I spend a lot of time thinking about other people’s jobs—specifically the job market for our MMS students. For the past three years, I’ve focused on MMS career services for our Career Management Center, and it’s my job to identify trends in the skills companies are looking to hire. I teach our students how to find the best job matches for them, not just for their next jobs after Fuqua, but throughout their careers.

Each year we gather our career outcomes in this report. Once again, the data for the class of 2019 demonstrates the demand for our graduates. For example:

• 93% of students accepted an offer within six months of graduation.
• The median base salary for graduates with non-permanent work authorization increased by 20% to $60,000.
• 63% of students found their job leveraging the alumni network.

Those numbers are great, but there is more to the story than the career data. Here are some additional career trends and takeaways from my experience coaching students and talking to recruiters.

Employers now truly understand the value of an MMS degree and as a result, demand is higher than ever for our graduates.

One-year programs such as MMS, also known as master’s in management, first originated outside the U.S. and are well-known in Europe. Fuqua was one of the first schools to offer this type of degree in the U.S., and we have helped educate the business community about the degree and the skills our MMS graduates possess. We increasingly see businesses that come to recruit at Fuqua are interested in our MMS students. It’s exciting to see our graduates’ options expanding as more companies are familiar with the degree—more than 70 companies recruited and hired an MMS student last year.

Our students are learning the skills at Fuqua that they need to find the right fit for their careers.

In our career curriculum, our students learn how to find and get the jobs they want. We preach that there is no one right time, or one right job, or even one right way to get that job. There are in fact many right times and many right jobs, and it’s up to the student to decide when and what that means for their careers. That’s why consistently seeing about 60% of students find the first job on their own is a win for our team. It means students are using the skills and techniques we are teaching—and they are working.

The jobs that come a year or two after graduation are also impressive.

I am increasingly seeing that our recent alumni are having success in landing impressive second jobs a couple of years after graduation. The job-seeking skills that we teach, paired with our growing network and the employer recognition of the value of an MMS degree, are making our graduates highly valuable as they navigate their careers just a few years beyond Fuqua.

I’m proud to see our students landing exciting jobs across the globe and in a wide variety of industries and functions. Also, I’m grateful for the way our alumni are representing us in their roles, which also leads to increased interest in hiring our graduates. I’m looking forward to hearing many more stories in the years to come about how our alumni are positively impacting their companies and communities. It’s those stories that make my job as a career coach and program director so rewarding!