One of the advantages of top-tier MBA degrees is their portability – candidates from top schools often have the opportunity to work in any city they want. For certain industries such as the federal government, a location like Washington, D.C. is synonymous with the industry and is regarded as “the place to be” in terms of career growth. But what if there was a way to analyze what U.S. cities have to offer MBA students?
Utilizing data provided by MBAs across the nation, we are able to analyze metrics such as average compensation, the most common functional roles and industries, and the companies that hire a large number of MBAs in any major city in the United States. Thirteenth up in our analysis: Austin, Texas.
(This entry is part of a series exploring such measures for various cities. You can find our other entries in the series here: Dallas, Denver, Houston, and San Francisco.)
According to the sources Bungalow, Numbeo, and Apartment List, the average cost of living in Austin is approximately $2300/month, with the median rent of a one-bedroom being $1350/month. In terms of the average post-MBA salary in this city, the data indicates it is around $103,606 while the average post-MBA compensation is $133,575.
City ranks for three separate measures out of a total of 55 evaluated cities
When looking at the top ten industries of MBAs living in this city, Technology, Internet, & Ecommerce leads the pack by a large margin with 53.8% of MBAs belonging to this industry, followed by Computer Services & Information Technology and Energy, Gas, Oil, and Utilities with 7.7% each. The following industries each have 3.1%: Consulting; Diversified Financial Services; Government, Military, & Politics; Manufacturing; Phama, Medical Devices, & Biotech; and Real Estate. Our other category, which constituted almost 12.3% of our data, included industries such as Aerospace & Aviation, Education, and Retail.
Now that it has been established what the popular industries for business students in Austin are, let’s take a look at the functions they are hired for. Marketing comes in first with 18.5% followed by Sales with 12.3% and General Management with 10.8%. Product Management takes fourth place with 9.2% and Consulting and Project Management shares fifth place with 7.8%. Analytics & Data Science and Corporate Finance share the sixth position, tyinging with 6.2%. Business Development (4.6%) and Private Equity (3.1%) rounds out the list while the Other category encapsulates 13.8%.
You may be wondering which employers are hiring for these MBA functions. According to the data, the top 5 employers are Dell (33.8%), IBM (4.6%), the U.S. Army(4.6%), Apple (3.1%), and 3M (1.5%).
However, when specifically looking at the top employers for the Technology, Internet, & Ecommerce Industry, Dell has 57.1% and IBM has 8.6% of all the MBAs in our dataset from this industry living in Austin. Trailing behind them is Alation, Apple, and Cirrus Logic with 2.9% each. In contrast, Computer Services & Information Technology—the next most common industry— has its top employers as Dell with 40%, and Apple, DXC Technology, and Forcepoint with 20% each. Likewise, Energy, Gas, Oil, and Utilities has a different set of top employers with the following having 20% each: Alba Energy, Chevron Corporation, Clear Water Resources, General Electric, and Wind Energy Transmission Texas.
The last question asked was which business schools have the most alumni working in this city. Unsurprisingly, the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business comes in first with the alumni making up 26.2% of the data. This is followed by Duke University Fuqua School of Business and Northwestern Kellogg School of Management with 7.7% each, and Texas A&M University Mays School of Business and the University of Chicago School of Business with 6.2% each.
MBAs in Austin – City Guide:
Are you interested in learning more about MBAs in other US cities? Continue checking out the RelishCareers Blog, where we will continue posting information about popular cities for business students. Candidates can also sign up for an account through RelishCareers and registrants will be informed of all upcoming blog posts through email.