University of Toronto (Rotman) MBA Employment Report 2017-18

The University of Toronto MBA (Rotman MBA) is one of the largest MBA programs in Canada and is able to produce a fairly in-depth employment report each year.   As much a marketing piece as it is a report on career results, the report does offer some insights into where Rotman MBA graduates end up and also whether or not Rotman might be a good school for you.

First Impressions
From a quick review, a few things stand out.  The first is that ~50% of the Rotman MBA class is made up of International (study permit) students, and roughly 70% of all students are born outside of Canada.  Diverse is a fair representation of Toronto, but I'd say the number of students born outside of Canada may also speak a little to the difficulty of having foreign experience translate well in Canada.  I'd speculate that of the ~20% of students born outside of Canada but having Canadian Citizenship or PR status, half came to Toronto with their parents and half came into Canada with education and work experience from abroad.  Depending on where someone is coming from, it can take time to acclimatize to Canadian society and workplace culture, but I'd also say foreign experience is discounted by employers without further experience in Canada. 

The second thing that stands out is how focused the career outcomes are around Finance/Financial Services and Consulting.  Around 60% of all internships and final placements are in these two areas.  Perhaps not surprising as these are the two main areas you think of for MBA careers, but the stats do back it up.  That also means that every year 200 or more students from Rotman enter into post-grad positions in these areas.

Overall placement rates of 85% within 3 months of graduate and 91% within 6 months of graduation are fairly decent and on par with other Eastern Canadian schools.  In raw number terms, that does mean that 30+ students are unemployed 6 months after graduation (and 50+ studetnts are unemployed 3 months out).  Another ~25 students were not seeking employment within 3 months of completing the MBA (this could include those students who were sponsored by their employer during the program, those who are pursuing further studies, those who simply want a break, or a number of other possibilities).

Employment Salaries
 I'll preface this by saying this is true of all MBA programs in Canada, not just Rotman, but salaries are well below figures from comparable US programs.  I'll point this out specifically for Rotman, primiarly because they have been trying to increase their enrolment figures with US students.  A median base salary of $85,000 and an average salary of $92,000 for graduates is fairly strong by Canadian school standards (although you'd expect the University of Toronto to be setting the pace on this).   

In terms of breakdown by industry, the stand out area is in Law / Legal Services. With mean and median salaries over $150,000 and the highest overall salary reported by a 2017 Rotman graduate ($230,000) it does look like the JD/MBA investment pays off.  The salary ranges also offer some interesting information.  Even though the mean and median Consulting salaries are $90,000 and $107,000, the low-end of the range begins at $45,500.  That's not even the lowest, as Manufacturing has a low salary of $40,000. 

When looking at salary by function, what's most interesting is how similar all of the median salaries are (excluding Law/Legal Services).  Operations has the lowest median salary of $75,000, while Strategy, Tech and General Management all have the highest at $90,000.  I realize some areas are more glamourous or "sexy" than others, but really the average student at Rotman would have a similar salary no matter what industry/function they choose to go into. 

I'm actually not sure why Manufacturing salaries are reported for 2017.  My initial assumption would be that they only have salary info for one student (as the mean, median, high and low salary are all $40,000).  For a rationale as to why it's $40,000, I'd guess it's either a student who returned to their home country or a student who took a role with their family business. 


Rotman MBA Career Support
Rotman has a fairly large careers team, with 17-18 members of the Rotman MBA Career Centre team.  The team is split into two groups that are fairly equal in size, the business development team and the career education and coaching team.  Intuitively, the business development team would be focused more around corporate connections, bringing employers onto campus, and generating full-time and internship postings.  They would likely also be responsible for connecting student groups to relevant employers and helping to arrange events between students and employers.  What is less clear is what level of involvement the business development team would have directly with students.  There does look to be some interesting breakdowns in what industries/areas each member is responsible for, but with one individual solely responsible for Canadian banks (RBC, TD, etc) and payment cards (Visa, MasterCard) it is a safe bet that these are very large employers for Rotman MBA grads.

The career education and coaching team would be more focused on working with students.  Five of the 8 members are focused on Finance, Consulting, or both.  That would give you a pretty clear indication of where a majority of studetns are looking to go after the MBA.  The other members include the Associate Director of the team and two coaches with a combination of areas.  One is focused on Marketing, Sales, and Business Design and the other has more of a mixed bag of Law, HR, and Entrepreneurs. 


Final Thoughts
Overall, if you are interested in a career in finance/financial services or consulting, you'll likely be happy with the resources and support available to you at Rotman.  I would also assume that these are going to be very competitive areas with a large number of students aiming for the top tier positions/internships as well. 

If you already have experience in Finance/Consulting, I would suggest that you'd be more likely to end up on the high end of the salary ranges and be the student that brings up the overall average.  Whether the pay off is better by going to Rotman vs. pursuing a one-year MBA at Ivey or Queens is harder to say.  It would likely depend on your overall motivation towards pursuing the MBA (and the general trade-off between a one-year and two-year program).

For those who are looking to move into a new area or make a dramatic change in their career, I'd suggest looking at the median salary and the low salary for the area that you are interested in.  Use that as an expectation of where your initial post-grad salary will be.  It can certainly end up higher and you'd also likely see a faster increase in earnings in future years, but median or below is a safer estimate. 

Finally, for students coming from outside of Canada, figures are not broken down by nationality or permanent/temporary post-grad work status.  With ~50% of the class being International, the figures reported are probably fair/accurate for International students as well.  The two year program would allow you to get a three-year post-graduate work permit and help make the "discount" International experience receives from employers less pronounced.  If you are looking to stay in the same industry/field, looking at the median salary and above would be fair.  If you are looking at a new area (say moving from engineering into finance), then you'd really be looking at the lower end of salary figures and expecting to be below the median upon graduation.