The Top MBA Recruiters in Phoenix, Arizona
MBA talent in search of opportunities in a growing city should look no further than the Valley of the Sun: Phoenix, Arizona. Corina Vanek of the Phoenix Business Journal reports, “Employment in the Phoenix area grew 4.2 percent during the 12-month period that ended Nov. 30, 2018—the second-highest percentage growth of all metros nationwide.”
Phoenix is home to a number of excellent MBA programs, including the Thunderbird School of Global Management, Arizona State’s W.P. Carey School of Business, Ottawa University, Grand Canyon University, and the University of Arizona Eller College of Management, less than two hours southwest of Phoenix in Tuscon.
Like many major metros in the American west, Amazon is among the most prominent employers of MBA talent. But what other Phoenix companies round out the top five?
Top 5 Phoenix Companies Hiring MBA Graduates
Amazon
Amazon is the largest internet company by revenue in the world, with a reported 2018 revenue of over $232.887 billion. According to Indeed.com, Amazon salaries for Senior Product Management positions average $132,646 per year while Amazon Senior Management positions average $150,089 per year.
Common benefits at Amazon include 401K Plans, health insurance including dental and vision, employee discounts, and life insurance. Employee reviews describe the work environment as “fast-paced and exciting,” but note that a work-life balance is hard to achieve as an Amazon employee.
CVS Health
In 2018, CVS ranked 7th on the Fortune 500 and 17th on the Fortune Global 500 list with $184 billion in annual revenue. In 2017, CVS acquired Aetna for $69 billion dollars. According to LinkedIn data, Senior Director salaries at CVS Health range from $101,000-189,000 with an average salary of $138,000. CVS Health, which employs nearly 300,000, states its core values are “innovation, collaboration, caring, integrity and accountability.”
Intel Corporation
Founded in 1968, Intel Corporation is the world’s second largest semiconductor chip manufacturer based on revenue. Intel ranked 46th in the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest U.S corporations by total revenue. As reported by Indeed.com, Intel employees rate the company 4 out of 5 stars for compensation/benefits and 3.9 out of 5 stars achieving a work/life balance. Management positions average in the $150,000 range and include standard benefits such as PTO, vacation and floating holidays, and eight-week paternity leave.
Raytheon
The third-largest defense contractor in the United States as of 2015, Raytheon boasts more than 90 percent of its revenues obtained from military contracts. Established in 1922, Raytheon’s latest annual revenue reached $27.1 billion. Project Management positions at Raytheon average a salary of $99,000-107,000 and include generous benefits, PTO, and 401K packages. Glassdoor ranks Raytheon 15th place in its “Best Places to Interview” category, sporting a 78 percent positive response rate.
IBM Global Services
IBM Global Services has provided IT, management consulting, and outsourcing services since 1991. Its recent acquisitions of Bluewolf and Resource/Ammirati in 2016, as well as PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting in 2001, point to potentially even more growth on the horizon.
According to Glassdoor, Project Management positions at IBM average $79,910 per year. Senior Consulting positions average $101,761. Managing Consultant positions average in the $150,0000 range. Glassdoor rates IBM employee overall satisfaction at 3.7 out of 5 stars on company culture, work/life balance, management, compensation & benefits, and career opportunities.
Conclusion
There appears to be no shortage of Phoenix metro opportunities for MBAs. Outside of the five Phoenix companies, readers would do well to consider investigating a few other Phoenix employers actively recruiting MBAs, including: American Express; Arizona State University; Deloitte Consulting; Honeywell; Bank of America; Wells Fargo; and JP Morgan Chase.
Finding Your New Career: What MBAs Need to Know About Aetna
Founded in 1853, Aetna Inc. has long been one of the most successful health care companies in the world. Serving roughly 37 million consumers, Aetna makes it a priority to recruit diverse and dedicated individuals to their team of nearly 50,000 employees throughout the U.S. The company’s wide reach and impact on the world of health care cannot be overstated; last year, the company made headlines with the huge announcement that it would be purchased by CVS in a $69 billion acquisition—a move which one New York Times report said would “reshape the American health care industry.”
With a commitment to finding skilled team members, and with needs ranging from health care to technology to financial services, it’s no wonder that Aetna and MBAs can make a perfect pair. Aetna has a long history of MBA recruitment, offering a Summer Associate Program which was recently named in Vault‘s 2018 “Top Internship Survey” as the second “Best Healthcare Internship” and ninth “Best Financial Services Internship.”
Why MBAs Love Aetna
Even with massive growth and the status of Fortune 50, Aetna can hardly be described as a stuffy or overly bureaucratic workplace. And it’s no wonder with a mission to help people and build a healthier world that that work should start with their own employees. The recognition Aetna has received for their diverse workplace speaks for itself: in 2016, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation named the company among the best places to work for LGBT employees. Other awards include a 2015 “Best Employer Healthy Lifestyles Platinum Award” form the National Business Group on Health, as well ranking in Training magazine’s “Training Top 125” as the 60th best company for employee development.
MBAs may be drawn to a potential Aetna career for its focus on employee development and creating a diverse workforce, but they probably stay for the payday. According to Payscale, MBAs at Aetna can make anywhere from $84,000 to to $10,200, a significant increase from the average salary for those with undergraduate degrees (around $70,000).
In addition, Aetna’s benefits package truly reflects the company’s strive towards healthy lifestyles. In addition to healthcare, company benefits include coverage for services like counseling, legal and financial support, employee discounts, and access to fitness centers.
Life at Aetna
Aetna offers a number of early career opportunities for recent graduates, which focus on area-specific training and providing access to a network of mentors and experienced professionals. Interested students will find development programs in a wide range of fields, including:
- Actuarial
- Finance
- General Management
- Human Resources
- Information Technology Leadership
- Information Technology Technical Training
- Sales
- Underwriting
The details of each program vary from field to field, but typically span anywhere from three to six years. Most programs also include rotations that will allow students exposure to the wide variety of opportunities open at Aetna, even within a particular area. For example, possible rotations included in the Financial Development Leadership Program include business finance, investor relations, tax, and corporate investment. After the program is completed, graduates will be placed in a full-time position, though the professional development and advancement opportunities will continue long after the program is done.
Landing an Aetna Career
Aetna is an active recruiter of MBAs and interested students should keep an eye out for professional recruiting events and career fairs throughout the country.
Each Aetna career has different requirements, but most early career programs expect applicants to have a GPA of 3.0 or higher, an undergraduate degree in a related field, strong analytical and communication skills, and the ability to succeed in a fast-paced environment.
In addition to the early career program, at the time of writing, there are 16 open jobs that require or strongly prefer applicants with MBA degrees. Below is a small sampling of the types of jobs available to MBA graduates at Aetna:
Product Strategy Manager – New Insurance Plan Design
- The Product Strategy Manager, a position for which candidates with top tier MBA degrees are preferred, will be at the forefront of decisions surrounding what healthcare is and how/where/when its delivered to those in need. According to data reported to Payscale, individuals in this role earn an average salary of $123,000 each year.
National Accounts Product & Solutions Leader
- Requiring an MBA and at least eight years of professional experience, the National Accounts Product & Solutions Director will “execute the product and solution strategy for the company in the national account employer group market” through collaboration as a member of the Large Group Solutions team.
Lead Marketing Analytics Consultant
- The Lead Marketing Analytics Consultant will use statistical predictive models to problem solve and help make decisions. The person in this role will also serve as a key contact for business stakeholders, and must be able to easily convey their predictions and recommendations to senior leadership. For this role, Aetna seeks someone with at least 7 years total business experience with an MBA preferred.
The Aetna-CVS Merger, Graziadio Name Change and More – Los Angeles News
We’ve rounded up some of the top stories from business schools in the Los Angeles metro this week.
Will the Aetna/CVS Merger Transform American Health Care? – Mihaylo News Room
Xiaoying Xie, finance professor at the Mihaylo College of Business at California State University, Fullerton, weighed in this week on the potential upcoming Aetna-CVS merger. The deal, which was approved by both companies’ shareholders in December 2017, remains to be confirmed by the federal Department of Justice.
A specialist in insurance studies, Professor Xie believes there may be potential benefits to the merger. By combining insurance companies, medical providers and pharmacy services, Xie says, benefits will be passed on to the consumers in the form of convenience and lowered costs. “It may possibly lower the overall health care costs through offering a one-stop solution for minor medical services and helping members manage their chronic diseases more cost-effectively.”
To read more about the merger and Professor Xie’s research, click here.
Fishing for Profits: UCLA Anderson Field Study Team Dives Deep into Galapagos Tuna Supply Chain – UCLA Anderson Blog
MBA students at the UCLA Anderson School of Management recently gave their final presentations as part of the school’s Applied Management Research (AMR) program. AMR is the country’s first ever business school field study program, partnering students with top organizations to solve an important strategic problem. MBA students in the AMR program complete research projects in place of a thesis, and this year that included four Anderson teams partnering with Conservation International, an organization that connects student consultants with local experts and indigenous groups.
This year’s teams were sponsored by the Center for Global Management and included collaboration with Conservation International to develop sustainable solutions and boost economies throughout centers of environmental importance throughout the world.
UCLA ’18 MBA students Daniel Osorio, Traci Kuratomi, Will Berman, and Kevin Oswald (left to right) in the Galapagos / Photo via blogs.anderson.ucla.edu
“Going to the Galapagos Islands provided a wealth of information crucial to the success of this project, which would have been impossible to gather otherwise. At the same time, we greatly enjoyed meeting people in the local community and each of us has been left with memories we will take well beyond the conclusion of this project,” the group said.
Click here to read more about the Applied Management Research and the story of the UCLA Anderson team.
Pepperdine University Announces Business School Name Change – Pepperdine Newsroom
The Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University officially changed its name to the Pepperdine Graziadio Business School, effective late last March. According to dean Deryck J. van Rensburg, the change reflects the school’s future, unifying under one consistent brand while enabling the business school to maintain its connection to Pepperdine.
The renaming of the business school is just one step in a comprehensive strategic plan for the school, which has been laid out in a document called ASPIRE 2025.
“As Pepperdine continues to set standards for progress and innovation, the renaming of the Graziadio School of Business and Management is an exciting part of the momentum that will propel the University into a new era,” said Pepperdine president Andrew K. Benton.
Click here to read more about the renaming and the future of Graziadio.
Northeastern Professors Talk Dangers of Aetna-CVS Mega Merger
A recent multi-billion dollar mega-merger between health insurance company Aetna and popular medical dispensary chain CVS Heath has certainly raised some eyebrows, of which include several healthcare experts at Northeastern University and the D’Amore-McKim School of Business.
Kogod Professor Explains 3 Cyber Security Misconceptions
Cyber crime costs the world economy about $445 billion every year. According to an industry risk analysis report from 2016, cyber risks ranked third out of the top business risks, already 12 places higher than in just five years ago. Needless to say, cyber security misconceptions become a major concern in the modern business world that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later. Continue reading…
