The MBA students who don't want $192k jobs in finance

The London Business School has become the latest to release a report on employment for its newly graduating MBA class. LBS MBAs don't seem to earn quite as much as MBAs graduating from top paying U.S. schools like Stanford, but they're still doing very well indeed. And in most cases, MBAs going into finance earn more than most.

The chart below shows the LBS figures for MBA total compensation by sector. On average, MBAs going into finance earn more than MBAs going into consulting, technology or other industries, with the private equity sector paying the most. At the margins, however, there are some MBAs earning huge amounts of money in the diversified industrials sector...

Despite the financial benefits of working in financial services after your MBA is over, LBS's employment report for the class of 2021 suggests that financial services jobs aren't that alluring. As the chart below shows, 27% of the current graduating class were working in financial services before the course. However, only 26% of this year's MBAs are going into finance when they finish.  A significant proportion of these were working in finance previously, while others have moved across from consulting and diversified financials to compensate for the finance people escaping to consulting and tech. The MBAs who don't seem that interested in the jobs paying $192k in finance are those who previously worked in technology: most of them either stay in tech or go into consulting instead.

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