Duke Fuqua School of Business MBA Class of 2024. Duke photo

Four short years ago, nearly as many MBAs graduating from Duke University went into one of the many careers that fall under the umbrella of “tech” as consulting.

Four years and a lifetime of catastrophes for the tech industry later and tech is becoming an afterthought at the Fuqua School of Business, as its newly released MBA Class of 2024 employment report shows. Since it comprised 27% of the jobs reported by MBAs graduating in both 2020 and 2021, tech has dropped 15 percentage points to just 12% in the new report, a distant third behind consulting (39%) and finance (25%).

Despite this, and despite disruptions in the consulting industry that also knocked that sector down a peg in 2024, Duke MBAs maintained their median salary of $175K and median signing bonus of $30K. Because a larger percentage (87%) of the 340 grads reported receiving a bonus this year, Fuqua actually saw a small increase in its MBAs’ total compensation, to $201,100 from $198,400 last year. (Poets&Quants calculates compensation by adding base salary to signing and other bonuses and weighting the latter by the percentage of those receiving them.)

PLACEMENT RATES TUMBLE

Duke Fuqua’s Ed Bernier: “Major industries are experiencing hiring reductions and employers are transforming the ways they source talent. This makes for a tough and ultra-competitive environment for job seekers”

“Our graduates’ skills earned an impressive level of reward, matching the previous year’s record-high median compensation package of $175,000 in salary and $30,000 in signing bonuses,” Sheryle Dirks, associate dean for career management, writes in the forward to the new employment report. “These achievements are particularly significant given the reduced hiring in traditional MBA sectors like consulting and technology. Employers recognize what Fuqua graduates bring to the table is worth every penny.”

It’s the “reduced hiring” that has career centers at Fuqua — and every other business school — concerned. After achieving record offer and acceptance levels in 2022, with 98% of graduating MBAs receiving at least one job offer by three months post-graduation and 97% accepting, Duke’s placement rates began slipping in 2023, down to 93% of Fuqua MBAs receiving an offer by 90 days post-graduation, and 92% accepting. This year came a bigger hit: 85% offers by three months, and 82% accepts.

Those with non-permanent work authorization — international students — had an even harder time, as they usually do, with just 77% receiving offers after three months, and 76% accepting.

It doesn’t help that tech jobs — internet services and e-commerce, software, hardware, networking, and other positions — have been drying up. As tech placement has dropped by 15 points in three years, to just 12% of the latest class, consulting has had to carry the salary load to keep the bottom from falling out. It has done so, maintaining a $190K median salary despite falling from a school-record 43% to 39% this year — and despite the MBB firms of McKinsey, Bain and Boston Consulting Group reducing their hiring by nearly 30%. Picking up some of the slack were Deloitte (10 hires) and Kearney, LEK, and Oliver Wyman, each with five new hires.

Meanwhile, finance has become more attractive to Duke MBAs, growing to a quarter of the class from 21% last year. At 25%, it’s at a five-year high, though the median salary for Fuqua finance MBAs dipped this year to $173K from $175K.

DUKE FUQUA MBA JOBS BY INDUSTRY 2019-2024 

Source: Duke Fuqua

‘VALUABLE EXPERIENCE THEY WILL LEVERAGE FOR YEARS TO COME’

One of Fuqua’s strengths reflected in the new jobs report is its MBAs’ appeal across geographic boundaries. Unusual for any B-school, Fuqua this year boasts double-digit locations in every region in the U.S.: 16% in the West, 10% in the Midwest, 17% in the South, 15% in the Southwest, 14% in the Mid-Atlantic, and leading all, 28% in the Northeast. Fuqua grads’ willingness to go anywhere to find work may be a reflection of their gritty determination to overcome the hurdles they faced in a historically challenging year.

“It has been remarkable to witness the Daytime MBA Class of 2024 overcome challenges with tenacity and resolve,” Ed Bernier, assistant for Daytime MBA career services, writes in a blog accompanying the release of the new jobs report. “It is no secret that navigating the MBA job market can be hard even in years without economic fluctuations. Supporting our students through this process and watching them flourish is the best part of my role with Fuqua’s Career Management Center (CMC), and this year is no different. The Class of 2024 has had to learn new job-seeking techniques and refine or redefine their focus, gaining valuable experience they will leverage for years to come.

“Major industries are experiencing hiring reductions and employers are transforming the ways they source talent. This makes for a tough and ultra-competitive environment for job seekers.”

DUKE FUQUA TOP MBA EMPLOYERS 2019-2024 

Source: Duke Fuqua

DON’T MISS DUKE FUQUA 2023 MBA JOBS REPORT: ANOTHER BIG JUMP IN MEDIAN SALARY & TOTAL COMP and ANOTHER M7 SCHOOL REPORTS MBA SALARIES & PAY SLIPPING IN 2024: KELLOGG