Company Battle: Accenture vs AT Kearney
Consulting positions are among the most coveted roles for MBA graduates—and international management consulting firms Accenture and A.T. Kearney are teeming with opportunities for MBAs.
Dublin, Ireland-based Accenture is a Fortune Global 500 company that offers professional services in addition to management consulting. In addition to the many awards Accenture has received in recognition of its global leadership in finance, it has also been ranked for 15 consecutive years on Forbes’ Global 2000 list.
A.T. Kearney, headquartered in Chicago, offers consulting to over 75 percent of the Fortune Global 500, spanning a diverse array of industries like aerospace and defense, transportation, healthcare, and oil and gas.
Accenture vs AT Kearney: Salaries
Managemant Consulted compares the base salaries made by MBA graduates at both companies in 2019, finding that the compensation was pretty comparable—A.T. Kearney offers $158,000 per year and Accenture offers $150,000 per year.
However, each company has a unique approach to bonuses. A.T. Kearney offers up to $44,100 while Accenture offers $30,000 to all employees in their first year after receiving their MBA. Top performers are rewarded with an additional $15,000. Accenture offers a very valuable $80,000 tuition reimbursement to select MBA grads.
Accenture vs AT Kearney: Company Culture
When it comes to culture, A.T. Kearney emphasizes collaboration over analysis, striving for creative strategies to keep up with an ever-changing marketplace.
A.T. Kearney has been recognized many times for their progressive initiative with regard to workplace equality. TransparentCareer ranks the company in the top 30 for satisfaction among MBA graduates. However, it is important to note that the same blog also reports that up to 80 percent of an MBA graduate’s time working at A.T. Kearney may be spent in transit.
A.T. Kearney has long recognized the importance of workplace diversity and it enforces a strict no-harassment policy. It has created networks for women, POC, and LGBT to reinforce a sense of community and belonging in the workplace. It has also been recognized for its progressive policies, having scored a perfect 100 for seven years straight in the Corporate Equality Index and received an award in 2017 for Best in Class for Diversity Leadership in Diversity MBA Magazine.
From 2015-18, it was also ranked as one of the “Best Places to Work” by the Human Rights Campaign and from 2013-17 as one of the “Top 100 Firms for Working Families and Women” by Working Mother.
Working Mother has lauded A.T. Kearney for years as one of the best career landing spots for working mothers in the U.S.
Accenture regularly ranks highly on lists that highlight forerunners in workplace culture. It were ranked second overall for eight consecutive years in Business Today/PeopleStrong’s “Best Companies to Work For” and 16th for four consecutive years in the Sunday Times “Best 25 Big Companies to Work For.”
Accenture is also committed to workplace equality, aiming for a gender balanced workforce by 2025. It is committed to creating Culture of Equality, citing the imperative of workplace diversity for a thriving business.
It has been recognized for the efforts by being included two consecutive years on the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index and 16 consecutive years on Working Mothers’ 100 Best Companies and the list of Best Companies for Multicultural Women.
Accenture vs AT Kearney: Versatility
As noted above, MBA graduates employed at A.T. Kearney can expect to travel frequently as part of their work. They have over 3,600 employees in offices in more than 40 countries across the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific.
Accenture, a much larger company, has more than 435,000 employees serving clients in over 120 countries, as well as offices in 52 countries.
The Best Long Angeles MBA Return on Investment Bets
Return on Investment (ROI) is one of the most important factors a prospective MBA can take into consideration when choosing the right business school.
Of course, the true value of each MBA program may ultimately be something impossible to measure. The kind of connections made through professional networking, the soft skills that students attain which help them navigate through both their personal and professional life—these aren’t things that can be easily quantified. But, thankfully, factors like average salary increase, rate of post-graduate employment and the overall tuition of a program are. And these numbers can help students start to better see an overall picture of what each MBA is worth.
The Best Long Angeles MBA Return on Investment
The Marshall School of Business – USC
The Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California is consistently one of the top ranked MBA programs in the state of California and even throughout the country. Specific ROI aside, these sorts of honors should also be a factor when considering the overall value of the program: for example, Marshall has been named the third best program for “Most Satisfied Business School Graduates” by Forbes and sixth on The Economist’s ranking of “Best Alumni Networks.”
Based on tuition for the 2017-18 school year, the total expense (tuition, fees and living expenses included) to pursue a full-time MBA at Marshall would be $95,881 for the first year and $82,522 for the second, for a total of $178,403.
Now take into consideration the fact that the average salary for graduates of Marshall’s full-time MBA program within three months of graduation is $115,309, and that the large majority of job offers (38 percent) for MBA students came from on-campus recruiting or job postings through the university. The second highest source of employment (21 percent) came from internships held while in the MBA program. Furthermore, a number of top organizations—such as Apple, AT&T, and Walt Disney Studios—hired the graduates of Marshall’s 2016 MBA class. All of these factors boost the overall ROI of Marshall’s program, making it one of the top valued programs in L.A.—even with the high price tag.
Anderson School of Management – UCLA
The Anderson School of Management at UCLA is another program which offers a high ROI when considering the types of opportunities and salaries available to students after graduation. While the tuition cost is certainly high—roughly $194,220 (including fees and living expenses) for the the two years of the program, the benefits to students are undeniable.
A look at the full-time employment report for the most recent MBA class finds that 92.4 percent of students were offered full-time employment within just three months of graduation, with 87.7 percent acceptances. By far (72.2 percent) , students found their employment opportunities through Anderson-facilitated resources, such as internships, on-campus recruiting, or from UCLA Anderson alumni and classmates.
The salaries for graduating Anderson students also reveals a positive trend: the average post-graduate compensation was $118,150, with 70.6 percent of students earning signing bonuses of up to $89,500. The connections sewn by Anderson internships and alumnae also reveal a significant payoff in the types of organizations hiring Anderson alum: companies like NBC Universal, IBM, Barclays, Google, and other major corporations now have Anderson MBA graduates on staff.
The Paul Merage School of Business – University of California, Irvine
The UC Irvine Paul Merage School of Business is one of the top business schools in the Los Angeles metro area, as evidenced by its consistently high rankings from various publications, such as the Financial Times and U.S. News & World Report.
With the program’s recognition for its high lifetime earnings combined with the relatively low cost the degree, it’s no surprise that that the program at UC Irvine produces a high return on investment. The estimated total annual cost of an MBA at Merage ranges from $67,422—$83,967, depending on if you whether or not you are a resident of California and whether or not you will be using campus. This is compared with an average post-graduate salary of $97,808 for the 2017 graduating class. About 50 percent of all students were employed by graduation, and 81 percent held full-time jobs within three months.
Graziado School of Business and Management – Pepperdine University
One of the reasons Pepperdine’s Graziado School of Business boasts such a high return on investment is the many different formats in which students can pursue a full-time degree. With the opportunity to take the full-time MBA over the course of 12, 15, or 20 months, the Graziado MBA typically costs less overall ($74,250 for the 12-month program, $99,000 for all others) and means less time away from a full-time paycheck.
Combine this with the success rate of 82 percent of students accepting job within three months after graduation and a $120,000 starting salary (at highest), and its understandable why Graziado graduates find incredible value in their degree.
How Can You Score a Job at Salesforce with an MBA?
Salesforce, one of the country’s highest valued cloud computing companies, is actively looking for promising MBA graduates, offering diverse opportunities in tech, business, and sales. Since it’s founding in 1999, Salesforce has been growing wildly, becoming the first enterprise cloud company tor each $10 billion in revenue as of August 2017. And Salesforce isn’t just remarkable for its product’s success—the company was also rated as the “#1 Best Company to Work For” by Fortune.
The Salesforce culture is centered around the idea of “Ohana” (Hawaiian for “family”), and earned its place at the top of the list by offering incredible benefits to its employees—both monetary and mentally. It’s understandable why MBA’s would want a job at Salesforce Ohana, with their focus on helping strong performers find new challenges and opportunities for growth.
What Does Salesforce Look for in New Hires?
Salesforce makes recruiting a priority at every level through their Futureforce University recruitment program. Salesforce offers new hires the same incredible opportunities available to all of their employees—seven days of paid time for volunteering, networking opportunities, and access to the Executive Lunch & Learn and Speaker Series that puts interns and new hires in direct contact with Salesforce leadership.
Because of Salesforce’s focus on having their employees give back to their communities, they seek out new hires who have made a demonstrated impact within their past efforts, whether at school or professionally. In 2015, Salesforce’s senior vice president of global recruiting, Ana Recio, commented on the different ways applicants could make themselves stand out.
“What did you do to differentiate your job from others?'” she said. “What was your absolute impact, your legacy? We always look for people who truly were kind of thought leaders and change agents.”
How to Get Your Foot in the Door?
MBA graduates and current students can apply directly for open roles. Current students will most directly benefit from the company’s MBA internship: a 12-week program that students can pursue during the summer in between years one and two of their program. Each summer, MBA interns are hired in the fields of product marketing, product management, CSG business analyst, corporate development, and data analytics. If recruiters think there might be a good fit, applicants will likely be given a 30-60 minute phone screening, followed by an interview with a hiring manager. Before offering the position, MBAs will likely have to partake in a panel interview/case study, presenting their professional and academic accomplishments.
Salesforce also recruits recent graduates (those who graduated in the last 12 months) in the fields of tech, sales, and business. The precise roles and interview process for each varies depending on the field.
How Well Does a Job at Salesforce Pay?
The majority of hires at Salesforce, both full-time and interns, are for tech-centric positions. However, the company does offer supreme compensation for those with business degree backgrounds—especially those with an MBA.
According to Payscale data, MBA graduates wit a job at Salesforce earn between $85,000 and $160,000 USD annually.
It’s no secret that one of the reasons Salesforce tops the Glassdoor list of “Best Places to Work” is the compensation. Although, as with any position, salary will vary depending on a number of factors, Glassdoor’s compensation of full-time employees shows a lower-end salary range of $60,000-80,000 annually (for account executives and sales engineers) and upwards of $141,000 for senior engineer positions.
What Do Current and Former Salesforce Interns Think?
Danielle, who interned with Salesforce as a product marketing MBA intern, commented on her work experience and Salesforce’s company culture in this video. “Not only am I working on independent projects as part of the internship, but I’m also shadowing people in my team and really seeing what a true day in the life is for a project manager within the app cloud,” Danielle said. “Other internships are very focused on their projects and feel very siloed but here at Salesforce I’m really able to be integrated with the team as a whole.”
Eamon, a software engineer who began at Salesforce as a recent graduate, also commented on his experience. “As a new grad what’s interesting is there really is no pathway you’re supposed to follow, it’s what you make of it,” he said. “It’s the people you go out of your way to meet, the experiences you make, the projects you decide to take on.”
Just How Much Are Stanford MBA Grads Getting Paid?
Wondering what kind of pay day you can expect if you are among the select 6 percent of applicants who gain admission to Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB)? Are you sitting down? Perhaps you should be, because the school’s 2017 employment report—released today—reveals record-breaking salaries for the third year in a row.
On average, last year’s graduates, now in their first year of post-MBA work, are pulling down an annual base salary of $144,455—a $4,000 increase over last year’s all-time high (median base compensation was $140,000, also besting last year’s by about $4,000). But it doesn’t stop there. Average signing bonuses, reported by 51 percent of the class, are also up—setting a new record at $29,534. (Median salary bonuses remained unchanged at $25,000.) And as if that weren’t enough, another quarter of the class reported other guaranteed compensation (OGC) surpassing last year’s all-time highs by a whopping $10,000. Average OGC for 2017 grads was $83,065, and median OCG was $50,000. The range was $6,750 to $450,000.
The GSB, in announcing these most recent employment statistics, pointed out that OGC will no longer be tracked by the MBA Career Services and Employer Alliance (CSEA) and that it began last year capturing an “Expected Performance Bonus” metric in its place. This measure includes both guaranteed and non-guaranteed cash compensation based on performance. Though the average and median EPB for the Class of 2017, at $71,946 and $35,000, were each lower than OGC figures, a full 65 percent of the class expected to receive such performance-based compensation, up from 61 percent last year—and substantially higher than the quarter of grads who reported OGC. The reported range for EPB was $5,000 to $450,000.
Stanford MBAs claim higher pay days than graduates of any other school, in part thanks to higher base compensation. Stanford’s median base—$140,000—surpassed that of Harvard Business School (HBS) ($135,000), the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School ($130,000), and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business ($125,000). Grads from both Stanford and HBS reported the same median starting bonus of $25,000, but the $50,000 in other guaranteed compensation reported by Stanford grads was double what grads at the school’s top East Coast rival reported.
Tech Less of a Draw Than in Prior Years
Bucking the trend at many other business schools—where increasing percentages of students are clamoring to enter the technology industry—fewer Stanford MBA Class of 2017 grads headed into tech. In what the school deemed “a rebalancing of the scales among the three top industries,” interest in technology dropped 8 percentage points—to a mere 25 percent of the class. Almost a third of the class—32 percent—headed into finance, up a point over last year. Consulting, too, gained four percentage points to attract 20 percent of the most recent class.
“Our leading employers span a wide variety of industries,” Maeve Richard, assistant dean and director of the Career Management Center, said as part of a news story announcing the latest employment statistics on the Stanford GSB site. “They represent organizations in such areas as consulting, finance, technology, consumer products, healthcare, and nonprofits. What they do have in common is work environments that offer the ability to make an impact with a focus on agency, career development, diverse challenges, and responsibilities.”
Indeed, a record-setting 411 organizations hired Stanford MBA students and graduates for internships or full-time roles this past year—up 7 percent over last year and 34 percent from six years ago. A whopping 95 percent of employers hired just one or two students—an indication of the breadth both of GSB employers and student interest.
Uptick in Women Headed into Private Equity and Venture Capital
“In addition, we observed that the number of women going to private equity and venture capital has nearly doubled since 2014,” Richard said as part of the Stanford GSB article. “While we do not disclose fine-grain gender detail and the numbers are still small, we see a definite widening of the cracks in the glass ceiling.”
It’s no wonder that Stanford GSB women would increasingly be looking to break into PE and VC, since those fields yield some of the very highest pay days. The highest reported base salary for the Class of 2017—$285,000—went to a graduate headed into venture capital. Median base salaries for both PE and VC were $175,000, $40,000 higher than for the class as a whole. And it was a graduate headed into a private equity analyst role who reported the mind-boggling $450,000 in other guaranteed compensation. The median signing bonus for PE—at $50,000—was also the highest in the class (on par with investment banking). Though it was a graduate headed into a marketing role who claimed the highest signing bonus of the class, $77,000.
Timing and Location of Offers
Stanford GSB reports full-time offer and acceptance rates at graduation and three months out from graduation—as mandated by CSEA standards. But in past years—as this year—the school has made a point of underscoring the fact that its graduates’ confidence in their ability to find the perfect job sometimes means they hold out longer in accepting their ultimate position than graduates from some other schools. That said, 92 percent of the Class of 2017 had offers three months out from graduation—up two points over last year—and 88 percent had accepted offers, a five-point increase year over year.
In terms of where geographically the most recent Stanford MBA grads wound up, the West was the winner—with 62 percent of grads choosing to remain in the region. This represents a 3 percent decline compared to last year. “Counter to assumptions, only 35 percent of these West region jobs relate to technology,” the school notes. “Finance represented 26 percent, and consulting represented 15 percent.” The Northeastern United States drew the second-most Stanford grads, 16 percent of the class. Another 11 percent took international jobs.
Also of note, 16 percent of the class launched their own startups upon graduation, up one percentage point over last year. Leading industries for these entrepreneurial students include software (15 percent), finance (11 percent), healthcare (9 percent), real estate (9 percent), and internet services (9 percent).
More Grads Seek Socially Responsible Roles
Another notable shift in these most recent employment statistics is the increasing number of Stanford MBA grads heading into careers in socially responsible roles or organizations. Thirteen percent of this year’s graduates answered yes to the question, “Have you chosen a socially responsible role in a private business?” That’s up from just 8 percent last year, when the question was first introduced.
Watch this space for an upcoming piece that will highlight several Stanford students who chose internships focused on social impact this past summer—a Clear Admit exclusive.
This article has been edited and republished with permissions from our sister site, Clear Admit.
Grads Praise MBA for Helping Land Jobs, Increase Pay, Expand Horizons
In a survey this past fall of 1,000 business school graduates from the Class of 2016, the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), which owns and administers the GMAT, found that the vast majority is highly satisfied with the decision to seek an MBA, which helped them land jobs, earn better salaries and advance their careers in ways they did not expect.
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