aaudetat · Answer

from what i've seen, some schools report more detailed info than others. Duke addresses togo's points by giving medians, ranges, and various breakdowns: region of the US, country, industry, and others.

by the way - as for how many students you get, my guess is that most schools put a lot of effort into this. At the end of first semester, the career center had tables in the Fox Center, handing out candy and harassing each and every SY they saw. I'm sure they'll do the same at the end of this term. Our Career Fellows also "knock on doors" to get the data. I think our reporting numbers are pretty high.

jamesrwrightiii · Answer

Some schools report number of offers at graduation and number of people who have accepted offers at graduation.
Still, the only way for them to do this is self reporting which is biased, but you do see "low" salaries reported by some schools so people who don't receive a good offer often still report their salary.

jamesrwrightiii · Answer

Here are the latest stats for Foster https://foster.washington.edu/career/emp_stats.shtml Pretty good stats and companies recruiting there. 91% of grads reported their salary..

700willdo · Answer

westsider,
the data you have cited are the older ones. Anyway, that data is pretty imressive but I was a little worried by the average numbers because I had thought that the average salary figures were a but skewed by one guy in that batch who reported a salary of $300000! I had even discussed about that with my interviewer but he had no convincing answer to that. I was then very anxiously looking forward to the employment stats of 2007. As usual, UW posted it very late but thank god they did. I was consoled by the stats because this time the range of salaries was not as high as it was in 2006 but both the median and the mean had increased. The % employed figures had slightly decreased but I am not too bothered about that. Dan Poston wrote to me recently that their employment stats are going to be even stronger this time as most people already have job offers. This is what he wrote:

"My career services director just told yesterday at this point among June 2008 graduates we have only domestic students still looking for a job! The international students are set."

I know this is very consoling for internationals like me but it's good news for everyone attending Foster this fall!!!

gmatclb · Answer

1. If we go through background checks, the B school stats should also go through checks.

2. Total number of offers and number of offers per student should be reported. This will give a better inication of recruiting strength year to year and school to school.

Just by virtue of wanting/needing to be employed at 3 months after gradution, I would assume 90+% of graduates at all schools (decently ranked) will be employed. This doesn't really show anything.

Employment Stats

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards