25 years old and deep in debt

[Admiral Yi]

Kind of an interesting twist on the old theme of decadent, dangerous urban center vs. uptight puritanical suburbs.

Wrong thread.

[DGuller]

Kind of an interesting twist on the old theme of decadent, dangerous urban center vs. uptight puritanical suburbs.

Wrong thread.

I was trying to figure out the connection there for a moment.     I couldn't think of any.

[CountDeMoney]

For those of you in the fuck-the-lawyers-it's-the-MBAs-we-really-need-to-start-murdering-first bloc--

Stanford's Highest Paid MBA This Year: $522K

A graduating MBA student in Stanford University's Graduate School of Business this year nailed down a private equity job in the northeast with a total compensation package north of half a million dollars.

This year's highest paid Stanford MBA, who had a business undergraduate degree and three to five years of work experience before getting a graduate degree, reported receiving a guaranteed annual bonus of $337,500–a sum that does not even include potential tuition reimbursement, relocation expenses, auto allowances, profit sharing, stock or stock options. If that student received the median base salary in private equity of $150,000 along with the median signing bonus of $35,000, the person's total first-year compensation would be a minimum of $522,500.

The numbers are disclosed in Stanford's recently published employment report for the Class of 2013. All told, Stanford MBAs reported median base salaries of $125,000–exactly the same as last year. But median signing bonuses of $25,000 and median guaranteed bonuses of $30,000 were both up by $5,000 each over last year.

A record 18% of the class became entrepreneurs, up from 13% of the Class of 2012, (and their pay is not included among the medians or means). The previous all-time high for MBA startups at Stanford was 16% for the Class of 2011.

This year's percentage of MBA students who shunned traditional MBA jobs in favor of the start-up world reflects more than a three-fold increase from only 5% in the early 1990s and is 50% higher than the 12% peak during the dot-com bubble.

Yet, for the vast majority of Stanford MBAs who focused on mainstream jobs, it was a very good year, thank you. Some 77% of the class had job offers by graduation, roughly the same as last year's 78%, while 94% reported having job offers three months after commencement, also roughly equal to the 93% a year earlier.

Graduates earning the highest average base pay ventured into private equity ($157,696), hedge funds ($151,111), venture capital ($147,500), and management consulting ($132,855). Predictably, the lowest average base pay went to MBAs who took non-profit jobs ($85,050), real estate positions ($108,750), and retail roles ($110,294).

At the very top of the scale, a few MBAs really grabbed the golden ring. Stanford MBAs capturing the very highest base pay this year reported a $225,000 analyst position in private equity, a $225,000 doing strategy work in media/entertainment, and a $200,000 job in portfolio management at a hedge fund, One student reported getting a $100,000 bonus for signing on with a private equity firm. It was the highest sign-on bonus reported this year.

Not everyone was so lucky, of course. There were some shockingly low base salaries taken by members of Stanford's Class of 2013. One MBA reported taking a $40,000-a-year job in consumer products and services, the lowest base of any graduate this year. Another accepted a starting salary offer of just $54,000 for a media/entertainment company in tech. Presumably, that person got a piece of equity in exchange for the low salary. A couple of students took jobs paying $70,000 a year in base pay–in tech retail and in tech software (see table on the high and low base salaries by industry).

The largest single chunk, nearly one of three Stanford grads, or 32% of the entire class, went into technology, where the average base pay was $117,408. That was a signifiant change from the previous year when the tech industry absorbed 24% of the Class of 2012. Some 8% of this year's MBA output at Stanford landed jobs in retail, 4% in internet service companies and another 4% in consumer electronics.

Finance claimed the second biggest group, with 26% of the Class of 2013 taking jobs with financial outfits, a drop of six percentage points from the 32% last year. Some 11% of this year's MBAs went to private equity and leveraged buyout firms, with 4% each to hedge funds and venture capital firms, 3% with investment banking or brokerage houses, and another 3% in investment management.

Some 19% of the class, meantime, landed consulting gigs, slightly down from 20% a year earlier.

Highest To Lowest Paying Jobs For Stanford's Class of 2013
Industry                 Median Salary       Median Sign-On   Guaranteed Bonus
Private Equity/LBO   $150,000            $35,000             $125,000
Hedge Funds           $150,000            NA                     $150,000
Venture Capital       $150,000            NA                     $32,500
Consulting         $135,000            $25,000             $25,000
Energy/CleanTech   $130,000            $20,000             $26,500
E-Commerce        $130,000            $7,500               NA
Software                 $125,000            $25,000            $13,000
Consumer Electronics $125,000            $20,000             NA
Investment Mgt.    $122,500            $22,500           $30,000
Tech Finance            $122,500            NA                    NA
Healthcare            $120,000            $20,000           $22,500
Internet Services    $120,000            $11,250           $12,000
Tech Marketing            $117,500             NA                   NA
Tech Retail            $115,000             $25,000           NA
Investment Banking    $110,000             $50,000           NA
Manufacturing            $110,000              NA                    NA
Media/Entertainment   $105,000              NA                    NA
Real Estate                $105,000              NA                    NA
Non-Profit                    $85,000             $8,000             NA

And don't give me any shit about the formatting, either.  I only have an undergraduate education.  From a state school.

[Admiral Yi]

I highly suspect Mr. 522 just picked up where he left off at his old firm.

[Ideologue]

That's a lot of Blu rays and hookers

[CountDeMoney]

I highly suspect Mr. 522 just picked up where he left off at his old firm.

You're obviously MBA material.  Talents: wasted.

Of course, the very highest paid MBAs tend to be special cases. These graduates bring extraordinary work experience and track records that convince firms that they are worth the money. In private equity, that means hiring grads who already have been in the business -- often as high-performing analysts for the same companies that hire them back. Private equity, moreover, is taking a smaller percentage of the top MBAs. At Harvard, private equity and leveraged buyout firms hired just 9% of this year's class, versus 17% of the class in 2008.

A recruiter for a top private equity firm that recruits from only Harvard and Stanford (READ: DOUCHEBAG) attributes the size of these salary packages to a hiring arms race among the top firms.

"Many of them [private equity firms] take back their former analysts which means those spots are incredibly limited for anyone who hasn't worked in PE before school," says the recruiter.

Often, these recruits already were pulling down big salaries before deciding to go to business school. "Even more shocking is the fact that some of the pre-MBAs were made offers that were easily $500,000 to $600,000 over two years," adds the recruiter. "That's right, the 24-year-olds who were made offers when they were eight months into their two-year analyst programs, just eight months out of college."

Most business schools try to play these numbers down because they don't want to raise unrealistic expectations among applicants and students. After all, the average starting pay for MBAs from most elite schools is a third or less of these outsized gains.

Still doesn't make it any less obscene, or any less deserving of controlled detonations.

[Admiral Yi]

Much like the salaries of professional athletes and actors.

[CountDeMoney]

That's bullshit, and you know it.  Peyton Manning has never profited of the immoral and craven exploitation of others for the sake of a buck, with the exception of the Baltimore secondary.

[Ideologue]

There's a lot better case for high salaries for America's gladiators than there are its dismantlers.

[CountDeMoney]

There's a lot better case for high salaries for America's gladiators than there are its dismantlers.

Ooooh, good line.  Nice and appropriately smug.    

[Admiral Yi]

I'll leave you two to your thing. 

[Phillip V]

‘Generation Wait’: Mobility of young adults hits 50-year low
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/share-young-us-adults-move-hits-50-year-20884127


Record high student loan delinquency
'Outstanding balances rose $33 billion to $1.03 trillion in the third quarter. A record 11.8 percent of loans were behind by 90 days or more, up from 10.9 percent in the second quarter.'
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/americans-owe-more-biggest-consumer-debt-jump-over-5-years-2D11591451

[Valmy]

Youth unemployment is a pretty serious problem.  But it is really about the same puzzling issue: massive profits and no hiring and re-investment.  If the business model du jure is take money and bury it in the back yard the economy will eventualy cease to function.  It is just ridiculous, the Fed shoves all this cheap money to the banks who can't lend it because businesses are not borrowing.  Why?  How?  I just do not get it.

[CountDeMoney]

Youth unemployment is a pretty serious problem.  But it is really about the same puzzling issue: massive profits and no hiring and re-investment.  If the business model du jure is take money and bury it in the back yard the economy will eventualy cease to function.  It is just ridiculous, the Fed shoves all this cheap money to the banks who can't lend it because businesses are not borrowing.  Why?  How?  I just do not get it.

They're waiting until this whole vote-Democrats-into-the-White-House craze blows over.

Besides, business has learned after 2008 that if they can weather the contractions they suffered and still stay in business and show a profit with less employees, why bother expanding, investing, hiring?  The lesson learned was we can earn more with less.

[garbon]

Besides, business has learned after 2008 that if they can weather the contractions they suffered and still stay in business and show a profit with less employees, why bother expanding, investing, hiring?  The lesson learned was we can earn more with less.

Oddly my company keeps hiring more and more people.