MBAs See Lowest Pay Within Accounting Sector

MBA candidates ranked accounting as the lowest-paying among 47 industries included in Fortune Magazine’s 2007 survey of attitudes toward various employers and professional roles. The average expected starting salary for MBAs working in “auditing, accounting and taxation” (listed as a single category) came in at $63,694, according to the poll of 5,000 current MBA students. Five years after graduation, the MBA candidates expect accounting-related work to pay $111,135.

Both figures were the lowest by far among the 47 industries covered by the survey. The next-lowest paying sector, academic research, was far ahead at $77,859 for the year after graduation and $132,282 after five years. Government/public service and education/teaching ranked five and six notches higher, respectively, with expected first-year pay of about $83,500 and expected sixth-year pay at $144,000-148,000.

The annual survey is conducted for Fortune by Universum, a Philadelphia firm that specializes in employer branding.

Private equity - more specifically, "venture capital" – topped the MBA candidates’ pay expectations list, with first-year base salaries pegged at $107,919. Metals ranked second at $102,000, followed by management consulting ($101,400), investment management ($100,986) and investment banking ($98,877). However, the survey's emphasis on base pay rather than total compensation makes such comparisons cloudy.

Pay expectations showed a large gender difference. Female participants said they expected a base salary of $89,599 one year after graduation, rising to $169,849 after five years. Males expected $97,599 after one year and $204,372 after five years.

Management consulting remains the favorite initial destination for those pursuing MBA degrees. When participants were asked which companies they would most like to work for, blue-chip consulting firms McKinsey, Bain and Boston Consulting pulled down three of the top five places this year – just as they did in 2006. However, this year Google knocked McKinsey knocked out of its long-time first-place spot.

Goldman Sachs held its place as the favorite financial-sector employer in this year’s survey. Goldman placed third overall, behind Google and McKinsey.

The survey is constructed in a way that may limit its value as a gauge of candidate preferences. For one thing, private equity firms apparently weren't included among the 179 choices shown to MBA students taking part in the poll. Universum has said it compiles each year's list of possible choices by combining the prior year's top 100 with the top write-in vote-getters. Google was added in 2006 after drawing a huge write-in vote in 2005. But it looks like leading private-equity firms like Blackstone Group and Texas Pacific aren't garnering enough write-ins to earn themselves a place.

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