INSEAD MBA Class of 2014: Progress Report

In 2014, 1,011 INSEAD MBA students graduated from two classes, each of which was spread across its campuses in France and Singapore. This article takes a look at their experience of the MBA job market post-graduation and compares it to the fortunes of those who went before them.

Highlights from the class of 2014 include a recovery from last year’s drop in the median MBA salary level achieved by its graduates and a noticeable boost in hiring from the consulting industry, with interest in technology firms reflected more in the proportion of internship opportunities pursued by last year’s students.

MBA salary levels recover from 2013’s decline

Of those seeking employment after their INSEAD MBA, 90% received a job offer within three months of graduation. This is actually a little down on the equivalent figure, of 95%, reported last year. However, MBA salaries secured by the school’s students have risen. Indeed, last year, INSEAD reported a slight fall in the median MBA salary achieved by its graduates - from €89,000 to €85,700. The median figure for the class of 2014 is now back above its 2012 level, at €89,400 (c.US$99,000).

Interestingly, both the highest and lowest MBA salary reported by an individual graduate this year came from an employer in Western Europe – the chasm between these two amounts, namely €25,300 and €168,000, indicates the variety of opportunities that can be found in the region.

Class of 2014’s global spread of MBA job locations

Still, INSEAD MBA graduates are certainly not limited to MBA jobs in Europe alone. Indeed, what makes the school's employment reports interesting is that they detail the experiences of classes that run in parallel across two regions – in Europe and Asia-Pacific – and therefore offer a picture of the global health of the MBA job market even if, at the same, this does also make it slightly harder to draw conclusions that are specific to studying in one of school’s two locations for full-time MBA study.    

In this light, it should come as no surprise that the locations of MBA jobs taken up by the school’s graduates continue to produce a highly international spread – no single country hired more than 17% of the class and the most popular destination for graduates continues to be neither France nor Singapore, but the UK. However, taken together, the regions of Asia-Pacific and Western Europe accounted for 64% of INSEAD MBA graduates in 2014, with 11% taking positions in North America and 9% in the Middle East and Africa. Incidentally, more than half of all MBA job offers received (53%) emanated from either the school’s career services or its alumni network.

In addition, of the 90 nationalities represented across these two cohorts, citizens of India, France and Canada were the most likely to accept an MBA job outside their home nation and those of Norway, Singapore and Brazil were the most likely to return, or remain, at home.

Consulting reasserts its share of MBA jobs at the school

Wherever they are located in the world, a strong proportion of these MBA jobs were in the consulting industry – an industry which has now returned to the 41% proportion of class hiring it enjoyed in 2013 and a notable 7% rise on the 34% figure reported last year.

Among the school’s top-10 employers by hiring volume, McKinsey & Company, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Bain & Company continue to lead the way (a table of the school’s top-10 employers is shown below), and there was a notable rise in the number of full-time hires made by BCG in particular. The median MBA salary on offer from the industry this time round was €95,000, up from €89,200 in 2013.

That other stalwart of MBA hiring, financial services, matched the 17% class proportion it registered last time round and posted a median salary of €89,700, up from €86,000 in 2013. Financial services and consulting, combined, accounted for 58% of the class of 2014. 

Source: INSEAD MBA employment statistics 2014

Elsewhere, 11% headed into internet or e-commerce companies, and the sectors of IT/telecommunication and retail/consumer & luxury goods accounted for 6% of graduates apiece. Retail produced the lowest median MBA salary of these three sectors, at €79,700, behind IT/telecommunications’ €82,100 and the €85,000 on offer from e-commerce/internet firms.

INSEAD says that interest in working for internet and e-commerce tech firms has led to the term ‘GAFA’ (Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple) cementing its position in student lexicon alongside ‘MBB’ (McKinsey, Bain and BCG). Two of these firms (Google and Amazon) continue to occupy a spot in the school’s top-10 employer list but, as a sector, this interest is perhaps better reflected in students’ choice of internship opportunities. E-commerce and internet firms accounted for 21% of the class’ internship opportunities, ahead of consulting’s 16% and the 12.5% proportion of internships that were taken up in the realms of investment banking and trading.

As for entrepreneurial pursuits, just 6% of the INSEAD MBA class of 2014 said they were setting up their own company on graduation. However, approximately 11% of the two classes took up MBA jobs with SMEs (defined as a company of fewer than 500 employees) – with the greatest proportion of these joining companies with no more than 10 employees. This is something which could easily be construed as a sign not only of student interest in startup culture, but also the growing presence of SMEs in the MBA job market.

Spare some change? One in five at INSEAD enact the triple change

Among INSEAD’s class of 2014, 81% changed their location, function or industry. The most popular change was one of function (64%), followed by location (51%) and industry (42%). Although often held to be a difficult undertaking, 21% of the year’s two classes succeeded in changing all three.

A closer look at industry changes reveals that 36% of those previously in the consulting industry moved elsewhere. This was true for 57% of those in financial services and 76% of those from other industry backgrounds. While consulting was the most popular go-to industry for those leaving a non-finance background, those with finance backgrounds were more in favor of doing the opposite (i.e. moving from finance to another corporate sector) than going into consulting.