What’s the best MBA program for your career?

I know, I know! All the schools seem amazing and pretty much the same based on their websites. How are you supposed to choose between Stern and Columbia? Or Darden and Tuck? How different are they, really?

Here’s why you need to look past the rankings and the stereotypes. We’ve had clients come to us absolutely set on a school, only to realize that that school doesn’t even offer what they’re looking for. It’s really easy to get caught up in the rankings, but you’ll want to make sure that once you’re there, the program is going to help you achieve your dreams. We talk about this at length with our clients, but this is why it’s so important to network with the schools early on in the process – to learn what they offer, what current students say about the program, and what opportunities in your industry of interest exist post-MBA.

But before you start asking questions, we want to arm you with all the information you need to know! Below, you’ll find data we compiled from the Placement Reports of the top 30 MBA programs for our awesome Career Report. We looked at where MBAs end up – which functions, which industries, and which companies – and sorted through it to make it really easy for you to start distinguishing between programs that seem similar. Keep reading to see what we found!

Industry and Function

The most common way to think about different career options is in terms of Industry and Function.

First, let’s talk industry.

Industry is about the company you work for and what it does – for instance, consumer packaged goods (CPG), oil & gas, and technology are three different industries. But there’s some additional nuance to consider too:

• A lot of new, young companies work across multiple industries. Think of Uber, PayPal, or Airbnb – those are all tech companies, but they’re also transportation, finance (fintech, for those in the know), and hospitality companies, respectively.
• Some big conglomerates work across industries as well, so you’d want to be specific about which part of the company you want to work in – for example, GE works across healthcare, consumer goods, and financial services.
• Consulting is often considered an industry, but within consulting you can specialize in serving clients from other industries, like retail, CPG, or technology – this is important, because different firms and offices within firms will have different profiles of which industries they serve.

As you’re narrowing down your target industry, be specific. Do you want to work at a technology company that makes a product, or at a retail company that sells the product? Or do you know you want to be at a company that does both, like Apple? What industries excite you? What industries do you read articles about? That can help you start narrowing down where you want to be.

The next way to think about career options is by function.

Function is about your role and what you do day to day – your responsibilities, your expertise and what impact you have within your company. For instance, someone working in Marketing at Apple has a very different job from someone working in Finance at Apple, even though they’re at the same company.

Some functions are common across all industries, like Strategy, Finance, Marketing, and Operations. Think of the titles in the C-Suite (CMO, CFO, COO), which are all the heads of various functions within a company.

However, there are WAY more functions than that, and they are often specialized depending on the industry the company is in. You could work in Product Management, Product Marketing, Design, Business Development, Partnerships, or Fundraising. Many companies also have Leadership Development Programs that involve working across a series of functions, to prepare those employees to take on General Management positions in the future.

The more specific you can be about your target function, the better. Ideally, you’ll want to find the actual name of a role at a company to make sure it exists and to get a sense of what the role is like. For instance, if you want to be a Product Manager at Airbnb, awesome! They have 20+ different postings for Product Manager jobs, and by looking through those postings, you can get a sense of whether you’d enjoy working in that function.

Now, let’s put it all together!

When you write your career game plan, you’ll want to talk about your future jobs as a combination of industry and function. To help you visually see your post-MBA options, here’s a partial, high-level industry / function matrix: