Microsoft usually hires several hundred MBAs per year from nearly 150 different schools in 40 countries with about two-thirds coming from the US and Canada. But this year the overall number of MBA hires has increased by about 30 per cent, according to a recent report by the Financial Times (FT). Microsoft employs these graduates internationally in a wide range of divisions from business development and finance to marketing and human resources.

The tech company has been a great supporter for business schools since it opened its doors in 1975. Next to management consultancies and investment banks the company is one of the top hirers of MBA students and likes to take its pick mainly from leading business schools, including Insead, the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

Microsoft’s turn towards broader services such as cloud platforms, enterprise software and artificial intelligence has also led to a wider selection of jobs for business school graduates, Chuck Edward, Microsoft’s head of global talent acquisition, told the FT. According to Edward MBAs are typically ambitious, technologically proficient and trained in data and analytics and they tend to have some experience of working life. “With MBAs, we know what we’re going to get,” the FT quoted Mr. Edward. “Our demand [for MBA talent] has gone up significantly in the past two or three years.”

This has also reflected in the pay. According to the paper’s research, median starting salaries and signing bonuses for MBA graduates are just over 160,000 US dollar for finance managers, product marketing managers and business programme and strategy managers.

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