Earlier this month, Harvard Business School (HBS) released employment data for its 2025 graduating class. The average base salary for graduates is 184,500 USD per year (approximately 4.8 billion VND), an increase from 175,000 USD last year. This figure does not include bonuses or other benefits.
Lifetime earnings for HBS alumni are estimated to exceed 8.5 million USD, according to Poets & Quants, an organization specializing in MBA program data.
Despite promising salaries, the number of students not pursuing traditional employment (joining large corporations) has risen to 35%, up 5% from last year. Of these, 17% plan to establish their own businesses—the highest percentage ever recorded. In 2021, this figure was only about 8%.
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Harvard Business School (HBS) students. Photo: Harvard Business School
This shift towards entrepreneurship reflects broader changes in the American job market.
Artificial intelligence (AI) tools have significantly lowered initial barriers to starting a business. Tasks like market research, product testing, and innovation can now be streamlined, making it easier for young people to build enterprises.
This trend also indicates that young people are learning from Millennials (generation Y), who often worked relentlessly to reach middle management only to face burnout.
A survey published last year by the financial platform Intuit revealed that about two-thirds of young people aged 18 to 35 have a side job. Nearly half cited the desire to be their own boss as the reason.
Young people are also less interested in traditional financial consulting or banking jobs, according to Steven Schwartz, a generation Z CEO who founded the e-commerce platform Whop. Instead, they want to be online content creators or acquire clients online.
"We are educated more openly. Why not do the most interesting things?", Schwartz said.
Alongside the entrepreneurial group, 65% of Harvard MBA graduates still choose to enter the traditional labor market. Of these, 90% received at least one job offer within three months of graduation, indicating that a Harvard MBA degree remains highly sought after.
Notably, for the first time in five years of HBS publicly releasing data, the technology sector has become the leading recruiting industry, accounting for 22% of jobs. This surpasses traditional fields like Consulting (21%) and Private Equity (14%), which historically attracted the most HBS MBA graduates.
Among those who secured jobs, 58% received a signing bonus, with an average amount of 30,000 USD (790 million VND).
Khanh Linh (According to Fortune, Harvard Business School)
