DC salaries for Top 20 MBA grads

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Huh I thought MBAs made more.

I make the same in a job requiring only a BS (sales).

Depends a lot on industry and function. There's not a lot of finance here so you don't see numbers quite as high as you might if you posed the question in a NYC or sfo board

Makes sense, but someone could also earn more in finance there with a BS too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am making $245k in a non stressful job with only a BS in finance - from a state school no less! Don't see any reason to get an MBA. The CIO of my company doesn't have one either and he's doing just fine (made 10m on his last company's sale).

I think you just need to be smart and good at what you do.

You're an outlier - most people are not going to make that with a BS in finance.

[Anonymous]

This post is making me depressed. Top 15 MBA, out a while, also a CPA making about $150K in the Midwest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This post is making me depressed. Top 15 MBA, out a while, also a CPA making about $150K in the Midwest.

But in the MW (well, most parts of it), $150K goes much further than $150K in DMV area. Isn't the average income in the DMV area around $160K or something? Where you live the average income is probably much lower.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This post is making me depressed. Top 15 MBA, out a while, also a CPA making about $150K in the Midwest.

But in the MW (well, most parts of it), $150K goes much further than $150K in DMV area. Isn't the average income in the DMV area around $160K or something? Where you live the average income is probably much lower.

Yes, that's true. The other thing is, I once came up with a list of everyone I ever worked with who hit it big - smacked the ball right down the middle. Considering I have worked with hundreds of people from very strong backgrounds, it was not a lot of people. There were some stars of stars, but most had a reasonably successful career with ups and downs vs. $250K+ salaries with equally successful partners. So maybe my feeling so failure are somewhat self induced.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This post is making me depressed. Top 15 MBA, out a while, also a CPA making about $150K in the Midwest.

But in the MW (well, most parts of it), $150K goes much further than $150K in DMV area. Isn't the average income in the DMV area around $160K or something? Where you live the average income is probably much lower.

Yes, that's true. The other thing is, I once came up with a list of everyone I ever worked with who hit it big - smacked the ball right down the middle. Considering I have worked with hundreds of people from very strong backgrounds, it was not a lot of people. There were some stars of stars, but most had a reasonably successful career with ups and downs vs. $250K+ salaries with equally successful partners. So maybe my feeling so failure are somewhat self induced.

As someone who is close to $500K annually and a lot more with stock options (though that is a variable for obvious reasons), I think making an income well above the norm is a function of making the right moves from a career standpoint. Timing is factor and luck plays a role as well.

But to give you and others a perspective on the value of a MBA, my salary doubled upon its completion when compared to what I was making when I left to pursue the MBA. My present employer is the third one since I completed the MBA and with each move, my salary went up about 30%. The rest of the increases were normal merit increases and promotions within each company.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Consulting. Top school. Been out a while. Generally earn $400-500k but it can vary. Sometimes stressful and does require some travel but also very flexible.

Good lord. Do you consult on your own or work for somebody?

I've done both. For my school I think I am scraping the bottom of the barrel. Some of my classmates give that much to the school in alumni giving.

Statistically there aren't any bschools in this country where earning 400-500 isn't doing really well compared to peers. That's BS.

Probably a troll, but it might be a function of industry / circle of friends. If I compare myself to my PE and IB friends I make jack shit, many of them if not all of them are north of $500k now. Some (and not an insignigicant #) are north of a million. Compared to my $200k and change....I'm only a few years out, Pp may be in a similar boat and just have more years behind him/her.

Not a troll. I said in my first post I've been out a while. My classmates tend to be heavy in investment banking and consulting. Several Goldman MDs and Mckinsey and Bain partners. A couple of CEOs, including one of the top multinationals. Of course those tend to be the men (which were 75% of my class). A decent number of the women don't work. Very few of my classmates are in the DC area. Most are in NY, Boston and SF/SV.

I am not familiar with statistics on MBA salaries 15-20+ years out. Maybe the person who referenced those could post that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Consulting. Top school. Been out a while. Generally earn $400-500k but it can vary. Sometimes stressful and does require some travel but also very flexible.

Good lord. Do you consult on your own or work for somebody?

I've done both. For my school I think I am scraping the bottom of the barrel. Some of my classmates give that much to the school in alumni giving.

Statistically there aren't any bschools in this country where earning 400-500 isn't doing really well compared to peers. That's BS.

Probably a troll, but it might be a function of industry / circle of friends. If I compare myself to my PE and IB friends I make jack shit, many of them if not all of them are north of $500k now. Some (and not an insignigicant #) are north of a million. Compared to my $200k and change....I'm only a few years out, Pp may be in a similar boat and just have more years behind him/her.

Not a troll. I said in my first post I've been out a while. My classmates tend to be heavy in investment banking and consulting. Several Goldman MDs and Mckinsey and Bain partners. A couple of CEOs, including one of the top multinationals. Of course those tend to be the men (which were 75% of my class). A decent number of the women don't work. Very few of my classmates are in the DC area. Most are in NY, Boston and SF/SV.

I am not familiar with statistics on MBA salaries 15-20+ years out. Maybe the person who referenced those could post that.

Best data source I know of:

http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/goldin/files/dynamics_of_the_gender_gap_for_young_professionals_in_the_financial_and_corporate_sectors.pdf

See page 10. There's another version of this that had salaries by industry as well and obviously finance dominated the highest bands.

[Anonymous]

I was also going to add that to the pp who feels like a failure: there's a huge sampling bias problem in comparing yourself to friends --- almost no one comes out of the woodwork to say they are making $90k a year 5 years out, and yet the data in the PDF shows those people (or something like them) clearly DO exist in significant number (see median line). The people who openly share salaries with friends do so because they know their salaries are strong. That biases the numbers obviously.

I'm at $200k 5 years out. It seems reasonable frankly. Between what I make and what DH makes we are in the low 300s. Honestly, past a certain point extra money doesn't really matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Consulting. Top school. Been out a while. Generally earn $400-500k but it can vary. Sometimes stressful and does require some travel but also very flexible.

Good lord. Do you consult on your own or work for somebody?

I've done both. For my school I think I am scraping the bottom of the barrel. Some of my classmates give that much to the school in alumni giving.

Statistically there aren't any bschools in this country where earning 400-500 isn't doing really well compared to peers. That's BS.

Probably a troll, but it might be a function of industry / circle of friends. If I compare myself to my PE and IB friends I make jack shit, many of them if not all of them are north of $500k now. Some (and not an insignigicant #) are north of a million. Compared to my $200k and change....I'm only a few years out, Pp may be in a similar boat and just have more years behind him/her.

Not a troll. I said in my first post I've been out a while. My classmates tend to be heavy in investment banking and consulting. Several Goldman MDs and Mckinsey and Bain partners. A couple of CEOs, including one of the top multinationals. Of course those tend to be the men (which were 75% of my class). A decent number of the women don't work. Very few of my classmates are in the DC area. Most are in NY, Boston and SF/SV.

I am not familiar with statistics on MBA salaries 15-20+ years out. Maybe the person who referenced those could post that.

Best data source I know of:

http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/goldin/files/dynamics_of_the_gender_gap_for_young_professionals_in_the_financial_and_corporate_sectors.pdf

See page 10. There's another version of this that had salaries by industry as well and obviously finance dominated the highest bands.

Super interesting. Thanks for posting. So this shows that mean for males at 13 years out is $442k. Women are much lower. And consistent with my classmates many women have dropped out of the workforce.

The person who accused me of BS because I said my classmates are making more (and we are more than 13 years out) should read this article.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was also going to add that to the pp who feels like a failure: there's a huge sampling bias problem in comparing yourself to friends --- almost no one comes out of the woodwork to say they are making $90k a year 5 years out, and yet the data in the PDF shows those people (or something like them) clearly DO exist in significant number (see median line). The people who openly share salaries with friends do so because they know their salaries are strong. That biases the numbers obviously.

I'm at $200k 5 years out. It seems reasonable frankly. Between what I make and what DH makes we are in the low 300s. Honestly, past a certain point extra money doesn't really matter.

I am that pp and thank you for these comments. Did not go to a top 5 (think top 10-15 Darden/Cornell/Stern/UCLA level) so there are not as many BCG/Goldman Sachs types as a Harvard or Chicago. It just seems like every company I joined there was either a massive revenue drop, person who hired me got fired, huge reorganization, etc. that happened about a year after I got there. Also, working in the Rust Belt was probably not the greatest move although the COL is much lower. Now I am thinking about getting into another field because perhaps corporate finance was great to study in B-school but not a good fit in the real world.

[Anonymous]

I work PT (25 hrs per week) and earn about 150k. I used to earn 200k right out of b school in NYC. I was making 300-400k before I had kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work PT (25 hrs per week) and earn about 150k. I used to earn 200k right out of b school in NYC. I was making 300-400k before I had kids.

Consulting or banking?