MBA Job Openings: International MBA Jobs at UBS, Credit Suisse, and More
In our rapidly changing world, more and more financial centers have sprung up throughout the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, joining the ranks—and one might argue decentralizing the stranglehold—of established Western hubs. This week, we took it upon ourselves to investigate a few enticing job international MBA jobs.
Top 5 Paying MBA Careers: Tech
In recent years, there has been a major shift in where MBAs end up after graduation, both in terms of geography and career paths. While plenty of MBA graduates still pursue traditional Wall Street careers in finance and marketing, many more have begun making in-roads into tech havens like Seattle, Austin, and, of course, the Bay Area.
Top MBA Recruiters: T. Rowe Price
T. Rowe Price Group, founded in 1937 by Thomas Rowe Price Jr., is a leading global asset management firm offering services to individual clients as well as institutions and financial intermediaries.
Headquartered in Baltimore with offices in 47 countries, recent MBA graduates with an eye toward investment would do well to consider a career at T. Rowe Price.
Why MBAs Love T. Rowe Price Group
T. Rowe Price’s commitment to responsible corporate stewardship and social engagement with their immediate communities has earned them respect from a lot of its peer companies. Its been recognized by Fortune World as one of the world’s Most Admired Companies in Securities and Asset Management, and one of Forbes America’s 50 Most Trustworthy Financial Companies.
Salaries for MBA grads can greatly vary at the firm. According to PayScale data, senior business analysts earn an average annual salary of $88,524, with max compensation as high as $120,000. Financial consultants—a position more readily available for entry-level employees—earn an average annual salary of $62,792. Overall, SimplyHired data indicates that MBA grads can expect to make around $67,471 per year, with the top 25 percent of earners making over $100,000.
Additionally, T. Rowe Price offers both short-term and long-term benefits for its employees. In the short-term, it offers valuable tuition assistance to employees completing a degree program. In the long-term, it offers retirement plans, investment plans that includes matching contributions, and life insurance plans. It stresses the importance of a healthy work/life balance, reinforced by benefits like extensive health care coverage, family support for working parents, various wellness initiatives, and passes for local recreational attractions. T. Rowe Price also offers PTO and matching donation programs through their Workplace Giving Program, boasting more than 40,000 hours volunteered by associates in 2018 and $11 million dollars donated by associates in 2017 through the program.
Life at T. Rowe Price
T. Rowe Price has earned a reputation for their ability to facilitate workplace morale. In 2017, Forbes named it one of the best mid-sized firms in the U.S. for its ability to keep employees feeling satisfied and well-compensated. Pensions & Investments named it one of the “Top 50 Best Places to Work in Money Management“—a distinction it was also awarded in 2015.
An important component of these achievements is T. Rowe Price’s work with respect to office diversity. In 2016, the Anita Borg Institute named it one of the Top Companies for Women Technologists, boasting 44 percent women in its total global workforce. In 2019, it was named one of the “Best Places to Work for LGBTQ Equality” by the Human Rights Campaign. T. Rowe Price also seeks to improve their diversity through initiatives like WAVE, which facilitates the development of talented women; PRIDE, which focuses on the LGBTQ+ community; and MOSAIC, focused on building ethnic diversity.
Landing a T. Rowe Price Career
Associate positions at T. Rowe Price require the following from a prospective employee:
- Strong analytical skills
- The ability to communicate and work with employees from different departments
- Strong relationship management and collaborative proclivities
- A college degree
Additionally, T. Rowe Price has a few important preferred qualifications. Of course, high on the list is either the completion of an MBA program—or progress toward the MBA degree.
As mentioned above, the company sometimes offers tuition assistance for employees who are in the process of completing a graduate program. Another attribute that will help you stand out is experience the field, especially in the given area that the position for which you are applying.
Current T. Rowe Price Career Openings
Associate General Manager, Investments – Baltimore, MD
For applicants with at least eight years working experience in financial services, corporate strategy, and/or management consulting, this might be a promising job opportunity. A CFA or MBA will also give you a leg up on the competition. This job focuses on big picture investment strategies and presents these ideas to employees and stakeholders.
Associate Portfolio Analyst, Equities – Baltimore, MD
For applicants with financial analysis chops, this position might be ideal. In this position, one would assist a team of portfolio specialists to create strategies for investment. This is also ideal for those in the process of completing their MBA or CFA.
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
Top MBA Jobs: Investment Banking Analyst
Landing a job in an investment firm is a top goal for many MBAs. They want to bring their talents and knowledge to investors, banks, and corporations who can benefit from their expertise. It’s an exciting and very demanding career field, especially in the wake of the Great Recession of 2008 and 2009.
Banks, brokerages, and financial services firms are looking for candidates that have deep and broad insight into the industry and a willingness to learn more. That’s how you get started as an Investment Banking Analyst. Continue reading…
Top MBA Recruiters: Spotify
Spotify, arguably the reigning champion of streaming audio content, shared a triumphant Q4 report with its shareholders late last year: “For the first time in company history, operating income, net income, and free cash flow were all positive.”
Ten years in, Spotify’s business model—a combination of premium paid access and “freemium” ad-based access—miraculously legitimized the Napster template to the tune of enormous profits. To make matters complicated, the Swedish company’s resounding success has been a major source of controversy among musicians whose life’s work the platform is built on.
When Spotify shared its year-end round-up metrics late last year, one image made the social media rounds that compared the company’s annual revenue of $1.37 billion to the 1,117,021 streams required for an artist to make minimum wage and a $0.0037 average per-stream royalty.
One might now understand why many high-profile musicians, like Prince, The Beatles, Taylor Swift, and Neil Young, initially refused to stream their music on Spotify. The composer and harpist Joanna Newsom disparaged Spotify in a 2015 LA Times interview as a “villainous cabal of major labels … built from the ground up as a way to circumvent the idea of paying their artists.”
But the platform’s growing power and presence have coerced musicians to play ball, even if they are reluctant to do so. Whether Spotify’s overall operating structure and approach to content distribution is viable for the long-term remains to be seen.
For MBAs looking for a way to help musicians from inside the belly of the beast, let’s take a look at employment at Spotify.
Landing a Spotify Job
Known for its constant intake of employees, Spotify maintains several divisions and publishes both job openings and internship opportunities. Employees report that internal referrals, stand-out experience and direct engagement are the best way to get hired.
Spotify’s HR team reports receiving hundreds of thousands of resumes each year. So, an early career MBA’s best bet at landing a permanent position may be to secure an internship. Seasoned business leaders would do well to draw the attention of Spotify’s Acquisition Team.
Spotify Job Salaries
According to Paysa, a comprehensive salary comparison tool, those in product management roles at Spotify can expect to earn salaries that average more than $190,000 per year. Even the rough average salary for the company, regardless of position, is about $125,000 per year (below).
What a Spotify Internship Looks Like
Internships are offered in various academic formats alongside occasional graduate and training opportunities. As an intern, Spotify claims, “You’ll be right at the heart of major projects, working with teams of passionate people to create the next awesome thing.”
Spotify places interns at its office locations around the world. These positions tend to be highly competitive so it may take some creative maneuvering to get your foot and nail the interview.
Former intern Andrea Tiutan explains, “I knew that researching and understanding my future hiring managers would help me cater my answers to their interview questions to what they wanted to hear. All this would also help me know how to present my market research project in the most compelling way.”
Spotify Recruitment
In a 2017 blog post, Spotify’s Talent Acquisition team head, Fredrik Johnsson, explains how Spotify recruiters are evaluated based on finding successful matches to the company’s needs, rather than the traditional metric of number-of-hires:
“I focus on letting my managers evaluate the behaviors I need in my team. I need courageous team players, people who act as true talent acquisition partners to the organization and who I can trust to take the hiring decisions that are right for the company in the long run.”
If Johnsson’s approach rings true, experienced MBAs would be wise to clearly frame how their own expertise and leadership aligns with Spotify’s specific needs.
In terms of how to get in front of recruiters, Johnsson explained in a 2018 post that his team team uses LinkedIn’s Talent Insights as a search tool.
Choosing Spotify
Spotify is known for its decentralized leadership structure and consensus-oriented decision-making. Some employees report that this, in combination with suboptimal HR practices and ineffective middle management, makes both the impact of their work and opportunity for advancement a challenging prospect.
On the other hand, some employees report that they appreciate the community of peers, benefits, and work-life balance the company offers. With Spotify’s recent announcement that it plans to further expand both its operations and market reach, now may be an optimal time to grab a seat at the table. That is, of course, for those willing to take on both the good and the bad with one of the world’s highest-profile businesses.
