The 2014-2015 employment report recently published by Stanford Graduate School of Business revealed all-time highs for the school’s graduating MBA class of 2015.
The median salary, constant for the past four years, this year reached $130,000, a 4 percent increase. The average base salary, $129,618 last year, rose to $133,406.
“This cohort has a very positive outlook on the market and a higher tolerance for risk,” Maeve Richard, assistant dean and director of Stanford GSB’s Career Management Center, said in a recent article on the GSB website. “The strong market has allowed them to defer decisions about multiple offers, and in some cases, turn down offers to remain focused on searching for an ideal opportunity. Stanford MBAs care deeply about making a difference and a job’s potential for impact, and they are willing to wait until they find the position that suits them best.”
Technology and finance top the list of industries in which graduates become employed. Subcategories of the tech industry including marketing, retail, education and manufacturing also show high numbers, as do software and e-commerce.
Entrepreneurs comprised 16 percent of the class of 2015, a reduction from the all-time high of 18 percent in 2013. The top industries in which graduates started ventures were healthcare, consumer products/services and finance. The percentage of international entrepreneurs was 5 percent higher than the number of those in the United States.
A large percentage (68 percent) of graduates remained on the West Coast, not only in the tech industry, but also in consulting and private equity.