Fortune Names the Most Sought-After MBA Employers

The following is from the All Star Essays blog for April 24:

Everyone knows the names of the roughly two dozen b-schools that most aspiring MBAs dream of gaining admission to. But what destinations do they aim for after getting their degrees?

Fortune magazine has published its list of the 100 most popular MBA employers for 2006. The companies were chosen on the basis of how many MBA students named them as one of their top choice career destinations.

The top 10 companies are:

1. McKinsey & Company
2. Google
3. Goldman Sachs
4. Bain & Company
5. The Boston Consulting Group
6. Citigroup
7. Apple Computer
8. General Electric
9. Johnson & Johnson
10. Morgan Stanley

Fortune found that MBA students are aiming high in their salary expectations, too. The average base salary that 2005 survey respondents said they expected to earn in their first year of post-MBA employment was $81,658. This year, the figure is $88,087.

MBA students going into consulting and investment management had some the highest salary expectations. It's no surprise that these fields are well-represented on the top employers list.

Ironically, the continuing popularity of consulting and investment management raises a problem for B-school applicants who have their sights set on these fields. If you want a career with McKinsey, that's great; but keep in mind that many other applicants will be saying the same thing. You need to put something in your essays – a personal experience, an explanation of what you like to do and why – that will help admissions committees tell you apart from all the other wanna-be consultants and persuade them that you have the right stuff to make it in a highly competitive sector.