There is some heartening employment news for MBAs seeking jobs in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Times recently revealed that California leads the U.S. in job growth, along with a relatively low 5.3 percent jobless rate that has been slowly declining since 2007.
The statistics are impressive. Between April 2015 and May 2016, California added over 450,000 jobs. Meanwhile, the 2.8 percent increased rate of employment over the past 12 months is nearly two full percentage points higher than the national rate of 1.9 percent. In that same time period, the unemployment rate in Los Angeles county dropped 1.4 percent overall, falling from 6.7 to 5.3 percent. With an increasingly positive job market, MBA students have a fantastic opportunity to develop a career in the Los Angeles metro in these notable industries.
Entertainment:
The obvious first thought for many when they think of business opportunities in Los Angeles is the entertainment industry. MBAs can explore a myriad of career options in the field, from talent management to a combined specialty between business and entertainment law. Film, television, streaming media, along with the music business are all venues in which a business background can propel a career.
UCLA Anderson School of Management is one school that offers a highly entertainment focused MBA. “Focused, entertainment/media classes and student-driven, customized real-world experiences [is a combination that] provides the best preparation for students to become change-agents in their chosen entertainment and media business arena,” the school notes.
MBAs with an interest in the entertainment field also have the option of pursuing such arenas as sports management and consumer behavior, along with combined studies in communications.
Technology:
UCLA Anderson is renowned not only for its entertainment management program, but also for its impressive array of technology career preparation. Anderson’s Easton Technology Management Center has launched many a career in the ever expanding tech field, and students who wish to find tech jobs in LA have a plethora of options, from gaming (Riot Games is just one such company that has multiple current openings for MBAs) to information tech/data systems positions.
UCLA Anderson offers a program of study devoted to the field—Decisions, Operations and Technology Management—which hosts 15 faculty researchers, each of whom teach two core MBA courses. The school’s Tech Business Association (AnderTech) helped last year’s graduates venture into positions at tech giants such as Apple, Google, eBay, Intel and Amazon.
Fine Arts Management:
In the past few decades, Los Angeles has become competitive with New York in being a hub for the art business. The proliferation of galleries and museums both downtown and in areas of the city that are further off the beaten path make it a fertile ground for those MBAs who happen to love art as much as business.
“The art industry is potentially a billion dollar [global] business …” notes Jonathan Neil of Sotheby’s Art Institute, which has partnered with the Drucker School of Management to shape a degree for the enterprise of art. The LA County Museum of Art and the Getty Center are just two venues in which MBAs can exercise their talents through internships or jobs. This program also sponsors international trips to places such as Hong Kong.
These are just a few of the unique fields open to recent MBA grads, who may find in Los Angeles the opportunity to break free from the more traditional career paths of finance, consulting, supply chain management or marketing. While a background in all of these areas can benefit any number of career paths, the opportunities in LA can be shaped by the city’s thriving creative economy.