A career in the technology industry is one of the top three career paths that many business school graduates pursue (along with consulting and finance). In this analysis, we take a closer look at which leading MBA programs managed to place their graduates into tech industry jobs in 2024 despite the overall decline in tech industry hiring. We also review recent trends in MBA graduate hiring at Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft (aka Big Tech).
Technology Industry Job Placement for the MBA Class of 2024
The following chart highlights the percentage of Class of 2024 full-time MBA graduates who accepted a technology industry job, as reported in the Class of 2024 employment reports for 25 leading MBA programs.
Among MBA Class of 2024 graduates who accepted jobs, Foster sent the highest percentage into tech industry jobs, followed by Tepper, Haas, Anderson, McCombs and Stanford GSB. Note that four of the six business schools sending the highest percentage of graduates into tech industry jobs are located on the U.S. West Coast. This should come as no surprise given the concentration of ‘Big Tech’ firms and venture-backed start-ups located there.
The business schools sending the lowest percentage into tech industry jobs are located on the East Coast. They include Yale SOM, NYU Stern, Darden, Goizueta, Owen and McDonough.
Since the MBA programs vary by class size, it is also helpful to review the total number of MBA graduates accepting tech industry jobs.
Larger MBA programs such as HBS, Wharton, Kellogg, Booth and CBS sent the most MBA graduates into tech industry jobs. In addition, Anderson, Stanford GSB, MIT Sloan, Haas and Ross each placed between 40 to 49 Class of 2024 graduates into tech industry jobs.
The MBA programs that sent the fewest Class of 2024 MBA graduates into tech industry jobs were McDonough, Kelley, Owen and Goizueta.
Decline in Tech Industry Hiring for the MBA Class of 2024
There was an overall decline in tech industry hiring for MBA graduates in the past year. Seventeen of the 25 business schools reported a decline in the percentage of MBA graduates accepting tech industry jobs from the Class of 2023 to the Class of 2024. The exceptions were a handful of business schools such as Foster, McCombs, Kellogg, Kenan-Flagler and Wharton who reported a percentage increase:
Since MBA programs vary by size, it is helpful to review the change in the total number of MBA graduates who accept technology industry jobs from each of these MBA programs.
McDonough, MIT Sloan, Haas and Fuqua posted the biggest declines in Class of 2024 tech industry jobs accepted, followed by NYU Stern and Anderson. Kellogg and McCombs were the only two MBA programs that actually posted gains in Class of 2024 tech industry employment. It will be interesting to see if tech industry hiring stabilizes for the MBA graduates in the Class of 2025.
Note: While five MBA programs show a percentage increase in tech jobs accepted, only two MBA programs actually show an increase in MBA graduates accepting tech industry jobs. 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, tech industry jobs are still coveted by MBA graduates, but fewer MBA Class of 2024 graduates received and accepted offers.
Big Tech Analysis (Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple)
Among MBA students and MBA applicants seeking a tech industry career, there is a lot of demand to work at leading ‘Big Tech’ firms such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Apple. These large tech firms hire MBAs to fill a variety of positions including product management and logistics roles as well as more traditional corporate roles in strategy, finance or marketing. Of the 25 MBA programs covered in this article, only seven business schools specifically publish the number of Class of 2024 MBA graduates who have accepted jobs at these Big Tech firms.
While only seven MBA programs publish tech company specific job placement data, we have enough to note some MBA hiring trends for these tech firms based the seven MBA programs that share their firm-specific data.
For example, of these seven MBA programs reporting ‘Big Tech’ job placement data for Class of 2024 graduates, Kellogg (34) placed the most, followed by Booth, CBS, MIT Sloan, Fuqua and Ross. Stern is farther back with six Big Tech jobs accepted.
Looking at the overall Big Tech job placements trends among MBA graduates of these seven MBA programs, there was a 26% decline in Big Tech Jobs accepted from the Class of 2023 (174) to the Class of 2024 (129). This is a noticeable decline compared to the relatively stable 258 – 287 Big Tech jobs accepted per year for the MBA graduates of these seven MBA programs for the Class of 2019 through the Class of 2022.
To account for the difference in class size across these seven MBA programs, we will now compare the Big Tech jobs accepted by MBA graduates as a percentage of total tech industry jobs accepted by the MBA graduates of these seven MBA programs over the past three years.
Looking at the Class of 2024 data, Fuqua (46%) and Kellogg (45%) had the highest percentage of Big Tech jobs accepted, followed by Sloan (37%), Booth (37%) and CBS (36%). In addition, all seven MBA Programs have a lower percentage of Big Tech Jobs accepted in the Class of 2024 than in the Class of 2022. Meaning, the tech industry jobs accepted by the Class of 2024 are less concentrated in the Big Tech firms than they were for the Class of 2022. This is likely due to a pullback in MBA hiring by the Big Tech firms over the past two years.
Amazon Job Placement
Now we will review the Amazon job placement data from the seven business schools.
Of these seven MBA programs, Amazon hired the most Class of 2024 graduates from Kellogg, followed by Booth, CBS, Fuqua, MIT Sloan and Ross.
Amazon is the largest tech industry employer of recent graduates for leading MBA programs. For example, Amazon hired over 22% of the MBA graduates accepting tech industry jobs from six of these seven MBA programs.
When reviewing the Amazon jobs accepted by recent MBA graduates of these seven MBA programs over the past five years, you can see that Amazon dramatically reduced its hiring from 160 in the Class of 2022 to 104 in the Class of 2023 and then to 85 in the Class of 2024. In addition, this figure of 85 hires is Amazon’s lowest total number of MBA hires from these seven MBA programs in the last six years, as seen on the chart below:
Google Job Placement
Now we will review Google MBA hiring at these seven MBA programs:
Google hired just 18 Class of 2024 MBA graduates from these seven MBA programs, a 51% decline when compared to the 37 hires from these seven MBA programs in the Class of 2023. Google hired five each from CBS and Booth, three from Kellogg, two from MIT Sloan and one each from Stern, Fuqua and Ross.
Despite this decline, Google job offers still accounted for 9% of CBS’s tech jobs accepted and 8% of Booths tech jobs accepted in the Class of 2024:
More broadly, after hiring 60 – 70 MBA graduates per year across these seven MBA programs from the Class of 2019 to the Class of 2022, Google dramatically reduced its hiring to 37 in the Class of 2023 and then to just 18 in the Class of 2024:
Microsoft Job Placement
Next, we review Microsoft hiring at these seven MBA programs:
Microsoft has been a less active MBA recruiter than they were several years ago. Microsoft only hired one or two Class of 2024 MBA graduates from each of these seven MBA programs.
As a result, it is not a surprise to note that Microsoft jobs represent six percent or less of the total tech jobs accepted at these seven MBA programs.
As we can see in the chart below, Microsoft jobs accepted from these seven MBA programs have declined from 44 in the Class of 2019 to just 12 in the Class of 2024.
Apple Job Placement
Now we will review Apple’s hiring at these seven MBA programs:
Apple has traditionally hired fewer MBA graduates from these seven MBA programs than their Big Tech peers. Having said this, Apple did hire seven Kellogg Class of 2024 graduates, which is an increase from the four Kellogg graduates that Apple hired from the Class of 2023.
While Apple hires make up 5% or fewer of the tech jobs accepted from six of these seven MBA programs, Apple hires were 9% of Kellogg’s total tech industry hires. This suggests that Kellogg has an edge in Apple job placement relative to other top MBA programs.
Apple only hired 14 MBAs from these seven MBA programs in the Class of 2024, and seven of these hires were at Kellogg.
Conclusion
In summary, among the 25 MBA programs covered in this article, larger MBA programs such as HBS, Wharton, Kellogg and Booth sent the most MBA graduates into tech industry jobs while Foster, Tepper, Haas and Anderson had the highest percentage of Class of 2024 graduates accepting tech jobs.
There has also been an overall decline in tech industry hiring in the past year. Twenty of the business schools reported a decline in MBA graduates accepting tech industry jobs from the Class of 2023 to the Class of 2024.
Among the seven MBA programs that share firm-specific hiring data, Big Tech jobs remain popular as over 29% of tech jobs accepted by Class of 2024 graduates from these seven MBA programs were at four Big Tech companies. However, there was a collective decline in Big Tech jobs accepted by Class of 2024 graduates of these seven MBA programs compared to the Class of 2023. It will be interesting to see if tech industry hiring of MBAs begins to stabilize for the Class of 2025.
