Internship, key to higher pay

Since 2001, Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) that owns the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), has been conducting The Alumni Perspectives Survey. The survey follow the career progression of MBA graduates.

“The survey documents job characteristics, tracks changes in job responsibility and salary over time and assesses the performance of graduate management education. The results provide invaluable feedback on skills assessments and gaps, acceptance in the job market and overall job satisfaction. These reports are used to help drive strategic decision-making processes in business schools,” explains Anant Rastogi, associate director, market development -south Asia, GMAC.

The sample size of Indian citizens in the survey was 257 alumni from the classes of 2000-2011. The report includes data from a total of 4,135 alumni worldwide from graduate management programmes in the classes of 2000-2011, including 847 global members of the MBA class of 2011. The survey is fielded annually and full report can be viewed at www.gmac.com/alumniperspectives.

A few key pointers in this years survey:

Alumni who obtained a job through an internship or work project had a higher starting salary ($86,291), on average, than those who found their first job after graduation ($72,000).

Full-time two-year MBA graduates of 2011 reported average starting annual salaries that were among the highest in $85,000, compared to part-time MBA alumni who reported an average starting annual salary of $76,000 and full-time one-year MBA alumni, whose median starting annual salary was $73,203. Full-time two-year and one-year MBAs had the highest additional compensation at $15,000 and $12,000 respectively.

— shilpa.vasudevam@newindianexpress.com