Berkeley-Haas: Class of 2015 Employment Report

Technology remains the number one hiring industry for MBA graduates of the UC Berkeley-Haas School of Business, however it has declined in popularity since 2014, thanks to recoveries in the numbers joining companies in the financial services and healthcare sectors, according to the school’s class of 2015 employment report.

Technology drops slightly in popularity at Berkeley-Haas as consulting holds steady

In 2014, the proportion of Haas MBAs moving into jobs in the technology industry jumped by 10 percentage points, to account for 43% of all graduates. Among the class of 2015, however, this number has fallen back slightly, to 38% (including those taking jobs in telecoms). Even so, technology still stands comfortably ahead of other industry destinations at the school.

In second place, for volume of graduate hiring, is consulting, in which a quarter of Berkeley-Haas’s latest cohort of MBA graduates can be found – this proportion has remained pretty steady in recent years, having stood at 26% in 2014 and 24% in 2013.

Elsewhere, there’s a notable recovery in Haas MBA hiring figures to the financial services industry. In 2014, the class proportion moving into finance fell from 15 to 12%, but it has now returned to 15% among the class of 2015. There’s also a recovery in hiring to the healthcare, biotech and pharmaceutical sectors. After this area took just 4% of MBA graduates in 2014, 2015’s figure is back up to 7% - the same level as was recorded in both 2013 and 2012.

Salary levels attained by MBA graduates in 2015

Base salaries recorded by the latest MBA graduates to leave Berkeley-Haas are, for the most part, up across the four main industries of hiring that are detailed above.

The overall median is up from US$120,000 to US$125,000, a number matched by the median salary found in the financial services, which itself has risen from US$117,500 in 2014. Consulting and technology salaries are both up by US$5,000, to US$140,000 and US$120,000, respectively – closely resembling those reported by other leading schools in the US this year. There is, however, one median salary fall for the class of 2015; the healthcare, biotech and pharmaceutical sector average is down from US$121,500 to US$115,000, in spite (or perhaps because) of the increased hiring this area has witnessed this year.

The class of 2015 at Berkeley-Haas comprises a total of 248 MBA graduates, of which 29% are women and 34% were defined as international students during the course of their studies. The school says that as many as 150 different employers have taken on their latest charges, naming firms such as Amazon, Facebook, Accenture, EY, Citibank and Morgan Stanley as being among those who hired two or more graduates from its latest cohort.