GMAC Survey Reveals Long-Term MBA Job Satisfaction

The vast majority of graduate business school alumni rate their educations highly in terms of career progression, pay, and overall value, according to a new survey.

The findings are based on a survey of more than 12,000 alumni from 71 business schools conducted in October and November of last year by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), which publishes the GMAT test. Respondents came from every global region and included those who received MBAs and other graduate degrees from 1959 to 2014.

The survey found that substantial numbers of graduates obtained high-level positions just a few years after graduation. After five years, a majority of graduates had senior-level positions or higher, and at 10 years 25% had executive-level positions while 5% held ‘c-suite’ jobs such as CEO and CFO. On average, it took business school graduates 17 years to obtain a c-suite position (more on MBA careers).

Those who reach those lofty heights describe themselves as more innovative, proactive, creative, and competitive compared to alumni further down the food chain. Most attribute their career success to personal effort (32%), but relatively few credit their business education (15%) – about the same number that cite their ‘attitude toward life’ and their innate abilities.

Nine out of 10 alumni said their business education increased their earning power, and a majority reports that they are satisfied with their current pay. In the US, median base salaries ranged from about US$50,000 for alumni in entry-level jobs at small companies to US$300,000 for those in c-suite positions at very large organizations.

Improved PPP in developing economies

GMAC calculated the median annual base salary for graduates working in more than 20 countries and compared it to each country’s gross domestic product based on purchasing power parity to determine how much more purchasing power business school alumni have compared with the average resident of each country.

In terms of pay, GMAC found, a graduate business degree is far more valuable in developing countries, even if salaries for business graduates are smaller. In the US, for example, where the median base salary for business school alumni is US$110,000, alumni enjoy purchasing power that is around twice that of the average resident. In Europe, salaries for business school alumni ranged from 1.6 times to 3.6 times that of the typical resident.

But elsewhere, business school alumni could really live like kings. In China, they earn 5.6 times the average, in India 6.2 times the average, and in Nigeria 6.8 times the average.

MBA career trends

Asked to rate their own career success, 25% of respondents who work for an employer and 33% of those who were self-employed rated themselves 9 or 10 on a 10-point scale, with the biggest contributing factor being personal effort or hard work. Reported levels of career success increase later in the respondent’s career, while recent graduates are more likely to attribute their success to their graduate management education.

Interestingly, the percentage of alumni working in specific industries has, with few exceptions, changed very little over the years. Among alumni working for employers, the proportion employed in technology has been on the rise since 1990, and the percentage working for nonprofits or government has steadily declined; 32% of those graduating before 1980, compared to 9% for the graduating classes of 2010 to 2014, worked in the latter sectors.

The trend towards entrepreneurship that has swept over the business school landscape in recent years has not impacted every country equally. While much has been made about recent graduates from US schools starting their own companies, the fact is only 13% of business school alumni from all graduating classes surveyed are now self-employed. A dozen countries have higher rates of self-employment including Canada (16%), the UK (20%), Mexico (23%), and Thailand (30%).

When it comes to how alumni rate the value of their business school experience, GMAC found that a lot depends on the program format. The traditional two-year full-time MBA program was rated the best, with 82% describing its value as ‘excellent’ or ‘outstanding’, compared to 75% for the executive MBA, 70% for the online MBA, and 66% for the part-time MBA. Only the master’s in finance fared worse, with just 64% rating its value as excellent or outstanding.