Top 5 Paying MBA Careers: Finance
Finance, no surprise, is an extremely popular field among MBA graduates. According to Payscale, finance is 4.7 times more popular among MBA graduates than other fields. The reasons for this are rather uncomplicated: its pretty lucrative.
The starting median salary for those with up to five years of experience is $62,100. After ten years, the reported median salary jumps to $120,000; a 93 percent increase. Given that it is finance, the bonuses that employees can earn are massive, making the field even more lucrative.
With such high salaries and the prospect of massive bonuses, those interested in finance might be curious about what the best positions are for them. These can vary by company, experience, and location.
Companies Recruiting Finance MBA Graduates
The firm you work for can affect how much you make. Larger firms tend to offer more than smaller houses. The following are the top five employers in terms of average salary for those with an MBA in finance.
Morgan Stanley: $136,500
Deloitte: $132,656
Microsoft: $123,684
Amazon: $123,678
Citigroup: $121,346
Finance MBA Experience
As one might expect, the more experience one has in a field, the higher their salary will be. According to Payscale, this is a breakdown of average salary based on years of experience.
- Up to 11 Months: $58,517
- 1–4 Years: $65,589
- 5–9 Years: $86,086
- 10–19 Years: $113,775
- 20+ Years: $135,016
Finance MBA Location
Along with company size and experience, location is the other major determinant of salary for finance MBA graduates. Given the fact that finance tends to be centralized in major cities, it is reasonable to assume that the largest salaries are to be found in cities with large, well-populated metropolitan areas. The following are the five cities where MBA graduates can earn the most.
- New York, NY: $120,962
- Los Angeles, CA: $111,727
- Boston, MA: $109,490
- Chicago, IL: $108,421
- Houston, TX: $101,643
For finance savvy MBA graduates, New York City offers the best average salary opportunities in the United States.
Top Paying Finance Careers
While there are many careers from which a finance MBA can choose, the following offer the highest salaries. To maximize a potential salary, one should consider the variables mentioned above when searching for a position.
#1: Vice President, Finance ($135,000–$195,000)
As a vice president of finance, your primary responsibility will be to direct finances and coordinate the budget. The VP of finance also sets goals and oversees lower-level employees in the financial department. Other responsibilities include engaging in accounting, operations, and finance management.
Common tasks include the following:
- Ensuring company financial plans are carried out
- Coordinating, preparing, and reviewing annual reports
- Directing accounting operations
The average salary of a VP of finance is $134,919. In addition, MBA graduates can earn an average of $24,430 in bonuses, $24,566 in commission, and $8,757 in profit sharing. The salary on this job can raise these numbers higher depending on where one works. Look for these positions in the following cities, where you can earn more than the average:
- San Francisco, CA: 28 percent more
- Los Angeles, CA: 16 percent more
- Boston, MA: 15 percent more
#2: Finance Director ($110,000–$160,000)
Finance directors are responsible for managing the goings on in the finance department of the company. In addition, effective finance directors can see problems and risks and design necessary solutions as needed.
Common tasks include the following:
- Overseeing the preparation of regulatory and financial reporting as required
- Developing policies and procedures to control and report financials
- Managing budget, forecast, and accounting preparations
The average salary of a finance director is $111,384. MBA graduates can expect to earn an average bonus of $18,556, $33,000 in commission, and $5,113 in profit sharing. According to Payscale, the following are three highest paying companies for this position:
- Nike: $150,000
- Lilly: $130,000
- CBRE Group: $128,000
#3: Investment Banker ($99,000–$207,000)
As an investment banker, your primary responsibility is to grow wealth for your clients. This can be through either strategic investing or raising capital. Investment bankers look through all of the financial information of a company to develop the best strategy for addressing its concerns and reaching its goals.
Common tasks include the following:
- Constructing financial models to aid in transactions and communications
- Performing valuation analyses
- Conducting industry and company research
On average, you can expect to earn an average of $98,831 in salary. Investment banking is rather lucrative, so it is not impossible to double your salary in commission alone. However, because if this, the salary scale can widely vary. The average commission for this position on Payscale is $90,000. To make that possible, you’ll need to go to a city where capital generation is needed. These three places pay more than the average, according to Payscale:
- San Francisco, CA: 52 percent higher
- New York, NY: 12 percent higher
- Dallas, TX: 5 percent higher
Investment bankers would do well to look into a career in the Bay Area. San Francisco-metro investment bankers make nearly 50 percent more than the national average, according to Payscale data.
#4: Finance Manager ($90,000–$124,000)
Finance managers are expected to watch departmental budgets. Their primary responsibilities include making financial forecasts for their company, working with other departments to establish future budgets, and keeping excellent track of the money going in and out of the company.
Common tasks for people in this position include the following:
- Identifying areas for cost reduction
- Providing analyses to the operations team
- Preparing informational analyses
Given the importance of this position, MBA graduates who pursue it will be compensated well. The average salary for a finance manager is $89,636. In addition to the base salary, an MBA graduate can expect an average of $9,959 in bonuses, $25,006 in commission, and $3,982 in profit sharing.
Because this position is so important, companies are willing to pay excellent candidates well. The following offer the three highest average salaries according to Payscale:
- Boeing: $119,000
- Amazon: $112,000
- Johnson & Johnson: $111,000
#5: Portfolio Manager ($84,000–$140,000)
Portfolio managers are responsible for investing their clients’ money, whether those clients are businesses or individuals. They work to get the highest return possible for their clients’ money.
Common tasks for this position include the following:
- Consulting with clients to develop investment goals
- Reporting on investment performance
- Managing portfolios to maximize returns
Portfolio managers earn an average of $84,443, with $10,274 in bonuses, $10,113 in commission, and $4,000 in profit sharing. According to Payscale, these positions tend to be centered in financial institutions and investment firms.
The following three banks offer the highest average salaries to their portfolio managers.
- Blackrock: $115,000
- S. Bank: $99,000
- Citizens Financial Group: $97,000
A Breakdown of LinkedIn’s Top U.S. Companies for 2019
If you’re in the midst of your MBA studies, there’s a good chance that you’ve already started a career that you love, or that you’re seeking a transition into a new industry. Perhaps you’re still in the exploratory stage with regard to future jobs and other post graduate options. Either way, it’s helpful to set your sights high as you make your next move.
LinkedIn recently published its list of 2019’s Top Companies based upon user data. Authors asked which companies were attracting the most attention from job seekers, and which ones retained the most satisfied employees after hiring in order to compile the list. To make it useful to our readers, we’ve broken down the list into the top five in three categories: tech, finance, and entertainment.
Technology Companies
Alphabet, the parent company of Google, YouTube, and Nest, among others, tops the list of the most desirable firms on LinkedIn’s list. With 98,800 employees worldwide, Alphabet is headquartered in Mountain View, CA, and has offices in New York City and Seattle. According to LinkedIn’s data, Project and Program Management, and IT positions have the highest number of new hires. With Google’s current investment of $13 billion for expansion in the U.S, it is a great time for MBAs to explore possibilities at Alphabet.
Google’s parent company, Alphabet, plans on expanding across half of the U.S. by the end of the year.
Current open positions include a Project Managment Summer Internship in Mountainview with Loon, an Alphabet subsidiary; and a Summer internship at Google’s Reston, VA office with one of several teams including finance, strategy, product management, and operations.
Facebook, the parent of What’s App, Oculus VR, and of course, Instagram, was ranked second overall on the LinkedIn ranking. Like Alphabet, Facebook employs the most new hires in its project/program management and IT departments. Facebook has 36,000 global employees and is headquartered in Menlo Park, CA, and its top hiring locations are Seattle, New York City, and San Francisco.
Facebook is now hiring a Consumer Marketing Manager for Messenger, a Marketing Manager for Data & Privacy, a Finance and Business Operations Manager within its Global Marketing Solutions department, among other positions.
San Francisco based cloud software company Salesforce, with 22,000 employees across the U.S., is another of the top companies for tech-related careers according to LinkedIn. With a large number of new hires in engineering, business development, and sales positions, Salesforce is a wise target for MBAs. Current open positions include a Platform Engineering Product Manager in both the Dallas, TX and Indianapolis, IN offices; and an Analytics Lead for Strategy & Growth in the San Francisco office. All three of these positions encourage recent MBA grads to apply.
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Outside the Salesforce Tower, the tallest building in San Francisco, located in the downtown South of Market district. The company was ranked fourth overall on the annual LinkedIn list.
With available positions for Senior Managers in New York City, Annapolis, MD and Durham, NC, along with Finance and Business Strategy positions in Culver City and the Cupertino headquarters, Apple is another top destination for job seekers on LinkedIn. New hires most often land in IT, Engineering and Sales Positions. Its ever expanding campuses are set to hire 20,000 people by 2025, and a brand new, $1billion campus is planned for Austin, TX.
Oracle, ranked ninth overall on the LinkedIn list, employs 137,000 global employees, and also hires many of its new employees in IT, sales, and engineering. With a reputation for hiring a large number of new grads, Oracle takes great pride in a culture of camaraderie. In a recent LinkedIn article on the topic, Kim Levin, Oracle’s senior organization and talent development consultant, says, “We understand how important it is to have that first, successful onboarding.” Its robust recruitment program hires from a number of large universities like Ohio State and Penn State, along with private colleges and universities.
Recruits are sent to one of Oracle’s hubs in Austin, TX; Reston, VA; Burlington, MA, or Santa Monica, CA, where they can connect with fellow recruits and become acclimated to their jobs. The company is currently hiring an Innovation Program Strategist in Philadelphia, as as well as for a Financial Analyst position in Reston, VA, and Cloud Sales positions in Chicago and Atlanta.
Entertainment Companies
Amazon, third on LinkedIn’s list, employs 250,000 people in the U.S. alone. As parent company to Whole Foods, Zappos, and Audible, along with its thriving media and entertainment brand, Amazon has a multitude of job opportunities for MBAs. Operations, Engineering and Sales are among the top departments for new hires, and the company is also seeking to fill positions for a Senior Product Manager for Technical Products, as well as Program and Project Manager positions in Seattle.
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Despite major expansion, Amazon, ranked as the second best company in the U.S. by LinkedIn, the tech giant still calls Seattle home, with plenty of openings for MBA talent.
The 11th ranked Netflix, with 5,700 employees in the U.S., continues to expand its workforce in an effort to remain competitive amidst the growing crowd of streaming content providers. According to a recent Quartz article, Netflix wants to be perceived “less as a subscription-driven technology business and more like a movie studio or TV network’, which is good news for MBAs seeking an entertainment focused career. Netflix is currently hiring in content marketing management, product management, and finance, ad well as in multiple other roles at their Los Angeles offices.
Although it was originally founded outside the U.S., music streaming giant Spotify ranked 14th overall on the annual LinkedIn list, with offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston and New York. Spotify is hiring Business Development Analysts, Project Managers, and Production Managers and various other positions nationwide.
Comcast NBCUniversal continues to rule the media landscape in the U.S. with 184,000 employees. The company’s top hiring cities are New York, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia, where its new Technology Center recently became one of the city’s largest employers. Comcast is currently seeking a VP for eCommerce and a Financial Operations Auditor in Philadelphia, along with MBA Summer interns in its Santa Monica, CA location.
The massive Comcast Center in Philadelphia tops the city skyline, with the two biggest buildings in the United States outside of New York or Chicago. The major media company ranks 15th overall on the LinkedIn top company list.
Disney, the parent company to ESPN, Pixar, and ABC, has over 200,000 employees globally. It hires the most new employees in operations, media & communications, and business development. The company supports education for its staff at all levels—it will cover the price of school for both full and part-time employees. Disney’s top hiring U.S. locations are Orlando, Los Angeles, and New York. Current available positions are a Digital Pricing Manager in New York, a Senior Financial Analyst in Orlando, and a Finance Manager in LA.
Finance Companies
One of Deloitte‘s most appealing facets is its encouragement of entrepreneurship—Startup Deloitte challenges employees to pitch ideas for startups to be funded by the company. With a workforce in the U.S. of close to 85,000, Deloitte brings in the most new hires in consulting, business development, and accounting roles, and its locations in Washington DC, New York City and Chicago are the most desirable according to LinkedIn.dds Margot Thom, Deloitte Global’s Chief Talent Officer, says, “As an organization, Deloitte is dedicated to creating an experience that allows its people to thrive and grow.”
With nearly 85,000 employees, Deloitte is the top-ranked finance company on the LinkedIn Top Employer list at fifth overall.
Deloitte is currently hiring for numerous positions, including Accounting and Reporting Manager in Philadelphia, Strategy and Operations Associates in New York and Chicago.
If you’re hoping to work with Bank of America, ranked 18th overall, it’s good to know that they currently acquire the most new talent in finance, sales, and support roles. New York, Dallas-Fort Worth, TX and Charlotte, NC are its leading locations. Globally, Bank of America employs 200,000 people.
Available job openings include an Executive for InterAffiliate Services and a Product Services Consultant in Charlotte, along with a Senior Relationship Manager position in Boston.
Goldman Sachs, 21st overall, hires the most new people in IT, business development, and finance, and has a worldwide headcount of 36,600. It has recently implemented higher standards for diversity, pledging to grow its numbers of female and non-white employees. Dallas-Fort Worth, Salt Lake City, and New York City are its most-searched locations, according to LinkedIn. Goldman Sachs is hiring in New York City for Associates and Analysts, and also for Operations and Associate positions in Dallas-Fort Worth.
Citi, 22nd overall, has a high numbers of new hires in business development, finance, and leading offices in New York, Dallas, and Tampa, where they are all currently hiring for analyst positions. Citi employees 66,000 people in the U.S., and each of these offices is currently hiring analysts, among other positions.
Like Goldman Sachs, Citi has stated its commitment to increasing diversity—the company has pledged to expanding the numbers of women in its highest ranks, from VP to Managing Director, to 40 percent by 2021.
School v. School: Michigan Ross v. Minnesota Carlson
Where should you go to school for your MBA? It’s a hard decision that has to factor in many different elements from location to reputation, alumni networks, ROI, and program options.
To help simplify the process for you, our School vs. School series takes a look at two similar top b-schools to compare and contrast their offerings. Today, we look at Michigan vs Minnesota to see which is best for you. Continue reading…
The 5 Top Paying Tech Companies for MBAs
Everyone knows business school costs a pretty penny, which makes ROI one of the major deciding factors when pursuing both an MBA program and post-graduation employment.
At one point, MBAs were practically personas non grata in Silicon Valley. Today, tech is on par with traditionally lucrative fields of banking and finance in terms of MBA employment—likely due to the whopping salaries associated with the industry. IT management positions, for instance, boast a reported average salary of $113,000 USD.
5 Top Paying Tech Companies for MBAs
After being outpaced by Apple in the early part of this decade, Microsoft has made an impressive comeback in recent years. In addition to software development, the company has made significant strides in cloud computing, AI, cybersecurity, and gaming as well. Microsoft employs MBAs in a wide variety of positions with mobility across the company and no set career path. The company’s reported average starting salary is $116,473 and total compensation is even higher. Microsoft also boasts a better employer satisfaction rating than most of its high-paying tech peers.
Google has leveraged its access to user data in order to become a dominant force in online advertising technologies and cloud computing. The online search titan is known for its frighteningly competitive application pool and in-depth hiring process. For the MBAs that make the cut, the average starting salary of $121,979. Positions include sales and marketing, product management, finance and operations.
IBM recently made headlines when it acquired open-source software firm Red Hat. Whether or not this historical corporate buyout will help IBM get a leg up on the cloud computing market share, the company nonetheless offers MBAs an average starting salary of $124,714. With leadership development tracks for MBAs in consulting, product management, finance, and strategy, they can also opt to pursue the General Manager Leadership Development Program, designed for “top MBA graduates from leading global universities hired into IBM on an accelerated path to General Management leadership.”
Despite the Cambridge Analytica scandal’s huge blow to consumer and investor confidence, Facebook’s market share rebounded in just a few months after the news broke. The social media torchbearer continues to steadily grow its user audience and tally of digital tech company acquisitions. The common path to employment at Facebook is through its internship program. With an average starting salary of $126,292, potential MBA hires will need to be ready to develop relevant, hands-on leadership skills in order to take on the increasing AI and AR/VR focus of this company.
As the commanding leader of online retail sales in many parts of the world, not to mention major competitor in cloud computing, media streaming services, and mobile devices, Amazon is one of the top employers of MBAs across all sectors. Amazon offers multiple pathways to management, from mainstream internship opportunities to dedicated programs that groom MBAs to take on specialized leadership positions within the company. With a reported average starting salary of $123,970, Amazon shows no signs of slowing down when it comes to recruitment. The company’s income tripled from 2016 to 2017 and it consistently reinvests most of its money, which has spurred rapid, continual growth.
Can IKEA and Instant Pot Teach Us About Competition? MIT Sloan Thinks So
People purchase IKEA furniture because it’s easy to put together. They don’t want to have to buy a drill; they want holes and pieces that easily fit together like Legos. In fact, according to Harvard professor Theodore Levitt, when someone buys a drill, what they want is what the drill can do.
That’s just one reason why MIT Sloan professor Sanjay Sarma believes that IKEA is on the cutting edge of business. While other companies are trying to sell solutions to outdated problems, IKEA has figured out how to solve a core problem.
“That’s what I call inversion,” Sarma says. “You’ve got to wrap yourself around the need and think outwards, rather than limit yourself to your product.”
So, what can IKEA and other companies teach about competition? Sarma provides insight from three recognizable brands who are mastering the art of inversion, and one that failed.
Amazon
When Amazon first got its start, they only sold books. Then, in 2007 when they came out with the Kindle e-reader, they had to compete with both Apple and Google rolling out similar products. But Amazon stayed ahead of the competition by creating a Kindle reading app that could be used on any device. They also unveiled products such as Audible (for audiobooks and podcasts) and the Amazon Echo smart speaker.
They identified the need bigger than books—reading—and fulfilled it.
Instant Pot
In 2009, Robert Wang created the Instant Pot, a do-everything cooking appliance that connected to Bluetooth. It changed the cooking experience, allowing users to remotely monitor their cooking and do everything from slow cook to pressure cook to steam and bake. “It’s stunning,” Sarma says.
The increasingly popular Instant Pot is a relatively new product, created in 2009 by Robert Wang.
Nestlé
Unfortunately for Nestlé, they missed the mark with their smartphone-connected espresso machine. They had an idea that people were in the business of coffee, but instead, it’s actually about the morning experience and taking a few minutes to prepare for the day. They missed the point because they missed what people were after.
Ford Motor Company
Ford tried the inverted approach in 2016 with the purchase of Chariot, a van shuttle service. The idea was to compete with rideshare companies. And while it didn’t work out, it still was a smart move because it indicated that Ford recognized that a need for transportation outweighed the need for a car. Now, Ford has announced the purchase of Spin, a scooter company that uses cell phones to locate available rides—and it shows that they are learning.
You can read the full MIT Sloan story here.
This article has been edited and republished with permissions from its original source, Clear Admit.
Rutgers Students Spark Social Entrepreneurship, and More – New York News
Let’s explore some of the most interesting stories that have emerged from New York business schools this week, including Rutgers students jumping into social entrepreneurship.
Artificial Intelligence Gets Real – Stevens Institute of Technology School of Business Blog
Artificial Intelligence is now a $20 billion global industry and investment in AI is projected to triple in the next three years. AI is gradually reshaping many aspects of our daily lives right now. For instance, Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Echo use AI-type processes, along with Google Maps and Translate. Notably, AI has become integrated into our transportation and medical systems, from self-driving buses, to diagnosing X-rays, AI has shown itself to be highly reliable for many processes.
Electrical and computer engineering professor K.P. “Suba” Subbalakshmi and founding director of SIAI (the Stevens Institute for Artificial Intelligence), asserts, “Simply put, our vision is to drive AI research and application that solves some of those tough ‘big’ problems that have so far resisted solving.”
AI will profoundly reshape society as we know it, but Subbalakshmi reassures the public,”It will permeate everything that we are doing, that’s a fact. But how it’s going to permeate sensibly and how that will affect our lives is in our hands, not the machines’.”
You can read more from the recent Stevens blog entry here.
Enactus Competition Sparks Student Interest in Social Entrepreneurship – Rutgers Business School News
Enactus is a group at Rutgers Business School that fosters social entrepreneurship as a way for students to empower their communities. Ben Foresti, a member of Enactus, worked with the chapter’s executive board to organize a social case competition that inspired a group of Rutgers students to create a unique high school-based incubator program to address food insecurity in New Brunswick.
“We thought a case competition would be a good way to introduce the wider public of Rutgers to social entrepreneurship,” Foresti says.
Foresti shares how he become involved in Enactus:
“While I was exploring clubs to join, I thought I wanted something that would give me good professional development and I was also looking to do something volunteer related. Enactus seemed like a good intersection of the two concepts. It offers professional development and there’s also the focus on improving your community in a sustainable way. It struck me as a perfect organization.”
Foresti reflects on his motivations for holding a social case competition. “We thought a case competition would be a good way to introduce the wider public of Rutgers to social entrepreneurship.”
You can find out more about the article here.
The Evolution of Wine Futures Pricing Research – Whitman School of Management News
Recently, professor Burak Kazaz of Syracuse University’s Martin J. Whitman School of Management delivered a talk late last year, offering faculty and Ph.D. students a closer look into his research on wine futures pricing. Kazaz’s research collected a range of data from New York to the Bordeaux region of France in order to to build a mathematical model that would predict wine futures prices.
During his talk, Kazaz provided an overview of the wine supply chain, which begins with the winemakers. He notes:
“It is important to note these wine markets do not sell only physical bottles of wine. They also sell wine futures. ‘En primeur,’ or wine futures, is a purchase method that allows distributors to purchase wine while it is still in the barrel before it is bottled.”
Kazaz’s predictive model has shown astonishing accuracy, with an average error rate of only 10 percent. Neil Taylor, vice president at Live-ex wrote to the team lauded Kazaz, “Your predictive model is certainly the most accurate I have seen of all of the work we have either done ourselves or participated with.”
Check out more from the recent article here.
