MBA Job Report: NYU Stern

Consulting has overtaken investment banking as the industry of choice with NYU Stern graduates, according to Stern’s newly-released MBA employment report for its full-time class of 2014.

NYU Stern MBA Salaries Up, Bonuses Down

MBA salaries for NYU Stern graduates have gone up by 4.3% this year. The base average MBA salary for 2014 NYU Stern graduates is $112,096 compared to $107,450 in 2013. While this doesn’t put Stern in the category for one of the schools with the highest MBA salaries, it does mark the first time MBA salaries have exceeded $110,000.

While salaries have gone up, bonuses have gone down.

Guaranteed bonuses saw the most significant decrease to the tune of nearly ten percent (9.8% to be exact).This year’s guaranteed bonus -- $28,080 – was about $3,000 less than last years.

The average signing bonus for 2014 -- $31,163 – was down 5% compared to 2013.

Consulting Overtakes Investment Banking for Most Popular MBA Job Choice

The main highlight of the 2014 NYU Stern MBA Employment is the fact that consulting has risen over investment banking to become the top industry, with 28% of graduates choosing to work in the consulting. This figure represents a 5% increase over last year. As a result, NYU Stern has joined the ranks of Tuck and Columbia Business School as one of the schools were consulting has risen over investment banking to become the most popular industry in 2014.

While it might be tempting to label 2014 as the year of the consulting MBA job based on reports from NYU Stern and others, it helps to remember three schools where the number of finance jobs surpassed consulting: Wharton, Stanford GSB, and Chicago Booth. So, while consulting jobs have been the most popular choice at some top US business schools, this isn’t the case for every top US business school.

Investment banking MBA jobs aren’t lagging far behind consulting since 27% of MBA graduates chose jobs in IB this year. This year’s figure does, however, represent a slight decline compared 2013 when the IB was the top industry which accounted for nearly a third of NYU Stern MBA jobs.

Roxanne Hori, Stern's associate dean of corporate relations for career development, attributes the increase in consulting industry jobs to increased student interest in consulting. According to Hori, increased interest in consulting does not diminish the importance of the finance industry to NYU Stern: "Financial services continues to be an important industry to Stern, and we anticipate that in the coming years, we will continue to see strong interest in both finance and consulting."

Diversified financial services is another finance-based industry which is on the decline with Stern MBA graduates. While 11% of Stern MBAs took jobs with diversified financial services companies in 2012, this figure decreased to 5% in 2013 and has stayed the same this year.