4 Silicon Valley Companies that Hire MBAs

The number of technology companies planning to hire MBAs is up 22% compared to last year, according to the Graduate Management Admission Council's 2012 Corporate Recruiters Survey (PDF). Many of these companies are Silicon Valley startups that have just found new investors and are looking for MBAs with quantative skills to develop their strategy and marketing plans. Silicon Valley is also home to established companies that have a reputation for hiring MBAs. Read on for four examples of Silicon Valley companies that hire MBAs.

Zynga

You may know Zynga for Farmville and Words with Friends, but did you also know that they have a reputation for hiring MBAs? A recent Wall Street Journal article mentioned that Zynga increased its MBA hiring by 25% this year. Most of Zynga's new MBA hires work in product management and business development positions. The majority of MBA hires (seven, to be exact) are Harvard Business School grads, with UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business coming in at a close second with four full-time hires and one intern. The high number of Harvard MBA hires isn't surprising; Zynga's founder Mark Pincus is also a Harvard Business School MBA grad.

Google

Google has hired MBAs from the time the company was formed, most notably Harvard Business School MBA and current Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. While Google is looking for risk-takers who demonstrate entrepreneurial thinking, Google also offers stability and longevity to its employees. Google has recruited MBA graduates from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, Michigan Ross, and Columbia Business School.

eBay

According to the QS Jobs & Salary Trends Report 2011/12, eBay is another company that is always on the lookout for entrepreneurial-minded MBAs. Rajiv Dutta, the former President of Skype and PayPal, was an MBA graduate from the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management at Claremont. Harvard MBA Alexis Maybank launched eBay Motors and eBay Canada before launching Gilt. A search on eBay's career site shows that they have several full-time and intern positions for MBA graduates and students.

Apple

Apple has recently undergone an MBA hiring spree. MBAs have been recruited into finance, sales, marketing and project management roles. Apple is one of the largest MBA employers for jobs in the growing Asian technology sector. Apple has hired MBAs from several different business schools including the Stanford Graduate School of Business, the W.P. Carey School of Business, the Carlson Schol of Management, Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business, and Duke's Fuqua School of Business. Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen worked at Apple while getting his MBA from UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business.