John A Byrne, founder and chief executive at C Change Media

“Newly-minted MBAs from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business landed record-breaking pay packages this year of $160,287,” reported Byrne in his post You Won’t Believe How Much Employers are Paying Stanford MBAs. “Median base pay, which had been unchanged for four years, rose 4% to an all-time high of $130,000, while the median guaranteed annual bonus rose 67% to $52,500. Median sign-on bonuses for graduating MBAs of $25,000 remained unchanged,” he wrote.

But, Byrne added, that figure could actually be a low estimation as at Stanford, for example, the category ‘other guaranteed compensation’ doesn’t list perks such as “equity grants, stock options, tuition reimbursement, relocation expense reimbursement,” among other incentives.

Value for money?

So what’s driving up the salaries of MBA graduates from Stanford and some other business schools? The rise in pay was largely driven by sizeable increases in offers from the financial sector, especially in venture capital, private equity, and hedge funds.

“The median base pay for Stanford MBAs taking jobs in venture capital firms was a whopping $175,000, with another $67,500 in other guaranteed compensation. For MBAs going the private equity/leverage buyout route, the median starting salary was $152,500, with a $25,000 sign-on bonus,” and other benefits, Byrne wrote. At least 13% of Stanford graduates went into these fields.

Maynard Webb, chairman at Yahoo!

“There was no money for college and I needed to help contribute for things I wanted or needed. By the time I was 12, I took on a (newspaper delivery) route,” wrote Webb in his post How to Achieve Early Success in Your Career. He took on a job to earn extra cash while he was at high school but because he also had to balance schoolwork and sports, he “learned the power of adopting the spirit of AND — I realised that I could do as many things as I put my mind to.”