While we await the publication of the Class of 2025 MBA employment reports, we thought it would be helpful to review the employment trends as of 2024. Despite a slowdown in finance industry hiring, MBA graduates continue to be drawn to careers in the finance industry due to the large compensation packages, the chance to work on high-profile deals at investment banks, and the opportunity to invest in the next billion-dollar company at a venture capital or private equity firm. As we will see below, the top MBA programs continue to have a strong track record of finance industry job placement and can accelerate finance careers. In particular, M7 business schools continue to dominate in the buy-side job placements for venture capital, private equity, and investment management.
In this analysis, we review Class of 2024 MBA job acceptances in key finance industry categories such as investment banking (IB), investment management (IM), private equity (PE), venture capital (VC), and other finance industry jobs.
In case you are not fully familiar with the finance industry job categories, see the footnote on sell-side vs. buy-side career categories in the finance industry.1
MBA Job Placement in the Finance Industry for the Class of 2024
Leading MBA programs provide great opportunities for their MBA graduates to explore a finance industry career. You can see this in the following chart, which highlights the percentage of Class of 2024 full-time MBA graduates from 25 leading MBA programs who accepted finance industry jobs:
These 25 MBA programs fall into four groups. First, there are seven business schools (Johnson, HBS, Stanford GSB, Wharton, CBS, NYU Stern and Booth) in which finance industry jobs represent over 33% of jobs accepted by Class of 2024 MBA graduates. There is a second group of nine MBA programs (McDonough, Darden, Yale SOM, Fuqua, Tuck, Owen, MIT Sloan, Goizueta and Kenan-Flagler) that placed 21% to 27% of Class of 2024 graduates into finance industry jobs. Next, there are five MBA programs (Tepper, Anderson, Ross, Kellogg and McCombs) that placed 17% to 19% of graduates into finance jobs. Finally, there are four MBA programs that place the lowest percentage into finance industry jobs: Haas (14%), Marshall (13%), Kelley (8%) and Foster (0%).
Since business schools vary by size, it is helpful to review the actual number of Class of 2024 MBA graduates accepting finance industry jobs.
Three MBA programs (HBS, CBS, and Wharton) each place over 200 Class of 2024 graduates into finance industry jobs, followed by Booth with 144. Next is a group of seven MBA programs (Johnson, NYU Stern, Darden, Stanford GSB, Fuqua, Kellogg and Yale SOM) who place between 60 to 87 Class of 2024 graduates into finance industry jobs. Then there is Tuck, MIT Sloan, Ross, McDonough, Anderson and Kenan-Flagler who place 37 to 52 graduates into finance jobs. Finally, there is Tepper (26), Haas (25), Owen (25), Goizueta (15), Kelley (7) and Foster (0) who placed the fewest graduates into finance jobs.
While finance industry jobs remain popular, they were harder to attain in 2024. Among these 24 business schools, there was a 137 person decline in the number of finance industry jobs accepted in the Class of 2024 compared to the Class of 2023:
While CBS, HBS and Ross increased the number of finance industry jobs accepted from 2023 to 2024, most business schools posted a decline in finance industry jobs accepted including Kellogg (-17), Booth (-18), Kenan-Flagler (-26) and Wharton (-32).
Interestingly, when we look at the change in percentage of Class of 2024 vs. 2023 MBA graduates accepting finance jobs, many schools are showing increases:
The reason for this discrepancy is because the total number of MBA graduates seeking employment and accepting jobs has declined from 2023 to 2024. Meaning, finance industry jobs are still coveted by MBA graduates, but fewer Class of 2024 MBA graduates received and accepted offers.
M7 Schools Dominate Buy-Side Job Placement in Private Equity, Venture Capital and Investment Management
While the overall number of finance industry jobs declined for the Class of 2024, the top MBA programs still place a lot of MBA graduates into finance industry jobs. In particular, six of the M7 business schools (Stanford GSB, HBS, Wharton, CBS, Booth and MIT Sloan) continue to have a strong track record of helping their graduates gain buy-side jobs in investment management, private equity and venture capital. This is apparent in the data that the business schools publish in their employment reports.
Here is a chart showing the total percentage of buy-side industry jobs accepted (venture capital, private equity and investment management) for 18 MBA programs:
HBS (30%), Stanford GSB (29%), and Wharton (19%) have the highest percentage of buy-side job acceptances for the Class of 2024. It is a real testament to these programs’ competitive advantage in delivering strong buy-side finance job placement.
CBS (13%) and MIT Sloan (13%) are next in buy-side job placement, followed by Booth (11%), Haas (11%), Yale SOM (9%) and Kellogg (7%).
Since M7 business schools are also among the largest MBA programs, the M7 schools also lead in the total number of buy side job placements by program.
HBS (163) and Wharton (108) have the most Class of 2024 buy side job placement, followed by CBS (76), Stanford GSB (58), Booth (46), MIT Sloan (28) and Kellogg (26). The next four include Yale SOM (21), Haas (18), Fuqua (15) and NYU Stern (14).
Now we will review the buy side job placements in more detail, starting with the Class of 2024 venture capital job placement.
Venture Capital – MBA Job Placement in the Finance Industry
Here is the chart comparing venture capital job placement for the full-time MBA Classes of 2024:
Stanford GSB (6%) has the highest percentage of Class of 2024 venture capital job acceptances, followed by HBS (5%), MIT Sloan (4.5%), Haas (3.5%) and Wharton (3.4%). In addition, there are three MBA programs that place 2% of graduates in venture jobs, including CBS, Booth and Kellogg. Next there are eight MBA programs that place 1% into venture capital jobs: Yale SOM, NYU Stern, McCombs, Anderson, Tuck, Johnson, Fuqua and Ross.
Because HBS and Wharton both have class sizes that are more than twice the size of Stanford GSB’s class size, HBS actually placed the largest number of Class of 2024 graduates into venture capital jobs (27), followed by Wharton (19), Stanford GSB (12), MIT Sloan (10) and CBS (10):
Private Equity – MBA Job Placement in the Finance Industry
Now let’s review private equity job placement for the full-time MBA Class of 2024:
The data shows that six of the M7 business schools are the clear leaders in private equity job acceptances: HBS (19%), Stanford (16%) and Wharton (10%) have the highest percentage of Class of 2024 graduates accepting private equity jobs, followed by Booth (6%), CBS (5%), Kellogg (4%), Haas (4%) and MIT Sloan (3%). In addition, Fuqua, NYU Stern and Yale SOM each place 2% into Private Equity.
In terms of the total number of Class of 2024 graduates accepting PE jobs, HBS leads with 103, followed by Wharton (56), Stanford GSB (32) CBS (31), Booth (28) and Kellogg (14):
Investment Management Jobs Accepted
Next we review buy-side investment management jobs accepted for the full-time MBA Class of 2024.
Stanford GSB (7%), HBS (6%), Yale SOM (6%), CBS (6%), Wharton (6%) and MIT Sloan (5%) lead the pack with the highest percentage of investment management job acceptances, followed by Kenan-Flagler (4%), McCombs (4%) and Haas (4%).
When reviewing the total number of Class of 2024 graduates accepting investment management positions, CBS (35), HBS (33) and Wharton (33) lead the way, followed by Stanford GSB (14), Yale SOM (14), MIT Sloan (12) and Booth (11):
CBS is a long-time leader in investment management job placement due to its well-regarded value investment program and its many alumni in the New York-based investment management industry. HBS and Wharton also have strong ties to the investment management industry in Boston and New York.
Sell-Side Investment Banking Jobs: Johnson and Stern Have the Highest Percentages
Now that we begin to review sell side investment banking job acceptances, a different picture emerges with Johnson and Stern leading the way.
The MBA programs with the highest percentage of investment banking jobs accepted were Johnson (32%) and Stern (27%), followed by CBS (17%), Tuck (17%), Goizueta (16%), Wharton, (15%), Yale SOM (14%), McDonough (14%) and Fuqua (13%).
In terms of the total number of Class of 2024 MBA graduates accepting investment banking jobs, CBS (102) and Wharton (85) placed the most, followed by Johnson (65) and NYU Stern (63). Next was Booth (41), Tuck (37), Fuqua (35) and Yale SOM (32). Meaning, these business schools have a strong track record of placing their MBA graduates into investment banking jobs.
It is interesting to see that HBS only sent 5% (27) of the Class of 2024 into investment banking jobs and Stanford GSB sent 0%. Meaning, while finance jobs accepted represent over 37% of jobs accepted by HBS and Stanford GSB Class of 2024 graduates, these graduates are mostly accepting buy-side finance jobs, not sell-side finance jobs. In contrast, while Johnson (42%) had the highest percentage of total finance jobs accepted among Class of 2024 MBA graduates, the majority of these jobs accepted are for sell-side investment banking jobs not buy-side jobs in venture capital, private equity or investment management.
Diversified and Other Finance Jobs
In addition to sell-side or buy-side finance jobs, there is a final category of finance jobs that encompasses other areas of finance such as corporate finance, commercial banking and insurance.
Booth (13%), McDonough (11%) and Owen (11%) have the highest percentage of graduates accepting diversified finance jobs, followed by Stanford GSB (8%), Johnson (8%), Kenan-Flagler (7%) and Fuqua (7%).
In terms of the number of Class of 2024 MBA graduates accepting diversified finance jobs, Booth (57) leads the pack, followed by CBS (32), HBS (22), Kellogg (21), Fuqua (19) and McDonough (18). The diversified finance job placement data shows that these MBA programs provide their graduates with multiple paths to pursue a finance career.
Conclusion
While many of these MBA programs post strong finance industry job acceptances, there is a difference in the types of jobs accepted by graduates of different schools. To summarize this, here is the overall percentage of finance jobs accepted for 25 leading MBA programs.
Next, here is a chart showing the buy-side jobs (VC+PE+IM) vs sell-side (IB) jobs vs. diversified jobs accepted for 20 MBA programs as well as the five business schools (Darden, Kelley, Tepper, Goizueta and Foster) that do not report their percentage of finance industry jobs accepted by finance industry job subcategories.
There are clearly differences in the types of finance industry jobs that are accepted by graduates of these programs. For instance, most of the finance jobs accepted by Stanford GSB, HBS, MIT Sloan and Haas Class of 2024 graduates are in buy-side finance jobs while most of Johnson and Stern Class of 2024 finance jobs accepted are in sell-side investment banking jobs (and diversified finance jobs for Johnson). Other M7 programs like Wharton, CBS, Booth, CBS and Kellogg have a more balanced mix of buy-side and sell-side jobs accepted by their Class of 2024 MBA graduates.
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- Sell-side firms sell financial products to institutional investors. Buy-side firms are investment firms with capital to invest in financial products. For example, a sell-side investment bank might help broker the sale of a company to a private equity firm. Sell-side firms such as investment banks typically offer formal training programs to new employees. This makes it easier for MBA students to enter the finance industry by joining an investment bank. In contrast, buy-side firms – whether a private equity firm or an investment management firm – often do not offer extensive training programs. Instead, they tend to hire MBA job candidates with prior finance experience. Thus, a common MBA career path in finance is to first work at an investment bank before transitioning to a private equity or investment management role.
- Sell-side firms sell financial products to institutional investors. Buy-side firms are investment firms with capital to invest in financial products. For example, a sell-side investment bank might help broker the sale of a company to a private equity firm. Sell-side firms such as investment banks typically offer formal training programs to new employees. This makes it easier for MBA students to enter the finance industry by joining an investment bank. In contrast, buy-side firms – whether a private equity firm or an investment management firm – often do not offer extensive training programs. Instead, they tend to hire MBA job candidates with prior finance experience. Thus, a common MBA career path in finance is to first work at an investment bank before transitioning to a private equity or investment management role.
