The strengthening of the US economy has led to increasing demand for MBA graduates in certain streams against the background of the increasing use of technology in industry practices. Let’s take a look at five of these high demand, well paying profiles.
- The median salary has doubled across industries for those who earned their MBA degrees and then returned to their fields, says U.S. News quoting a recent Wall Street Journal survey of around 7,000 recent graduates.
- Some who used an MBA degree for career change saw an even greater percentage of salary increase.
High demand for MBA graduates are seen in these fields:
Product Manager
The role involves coordinating efforts among finance, development and marketing teams to develop new systems and widgets, usually on a deadline and under a budget.
- MBA graduates are offered roles as Product Manager or Senior Product Manager. These are among the 10 most in-demand job titles requiring an MBA, says ZipRecruiter, an online employment marketplace.
- The increasing power of such tech-related jobs seen in B-school employment reports. The University of Texas—Austin’s McCombs School of Business saw 16% of the Class of 2018 accepting roles in the sector when it was just 8% in 2017.
Consultant
Management Consultants often work with clients on a project or contract basis, to provide expertise to companies facing problems or trying to adopt new processes. They strive to improve the efficiency, profitability and long-term planning in the companies.
- Consulting is much in demand at times of economic boom. Once the big ones make some eye-popping offers, others try to match them, says Stephen Pidgeon, Executive Director, Career Services at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business.
- Tuck usually sees heavy recruitment by Consulting companies. The Class of 2018 had 30% students accepting jobs in the sector. Increased hiring, along with a rise in salary offers, is expected this year.
- MBA degree holders get Consultant or Senior Consultant roles compared to the entry-level analysts, hired just of college.
- Median pay for management consultants in 2017 was $82,450 (source: Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Along with Consulting, Finance continues to remain a perennial favourite domain choice for MBA graduates. They are offered roles as the Chief Financial Officer, Senior Financial Analyst, Financial Controller and Director of Finance.
Medical and Health Services Manager
The role of these managers is to oversee operations and finances at hospitals, nursing homes and other patient-care facilities. Also known as health care executives and health care administrators, they will be more in demand as the medical industry expands to accommodate the ageing of the American population.
- Market expansion has created demand for Managers familiar with analytics and business functions.
- The demand has led to several B-schools offering specialized MBA programs that focus on Healthcare and related areas.
- Median pay for medical and health services managers was $98,350 in 2017 (source: Bureau of Labor Statistics).
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Financial Manager
Along with Consulting, Finance continues to remain a perennial favourite domain choice for MBA graduates. They are offered roles as the Chief Financial Officer, Senior Financial Analyst, Financial Controller and Director of Finance.
- Financial Managers’ median pay in 2017 was $125,080 (source: Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Product Marketing Manager and Brand Marketing Manager
These two profiles are in demand in any industry that uses data analytics in marketing.
- Product and Brand Marketing Managers help figure out the value of what a company creates and how to communicate that value to potential customers while also analyzing the competition.
- Median pay for marketing managers in 2017 was $132,230 (source: Bureau of Labor Statistics).
