Graduation weekend always brings a mix of pride, reflection, and anticipation. As I watched the MMS: Foundations of Business Class of 2025 celebrate the culmination of an intense and transformational year, one word kept coming to mind: stability.

The employment market our graduates entered continues to be competitive and dynamic. Hiring timelines stretched, employer behavior shifted, and uncertainty lingered across industries. Against that backdrop, and as the largest class in program history, the Class of 2025 delivered outcomes that speak not just to performance, but to resilience, adaptability, and persistence.

Topline Outcomes: Steady by Any Measure

The 2024-2025 MMS employment report offers a clear lens into today’s market and how early-career talent is navigating it. Within six months of graduation, 149 graduates had accepted full-time offers, representing 78% of job-seeking students.

Compensation outcomes also point to stability, with modest but meaningful upward movement. The median base salary increased to $80,000, reflecting continued employer confidence in MMS talent. While we encourage students not to over-index on compensation alone, several trends stand out:

• The strongest salaries were accepted in consulting, financial services, and real estate.
• More than 35% of students who reported salaries accepted offers of more than $90,000.
• Overall salary distribution held firm despite broader market pressure.

It’s also important to note that these numbers reflect real people making real decisions in a tough environment. Trade-offs weighed heavily as students made difficult decisions when they had an offer in hand from one firm while still in process with other employers. To me, these outcomes are not abstract percentages; they represent individual graduates who stayed engaged, adjusted strategies, and secured roles aligned with their interests and long-term goals.

What Looked Different This Year

The clearest signals of current market conditions are shifts in employer behavior, such as changes in hiring timelines and reductions in cohort hiring sizes. Access to employers tightened across the board, and students increasingly relied on networking, initiative, and persistence to surface opportunities.

In response, Fuqua adapted alongside students. One new initiative this year was the launch of alumni-led mock interviews, designed to provide meaningful, practical feedback while creating one-to-one connections between students and alumni.

The response from alumni was overwhelmingly positive. One MMS alum who now works at Google shared: “Students were great — well prepared, experienced, and great candidates overall. Their eagerness to grow and succeed was definitely felt, and their presence were awesome.” Efforts like these highlight that preparation and community matter even more when the market tightens.

Creativity in Career Pathways and Employer Choice

Another defining feature of this year’s outcomes was flexibility. Students demonstrated a willingness to explore nontraditional and nonlinear paths, many of which led to strong results.

In a few cases, graduates accepted short-term or internship-based roles that later converted into full-time positions. Others made thoughtful pivots as opportunities emerged. For example, one student planning to pursue another degree received a compelling job offer in their desired location and chose to enter the workforce instead. Another student, initially focused on biotech startups, found an opportunity with a fast-growing real estate firm that valued their bias for action and financial skill set. These stories reinforce an important lesson I try to impart on MMS students every year: Strong outcomes don’t always follow a straight line.

That same mindset is reflected in where students chose to work. While large organizations remain important employers, 45% of graduates accepted roles with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) this year. These organizations may not be household names, but often offer earlier responsibility, steeper learning curves, and clearer visibility into impact — attributes that matter deeply early in a career. We were also encouraged to see new and first-time employers hire MMS graduates this year, an especially meaningful signal in a cautious hiring environment.

Moving Forward

The Class of 2025 met this moment with realism, grit, and creativity. Their outcomes reflect not only individual effort but a community of support, from alumni, faculty, employers, and the Career Management Center team, working together and always leaning in. We are incredibly proud of this class and excited to see what they build next.