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.
How to Get Your Employer to Pay For Your MBA
Earning an MBA holds tons of value in the business world—an advanced business degree can open doors that may otherwise have been closed, and boasts a high return on investment thanks to the top-level salaries that MBAs command.
Graduate school—and all of the coursework that comes with it—can be an intimidating challenge, but paying for it doesn’t have to be. Aside from scholarship, grant and fellowship opportunities at business schools across the country, more and more companies are placing a higher importance on tuition reimbursement programs, and expanding opportunities for paid MBA tuition reimbursement.
How can you get your employer to pay for your MBA studies? Let’s take a closer look.
Getting Your Employer to Pay For Your MBA
First thing’s first: You need to find out if your current employer offers tuition reimbursement to its employees. The terms of reimbursement vary depending on the company, with some corporations not offering any sort of program at all. Those that do offer some sort of compensation may do so on a course-by-course basis, or as a lump-sum reimbursement package for coursework in relevant degree plans.
“Organizations typically support MBA pursuits for two reasons,” J. Todd Rhoad, managing director of Atlanta’s BT Consulting, told USA Today. “Employee development and succession planning. In the first case, companies support the cost of MBA programs as part of their commitment to employee training and development.”
If you want to convince your employer that your education is worth investing in, you’ll need to show that earning an MBA will further your business acumen and understanding of your industry, and ultimately help your company reap those benefits.
“Usually, an employee has to already been delivering great results within the company,” Roderick Lewis, international relations director at the ISCTE Business School, University Institute of Lisbon, told Business Insider.
“If you haven’t already convinced your company, then asking them to [sponsor your education] becomes really difficult,” Lewis says.
USA Today also outlined a few checkboxes to hit when determining how valuable earning an MBA would be for your organization:
- Do current members of middle or upper management hold advanced business degrees?
- Does your company have the available revenue to invest in employee education?
- Would someone with the type of advanced training you seek bring clear advantages to the company?
If those point hold true in your situation, then start researching which programs specialize in providing the skills that your company needs. Keep in mind: You do not have to limit yourself to business schools in your metro thanks to popularity of Online MBA programs. There may have once been a stigma against online programs, but the of the matter fact is that many of the top online MBAs on U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings also rank highly on the publication’s top campus-based graduate business programs list.
Some of these schools include:
- University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler)
- Indiana University – Bloomington (Kelley)
- Temple University (Fox)
- Arizona State University (Carey)
- University of Florida (Hough)
- Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper)
- University of Texas – Dallas
Once you’ve found the right program, you’ll want to craft a brief proposal for your employer. In it, you’ll want to mention how you fit the company’s tuition reimbursement policy, and list the advantages that continuing your education can bring you and your company. Don’t shy away from providing data on how much assistance you may need and how this investment will pay off for everyone, while also ensuring your employer that you’ll remain committed to the company during your degree program, or won’t jump ship after earning your degree.
“A proposal should address the benefit to the company,” Rhoad says, “(including) areas where the company could improve and how you will help them, a review of the courses to be taken and how they will provide knowledge that can help improve the company’s performance.”
Companies That Provide MBA Tuition Reimbursement
Investopedia recently compiled a list of companies have stated that they place a high value on their tuition assistance benefits, and provide tuition reimbursement for the educational costs of an MBA.
According to Investopedia, consulting companies lead the market in tuition reimbursement programs for MBA courses. These firms also pay the highest salaries for MBA alumni. Deloitte has the most robust tuition reimbursement plan, providing employees with up to $10,000 per year in MBA reimbursements. The firm requires two years of work with the company and a commitment to work for the company after graduation in order to receive the tuition assistance benefit.
Financial institutions and banks also place a high value on employees with MBAs, and provide tuition assistance. One example is Bank of America, which provides employees with annual tuition assistance of up to $5,250 for advanced degree coursework. Wells Fargo also has a track record of paying for MBAs, doling out up to $5,000 annually for tuition expenses.
The booming tech sector is also hiring MBAs left and right, with some firms developing their MBA talent in house by offering to pay MBA tuition expenses. Apple tops the list of tech companies offering tuition assistance, providing reimbursement of up to $5,000 annually. MBA degrees are even more coveted in the the specialty defense technology sector, as Raytheon, one of the top defense technology companies in the world, offering to pay up to 100 percent of employees’ college tuition for graduate school.
Other leading companies offering tuition reimbursement to employees include:
- Chevron: A market leader in the energy sector, Chevron offers offers tuition reimbursement of up to 75 percent for its employees.
Ford: Ford’s education tuition assistance program provides employees with tuition reimbursement of up to $5,000 annually for an MBA. - Procter & Gamble: This firm has one of the leading tuition reimbursement benefits in the consumer goods industry, providing reimbursement for up to 80 percent of educational costs with a limit at $40,000.
- AT&T: This telecom giant provides employees with up to $5,250 annually for tuition assistance, for a maximum reimbursement of up to $25,000 for graduate school courses.
