Salary Information

Question

I've noticed that many schools ask you to put your salary history on your resume. What role does this play in the MBA admissions process? At first, I thought it believed that it doesn't play any role, but I was attending an MBA Fair this past weekend and one of the directors at the Johnson school (Cornell) mentioned that it is a gauge to see how much value your employer believes you add to the firm. What are your thoughts?

scottshrum · Answer

While I probably would state it differently than the Johnson admission officer did, your salary information absolutely is important. In order to assess how well you've performed on the job, admissions officers only have several things to go by: What you say in your essays/resume/interview, what your recommendation writers say, and your salary information. Obviously, you will say you were great, and you will probably only request a letter of recommendation from someone who will say the same thing. The salary info provides a sort of indisputable "fact check" to see how much the company really valued you.

Maybe you received two promotions in title since you were hired, but your salary didn't increase much. If that same company (or other, similar companies in the same industry) tends to give much more significant raises to younger employees, that would tell me that maybe they promoted you to keep you from quitting, but you weren't necessarily so great that they were actually willing to PAY you more to keep you. Said another way, did the company put its money where its mouth was, or did your title change each year because that's just what happens with all employees at the firm, regardless of their performance?

Don't worry if you come from a company or an industry that doesn't pay a great deal. The more important point is to demonstrate that your level of responsibility has increased over time (a great indicator of strong performance). Your salary is one way to demonstrate that.

Scott

mba2013 · Answer

I am interested in this component of the application as well -

I work in IT consulting, and i know my offer from undergrad was competitive with the market. However, 3 years later, raises have not been consistent with the levels of similar work experience. This is probably known at my company, as any significant salary jumps occur at title-promotions. Suffice to say that since our company offers entry-level salaries at market level, a fresh consultant out of undergrad is being offered more than what i currently make right now.

I'm OK with this as I have received good raises compared to my peers, but i doubt the adcom's will know that much abt salary structures at my firm? what do you think?

one other thing i wanted to mention was we had our raises frozen for an additional 6 months because of the economy...

scottshrum · Answer

This is probably fine. I wouldn't stress over it too much. If waiting an additional six months means getting a nice promotion, that would be good to show in your application, but don't wait to apply only for that reason.

Good luck!
Scott

Good luck!
Scott

mba2013 · Answer

Thanks Scott, and apologies to the original poster for hijacking this thread

I've got some additional questions so i'll start a separate topic for it

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