Top 10 Online MBA Programs for Employability

In the QS Online MBA Rankings 2020, Spain’s IE Business School scored highest on employability, with the ranking determined by responses to a large employer survey in which companies nominate business schools that they reckon produce the best graduates. You cannot get a better employer endorsement than that. 

In the QS ranking, London’s Imperial College Business School also scored exceptionally well on employability. One unique characteristic of the school’s Online MBA is its STEM focus, owing to Imperial College’s global reputation for technology and engineering. The school also uses award-winning educational technology to provide an immersive online learning experience. 

Another leading institution for employability is Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, in the US. Each Kelley Direct Online MBA student is assigned a career coach to work with them throughout the course and beyond. The coaches provide a range of services, such as interview prep and CV screening, to help students achieve their professional aims. 

In Sydney, AGSM at UNSW Business School puts on an Online MBA that employers value. In part, this is down to the highly customizable curriculum, with students able to take specialist tracks that can make them more employable: finance, technology, social impact, healthcare and more. An Australian MBA program is considered by students to be a gateway to employment in the fast-growing economies of Asia. 

Not only has the UK’s Warwick Business School come up trumps in the FT’s Online MBA Ranking for the past three years, but its alumni achieved the highest salary three years from graduation ($204,799), which was a 40 percent increase on pre-MBA pay. The school also ranked highest for career progression, which makes Warwick’s Online MBAs one of the best for employability. 

In the FT’s 2020 ranking, Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business in the US scored second for career progress and its alumni enjoyed a 30 percent increase on their salary before the MBA over three years, with the alumni salary today being $137,104. An impressive 78 percent of the alumni achieved their professional aims since graduating from the school’s Online MBA. 

Another impressive performer in the FT’s league table is the Online MBA offered by North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler business School in America. Alumni, after three years, are being paid an average of $171,665, a 26 percent increase on their pay before enrolling in the Online MBA course. The school’s careers service was also ranked second in the world and helps graduates secure jobs in a wide array of industries, functions and geographies. 

In Poets & Quants’ ranking of the best Online MBAs of 2020 for career outcomes, USC Marshall School of Business in Los Angeles was ranked first. The ranking was based on surveys of alumni asking whether they received a pay rise or gained increased responsibility at work as a result of their online MBA. At USC Marshall, 56 percent received a promotion because of the course. And 72 percent got a pay rise as a result of the MBA. 

At the Saunders College of Business at Rochester Institute of Technology in the US, 62 percent of the alumni surveyed by Poets & Quants were able to change jobs as a result of the school’s online MBA. Some 87 percent got a pay rise, and 57 percent enjoyed a promotion. That is why the school came second overall in the ranking of best Online MBAs for career outcomes, and one of the reasons why the Online MBA is one of the best for employability. 
 

Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business also scored well in the Poets & Quants ranking. Its alumni have the highest proportion who got a pay rise (88 percent) while 62 percent switched careers and the same proportion got a promotion too. Further compounding the strength of the Tepper school is its ranking in the US News list of the best online MBAs overall in America: it came in third place in 2020.