Full-time MBA — Class of 2025

For the Class of 2025, students were aware of the contracting job market and focused their search on more stable industries with steady hiring. While the market has not returned to previous hiring levels, we did see stronger conversion offers (81% of eligible students received a conversion offer compared to only 61% in 2024), leading to an increase in students securing roles by graduation and the class ultimately landed at 90% employed by the end of the 3-month reporting period. In line with ASU’s reputation for entrepreneurship and innovation, 7% of Class of 2025 graduates reported starting a business post-graduation.

Full-time accepted offers

Example MBA employers*

Amazon | Applied Materials | Microsoft | Raytheon

*This list represents employers who hired more than 1 student from the Full-time MBA Class of 2025. Due to market shifts and employer needs, we cannot guarantee that these employers will hire future MBA talent.

Outcomes by function and industry

Operations and logistics roles continue to be the most secured function for Full-time MBA students, at 50% this year and 45% in 2024. Similarly, students who accepted a role in this functional area had a mean salary above our total average for the class, showcasing strong opportunities for students. There was a 16% increase in students accepting roles in the finance/accounting function this year, with half of those coming from internship conversions. This can be attributed to an increased interest in that sector from this class from the start of the program.

The top two industries where students secured opportunities from this class are technology (+7%) and manufacturing (-4%). Additionally, we observed equal reported outcomes across energy (+8%), financial services (+1%), and healthcare (+3%). Manufacturing has remained a top industry of choice for students for over three years due to its stability and strong supply chain opportunities. Students who accepted roles in the technology industry reported a mean salary well above the mean for the class as a whole, showcasing an area for continued opportunities for students. Within each industry, multiple functions may be represented.

2025 key initiatives

This year’s priorities focused on employing multiple channels of communication and engagement with students, extending our first-year career course to span the entire first year of the program, and streamlining our tracking of entrepreneurship involvement and resources. This allowed for more regular touchpoints to share market and hiring trends with students and time for them to continue refining their career capabilities. In addition, with an increase in students involved in start-ups during their program, we have added questions to our employment survey to gather information on all forms of involvement.

Entrepreneurship focus

With an increased focus on entrepreneurship both in and out of the classroom, our team made it a priority to partner more closely with the Center for Entrepreneurship and the Entrepreneurship Club to ensure resources were more accessible to students interested in this area. Our team also developed new mechanisms to collect this data in other areas by adding targeted questions to their internship and full-time employment reporting surveys, which will help us better track all students involved in entrepreneurship outside of a formal internship.

Extended career courses

Starting in the 2024–2025 academic year, our career courses in the program’s first year now extend from Q1 to Q4, rather than only in Q1 and Q3. This extended time with students allowed us to have continual touch points as they navigated their career development and internship search, and enabled coaches to work more closely with those still seeking internships in late spring. For the fall course, we added additional course content to break down networking into manageable skills, including content and assignments on cover letter writing and how to tailor resumes, as well as infusing more content on career communications.

For the spring semester, we incorporated our job club and coaching into the course for students who were still seeking internships by mid-March. This allowed students to focus more on their internship search each week, as it was now required as part of their course. With this, we saw that 90% of students secured their internships by May 15th, compared to only 76% by the same time in the previous year.

Communication and engagement channels

Over the last two years, with a rapidly shifting market, we have observed that many students have not adjusted their job search strategies to align with these changes. Last year, we shared employment data and current market trends through multiple channels to ensure students were aware of the market impact on hiring and industries/employers, potentially providing stronger job stability.

The goal was to create a sense of partnership with the coaches, leading to more open communication throughout the year as students navigated current job offers and the job market. Lastly, we launched a monthly career status meeting with key Full-time MBA stakeholders to engage further and support students seeking post-graduation jobs.

Specialized master’s – Class of 2025

The W. P. Carey Career Services Center has committed to enacting our school’s commitment to being Where Business is Personal^Ⓡ while delivering valuable programs at scale. The overarching goal is to create tailored and relevant opportunities for students and employers to connect.

Outcomes by program

*Due to market shifts and employer needs, we cannot guarantee that all employers listed as example employers will hire future specialized master’s talent.

Undergraduate – Class of 2025

We saw continued success as the Class of 2025 navigated a complex market, with an 2% increase in students reporting accepting an offer within six months of graduating compared to the year prior. While there was more diversity in the states our students selected last year, 77% of our students who reported are working in Arizona, California, or Texas.

Full-time accepted offers

*This year, we began using a new methodology to systematically remove outlier inputs from our salary data. Calculations have been adjusted to this new methodology, but note that average salaries may differ when comparing contents of this report to the Class of ‘24 annual data previously published.

Example undergraduate employers*

Amazon | Arizona State University | Charles Schwab & Co. | Starbucks Coffee Company | Vanguard

*This list represents employers who have frequently recruited W. P. Carey undergraduate students in the past. Due to market shifts and employer needs, we cannot guarantee that these employers will hire future undergraduate talent.

Outcomes by industry

Financial services continues to be an area of interest for both BS and BA students, with 18% of graduates working in this industry. Other top industries for the Class of 2025 include:

• Hospitality
• Government
• Real Estate
• Technology

Top industries include any that hired 150+ students in the 2024-2025 reporting year.