The top three recruiters for LBS’ Masters in Management graduates are BCG, Goldman Sachs, and McKinsey, which also boosted hiring.
It caps a robust recruitment season for consultancy firms at business schools globally in 2015. It also marks the latest increase in elite firm hiring at LBS; BCG, Bain and McKinsey were among the top four recruiters of MBAs last year. Consulting hired 33% of the entire MBA class.
Of the 96% of LBS’ MiM class who accepted job offers within three months of graduating, 40% accepted jobs in the consulting sector.
“This has increased from 31% the previous year,” said Lara Berkowitz, executive director of LBS’ career center.
“Firms such as Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey increased their LBS MiM hires,” she added.
This mirrors a trend across the b-school landscape. Demand for consultants from US MBA programs is particularly robust.
McKinsey doubled the number of MBAs it hired at the Fuqua School of Business last year. Sheryle Dirks, associate dean of career management, said the school has partnerships with McKinsey, Bain, Deloitte, and BCG.
But she added: “While hiring has increased, these positions remain very competitive.” Other top US schools report similar excitement among MBAs for advisory careers.
Jonathan Masland, director of careers at the Tuck School of Business, said: “There is strong demand from students and from [consulting firm] recruiters.” McKinsey, Bain and BCG hired 18% of Tuck’s MBAs in 2015.
Sue Kline, at MIT Sloan’s MBA Career Development Office, said: “Consulting firms have been among our top hirers for 30 years and remain of strong interest to our students.”
These firms pushed up pay at LBS. There was an increase in overall MiM salaries, with the average salary rising more than 4% from £36,295 to £37,890. “The increase in salaries is largely driven by a 10.4% increase in the average consulting salary,” Lara said.
At the MBA-level, pay in consulting has been strong. At Virginia’s Darden School, Berkeley-Haas, Wharton, Stanford and Harvard, MBAs working in the sector earned $140,000 average starting salaries in 2015.
Regina Resnick, at Columbia Business School’s Career Management Center, said: “One cannot ignore the generous base salaries strategic consulting firms offer, especially when a new grad is faced with a high debt load.”
Conrad Chua, head of MBA careers at the UK’s Cambridge Judge Business School, anticipates solid consulting recruitment in 2016: “We are cautiously optimistic that the prospects are good,” he said.
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