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. Fourteenth up in our analysis: Charlotte, North Carolina.
(This entry is part of a series exploring such measures for various cities. You can find our other entries in the series here: Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, and Philadelphia.)
According to the sources Numbeo and Apartment List, the average cost of living in Charlotte is approximately $2400/month, with the average rent of a one-bedroom being $1420/month. In terms of the average post-MBA salary in this city, the data indicates it is around $115,604 while the average post-MBA compensation is $161,544.
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, Consulting leads the pack with 17.5% of MBAs belonging to this industry, followed by Manufacturing and Investment Management with 15.8% and 10.5%, respectively. Chemicals & Plastic trails at fourth place with 8.8% while Investment Banking and Technology, Internet, & Ecommerce shares fifth with 7.0% each. This leaves Commercial Banking (5.3%); Hospitals, Medicine, & Healthcare Services (5.3%); Telecommunications (3.5%); and Accounting & Audit (1.8%) finishing off the list. Our other category, which constituted almost 17.5% of our data, included industries such as Aerospace & Aviation, Education, and Consumer Products.
Now that it has been established what the popular industries for business students in Charlotte are, let’s take a look at the functions they are hired for. Consulting comes in first again with 19.3% followed by General Management, Investment Management, Operations, and Product Management with 8.8% each. Corporate Strategy and Investment Banking take third place with 7.0% each while Corporate Finance and Marketing share fourth place with 5.3%. Information Technology rounds out the list with 3.5% while the Other category encapsulates 17.5%.
You may be wondering which employers are hiring for these MBA functions. According to the data, the top 5 employers are Bank of America (10.5%), BASF (7.0%), Accenture (5.3%), Dimensional Fund Advisors (5.3%), and JELD-WEN (4.6%).
However, when specifically looking at the top employers for the Consulting Industry, Accenture has 30% and McKinsey & Company has 20% of all the MBAs in our dataset from this industry living in Charlotte. Trailing behind them are Booz Allen Hamilton, Cherry Bekaert, and Ernst & Young LLP with 10% each. In contrast, Manufacturing—the next most common industry— has its top employers as JELD-WEN with 33.3%, Schneider Electric with 22.2%, and BASF, Corning Inc, and Danaher with 11.1% each. Likewise, Investment Management has a different set of top employers with Dimensional Fund Advisors having 50% and Family Office, Movement Holdings, and Barings tying for second place with 16.7% each.
The last question asked was which business schools have the most alumni working in this city. Unsurprisingly, Duke University Fuqua School of Business comes in first with the alumni making up 15.8% of the data while the University of Chicago Booth School of Business makes up 18.8%. This is followed by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Kenan-Flager Business School with 10.1%, Wake Forest University School of Business with 7.0%, and Emory University Goizueta Business School with 5.3%.
MBAs in Charlotte – City Guide:
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