What Can You Do With an MBA in California?

An MBA degree even at the most affordable California business schools is a pretty substantial investment. But with careful planning, you can bet it’s a sound one.

It’s a sure thing that you’ve been laying those plans for years and already have your trajectory set. Still, it’s a good idea to look around every once in a while to make sure all your hard work and focus doesn’t cause you to blow past opportunities you might have overlooked, or that simply didn’t exist yet when you first laid your plans.

An MBA from a business school in California is one of the most diverse, do-anything degrees you can get. The field of options is huge and expanding every year. That means you can never ask yourself too many times, ‘what can I do with an MBA once I earn it?’.

And it’s California. In a lot of ways, you can write your own script here and do whatever you want, which only makes the field of options broader.

A Look at Top Industries in California Where MBA Grads Do Big Things Every Day

While many students enroll in MBA programs to level up in a current job, most come out on the other side actively seeking entirely new employment opportunities. For those coming out of the most competitive MBA programs, those jobs are usually ready and waiting… most schools report six-month post-graduate placement rates well north of 90 percent.

But if all you wanted was a job, you could hit up a search engine and get to work as a production assistant or a deli manager. You earn an MBA to get extraordinary jobs doing amazing things. A lot of that potential will come down to the industry you’re going to end up working in.

This will also play a big role in what your life looks like on the other side of the MBA program. Business consulting means flying around the world constantly changing projects and taking on new challenges. Working in entertainment in LA can mean rubbing shoulders with the stars, but also managing egos and stress at all hours. A position in investment management in San Francisco’s Financial District can offer more regular hours—but operating on East Coast time, like the markets.

The MBA is an incredibly well-rounded degree. That means it’s entirely possible to make an MBA pay off in just about any industry, from international shipping to agribusiness to fast food.

But those aren’t the places that most California MBA graduates are ending up. A review of California business school MBA program graduate outcome reports show that the vast majority of graduates here end up in one of these industries listed below.

Technology - $142,800 average salary

Tech is a no-brainer for California MBA graduates. There’s big money in Silicon Valley as well as world-changing innovation, which checks the boxes for both fulfilling and lucrative jobs. There’s huge demand for accomplished executives to keep tech projects on the rails as well as find new and creative solutions to global issues with the hottest technologies. Particularly for graduates with elite STEM-edited MBA degrees, this is a major destination. California employers in this field are a grab bag of hot new startups and global giants, which can lead you to positions at companies like:

Alphabet
Apple
Meta
OpenAI
Kami
Wing
Nuero
SoundHound

A Stem MBA Can Fast-Track You to Jobs in California’s Hot Technology Industry

Information technology roles for MBAs have become such a significant factor in every industry that there’s really no way to go wrong with a focus in the field. That’s become even easier with the introduction of specialized STEM-designated MBAs.

STEM-designated MBA degrees include coursework not just in the typical business fields of communications, strategic planning, and leadership, but also in more hardcore statistical and computational subjects. Those can range from quantitative analysis courses useful in business intelligence and big data work to straight-up coding classes in Python.

This extra dose of technical training on top of the lifeblood of business management and leadership is like catnip to firms across California. You don’t have to be in the tech industry to find valuable roles with a STEM MBA. Technology is a strategic advantage today in everything from agriculture to logistics—and MBA graduates who speak that language can land jobs anywhere in the state.

Finance - $175,000 average salary

The financial world is the lifeblood behind pretty much every other industry. From funding the next big Silicon Valley startup to financing next summer’s big Hollywood blockbuster, MBA grads bring expertise in financial engineering to the table. It’s the perfect field for executives with a head for numbers and careful analytical skills. These MBAs can find positions at both big national financial services and investment banking companies with California locations, or at boutique VC firms or financial advising companies catering to the wealthiest residents in the state. Those companies can include:

The quintessential California mash-up of finance and technology opens up jobs for MBAs in the field of fintech with companies like FloQast and Square, as well.

Consulting - $182,500 average salary

Not every business can afford top MBA talent on a full-time basis. Big consulting firms spread it around, taking contracts in various industries to apply quantitative and project management expertise to tough problems that need creative business solutions. This field is perfect for MBA graduates who enjoy variety, a fast-paced lifestyle, and the big bonuses that come with successful execution. Most of the companies that top MBA grads flock to are national or even international, but all have locations to serve California’s greatest business demands.

Public Sector/Nonprofit - Salary not listed

For-profit businesses aren’t the only organizations that need excellence in organization, communication, and strategic planning. California is home to more than 200,000 nonprofits, not to mention state and local governments employing almost 2.5 million workers. MBA graduates who have the heart and social consciousness to apply their skills to building a better world and a better California often choose to work in the public sector, or even to start their own non-profits to shape a cleaner, brighter, more equitable future.

Social and Nonprofit Roles Make MBAs Worth It for Both You and Your Community

Innovation for MBAs isn’t exclusively restricted to the private sector. You can just as easily take your first-rate education in organizing, leading, managing, and funding an enterprise into the social entrepreneurship space.

Using an MBA for altruism isn’t the first thing that jumps into most people’s minds when they think of business school. Yet in California, big hearts go hand-in-hand with business excellence.

That’s true at Revolution Foods, a public benefit corporation born from a chance meeting of two minds in 2006 in the UC Berkeley MBA program. Kristin Richmond had come from corporate finance; Kirsten Tobey was an educator. Both saw a need for public school kids to have access to high quality, healthy meals every day.

Today, the thriving company sources, prepares, and delivers nutritious and culturally diverse meals not just in schools, but throughout communities that suffer from inequality and food insecurity. In addition to serving K-12 students, Revolution has branched out into home-delivered meals to seniors, partnering with other non-profits and government agencies like the San Gabriel Valley YWCA and the City of Los Angeles Department of Aging.

No matter where you see a need or how detached your ideas are from profits, an MBA is always going to be worth it if it helps lift even one person to a better life.

Healthcare - $133,000 average salary

Healthcare in California is a $400 billion industry according to 2023 data from the California Health Care Foundation. More importantly, it’s an industry that sees to the health and welfare of almost 40 million Californians. That’s a huge task that takes extraordinary management talent. Yet it’s vital in ways that no other industry on this list can be, and pulls in many MBA graduates who have a genuine motivation to improve lives. The state is home to major insurers, medical device manufacturers, and HMOs that have a real need for executive talent.

Entertainment/Media - $132,500 average salary

Naturally, business schools that share a state with the entertainment capital of the world send plenty of top business talent into showbiz. Behind the movie and music magic are accomplished executives who wrangle creative talent to produce not just big productions, but to put together marketing campaigns, distribution deals, and production contracts that make it all worth billions of dollars. This is an industry where you have to deal with big egos as well as big dollar signs, but the right kind of MBA degree delivers the skills and the connections to get it done.

Real Estate - $130,000 average salary

California’s real estate market is the hidden behemoth in the state GDP numbers. The Public Policy Institute of California found that it’s the single largest contributor to state wealth and has been for more than 25 years, coming in ahead of the much flashier tech and entertainment sectors by a mile. So there is an enduring need for business professionals to manage the every-increasing value of California’s residential, commercial, and agricultural properties… and find solutions to the growing demand for housing in the most populous state along the way.

While these are the most popular paths in general for graduates from some of the most competitive schools in the state, they certainly aren’t the only ones. You’ll likely find more variety and different industries that are powered by graduates from other schools

At UC Davis, for example, you’ll notice that recent placements tend toward agribusiness and biopharma companies such as Gilead and Lupin, or regional employers like PG&E. The Davis connections with big Central Valley companies and California heartland employers fosters placements in a unique set of industries.

You’ll find that’s true of pretty much every California business school. The diversity even within the state allows you to pick your path to the industry you are interested in by choosing a school with the right concentrations and networks to help you launch.

Job Titles, Positions, and Employers You Can Access in California with an MBA Degree

While each of the industries that MBA graduates end up in have a particular focus that brings to mind certain sets of business skills, the reality is that every business needs professional managers in almost every kind of specialty. The Walt Disney Company may be in the entertainment industry, but with more than 36,000 cast members, it’s also Orange County’s largest employer… and needs a massive HR department with skilled managers to handle them.

So it’s also worth looking at job titles that fresh MBA grads transition directly into. You can have an entirely different experience working in the technology industry as a product manager than you would as a financial analyst.

Marketing and Sales - $140,000 average salary

Every organization needs professionals to tell people how great it is and why they should give it money. A substantial portion of California MBA graduates end up in positions that meet that need. This offers a great fit for the social and communication skillset that an MBA loads you up with, in positions such as:

Finance and Accounting - $150,000 average salary

While finance is an industry unto itself, it’s also a prominent role in many other industries, from aerospace manufacturing in Orange County to biotechnology firms in San Diego trying to fund the next series of drug trials. Financial MBAs manage the money and keep the accounts balanced, overseeing the lifeblood that fuels capital investments and paychecks with jobs like:

General Management and Operations - $140,000 average salary

When you get close to the top or close to the ground in any organization, you need managers who can handle any kind of decision or challenge that is thrown at them. For people who can both think on their feet and think ahead of the game, positions as managers, strategic planners, and operations executives are a great fit.

Information Technology - $142,800 average salary

Tech is important even outside of the technology industry. Key strategic differentiators for California’s businesses, from the Central Valley’s big growers to San Diego’s top-secret military bases, rely on skilled managers who understand how the latest breakthroughs can make a difference in day-to-day operations.

Chief Information Officer
Chief Technology Officer
Computer and Information Systems Manager
IT Director
Strategic Technology Consultant
Cybersecurity Team Manager

Human Resources - Salary not listed

Human capital is at a premium in California. It’s the state with the largest and most diverse workforce in the nation. Keeping companies staffed up, trained, and handling all manner of friction and complications takes highly trained and empathetic HR leaders.

Human Resources Manager
Learning and Development Manager
HR Director
Talent Acquisition Manager
Employee Relations Manager
Compensation Consultant

It’s notoriously difficult to pin down salary information due to the many variables in compensation packages. But for hard numbers on average salaries for new graduates, we’ve gone back to graduate surveys, including the UCLA Anderson Class of 2023 Full Time Employment report, among others. Numbers from other schools will differ.

Serendipity Is a Common Story in California MBA Careers

What can you do with an MBA in California? Well, sometimes it just sort of takes you were the Universe wants you to be… the way it did with Susan Wojcicki.

Born in Santa Clara, Wojcicki grew up on the campus of Stanford, where her father was a professor. She had a head for business right from the start, selling spice ropes door-to-door when she was eleven.

She earned her MBA at UCLA in 1998 and got a job working in marketing for Intel back in Menlo Park. Needing a little help with the mortgage payments on her house, she rented her garage space out to a couple of kids from Stanford who needed the space for a new startup they had an idea for… yet another internet search engine.

Wojicki’s business expertise made her a valuable advisor to Larry and Sergey, and as their funding spun up, they asked her to join them. And so Susan Wojcikci became employee number 16 at Google, and eventually became the company’s first marketing manager, and then CEO of YouTube.

Wojicki tragically passed away in 2024, but she had taken her MBA and become one of the most respected and influential executives in Silicon Valley… which is to say one of the most influential business executives in the world.

You can use your MBA to get a job that has just as much impact as Susan Wojcicki… just be careful who you rent your garage to.

What an MBA Can Do for You as a Solopreneur in California

MBA graduates from California business schools don’t have any trouble landing top jobs in the state’s thriving economy. But a surprising number of graduates aren’t looking for a job at all.

Instead, they are on the path to individual success as an entrepreneur.

Almost a quarter of the 2024 graduating class at Stanford’s General School of Business reported that they weren’t seeking any jobs because they were starting a new business themselves.

Entrepreneurship is a tough path in any industry, but an MBA can make it easier. Not only does the critical knowledge of strategic analysis and best business practices make it easy to keep your eye on the ball, but the connections and introductions of an MBA can be crucial to solo business owners.

When it all rests on your shoulders to keep a startup going, those shoulders better have an MBA as padding.

In fact, many of California’s best MBA programs cater directly to individuals who intend to forge their own path in business. Degrees like Pepperdine’s MBA in Entrepreneurship focus on the kind of solo and early-stage business knowledge you need to turn great ideas into great products.

Haas even offers an MBA within the school’s Entrepreneurship Program that offers specific coursework for founds as well as sessions with the Bay Area’s top entrepreneurs and VCs for valuable insights from their experience.

Many of California’s top business schools support MBAs on the entrepreneurial path with even more practical assistance. That comes through university-based accelerator and incubator programs. These structured initiatives assist MBA students and graduates through every phase of the startup process, from filing forms for corporate formation to nailing down your Series A funding round.