Enhance Earnings With an MBA Specialization

An MBA specialization can give a business grad student a boost when it comes to landing an interview or receiving a job offer.

"With the specialization, you gain a close network that helps in learning the latest trends. It also helped me obtain my career goals with my first job out of MBA school," says Jack Song, 34, who graduated from the University of California--Berkeley's Haas School of Business in May.

Song, now a vice president of a San Francisco-based communications firm, says he received job offers from several Silicon Valley high-tech companies before finishing his MBA. He credits his marketing specialization along with his previous work experience.

Deans at several top b-schools say employers are beginning to expect a specialization listed on an MBA candidate's resume.

"Having a specialization will not get you the job, but it certainly will make it a lot easier to get the interview. It opens the door and that's the reason why students are so fond of specializations," says Raghu Sundaram, vice dean of MBA programs at New York University's Stern School of Business.

For prospective business grad students, here are a few points to weigh when deciding on a specialization.

-- A specialization adds a competitive edge. "The specializations really provide structure and a road map to students, so they're able to walk out of here and signal to the job market that they've acquired a certain set of skills and can transfer that knowledge to the job," says Rob Weller, associate dean of the University of California--Los Angeles' Anderson School of Business.

[Learn how to calculate the return on investment for an MBA.]

It's something that recruiters have begun to expect from MBA candidates, experts say.

"It definitely gives the student a certain level of credibility," Weller says. "If someone doesn't do a specialization, they might be asked, why not?"

Jennifer Blackburn earned her MBA at Georgia State University's Robinson School of Business three years ago, and says she picked a specialization to enhance her career profile.

"I thought it would add value to any company that I worked for," the 28-year-old Atlanta resident says.

Blackburn says her marketing specialization gave her a competitive edge, propelling her to land a job at a public relations and branding agency five months before she finished the program.

-- Specializations at b-schools vary. "The list of specializations is not written in stone. Things evolve and we just added a specialization in social innovation," says Weller. The school has added five new specialties, in response to student demand, since it launched its specialization tracks in 2011.

UCLA's Anderson School of Business isn't the only school to add new MBA specializations; Stern added a new specialization in FinTech this fall.

Sundaram from Stern says they added FinTech as a specialty since innovation and technology play such an important role in the financial world, including with traditional banks.

Despite these new specialties, the most popular specializations are finance, accounting and marketing, according to a recent Ready4 report. The report examined responses from Ready4GMAT's 10,000 users on intended concentrations at business school.

There are some specialties offered at some b-schools that align specializations with well-known research centers. The University of Minnesota--Twin Cities' Carlson School of Management, as an example, offers an MBA specialty in the medical industry through its Medical Industry Leadership Institute.

[Understand how to choose an MBA concentration.]

The medical industry specialty is the most popular, says Phil Miller, assistant dean of MBA and master's of science programs at the school.

Miller says almost a quarter of Carlson MBA graduates this year went into heath care professions after graduating.

"If you look broadly at the MBA markets, consulting pays very high," Miller says. "Those in our health care specialization end up with higher-paying salaries because not so many people come out meeting a consulting profile and knowing the health care industry."

-- Some specializations lead to a higher-paying job. There is a wide range in earning potential for different MBA focuses, experts say.

[See the 10 MBAs with the highest return for grads earning $100,000-plus.]

According to the 2016-2017 PayScale salary report on the highest-paying MBA majors, the top concentrations for early career are strategy, general and strategic management and corporate finance, respectively.

"Strategy makes sense to me because it would lead to consulting jobs," says Weller from Anderson. These jobs would be at financial consulting firms, such as McKinsey & Co. or Deloitte.

Higher-paying MBA specialties align with the sectors that pay more, Miller says. "Students who specialize in finance and go into banking earn a disproportionate amount of higher salaries."

"My advice to any prospective student is to look at where the school is and where the students actually go in terms of the last three years of placement by industry and company," Miller says. "That's a pretty good reflection as to what those specializations are yielding for their students."

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Farran Powell is an education reporter at U.S. News, covering paying for college and graduate school. You can follow her on Twitter or email her at fpowell@usnews.com.