Employment after a management school
One hundred per cent, eighty-four per cent, or no figure at all: the employment rates published by management schools all look alike, without ever saying what they actually cover. This article does not promise one more percentage. It explains what an employment rate actually measures, what it excludes, and where to check the figures a school puts forward before taking them at face value.
In brief
A management school's employment rate measures the proportion of its graduates in employment at a given point in time, most often six months after graduation, according to a scope that each institution must specify.
Two rates can only be compared when the scope, source and reference year are identical: this is precisely what the Conférence des Grandes Écoles (CGE) harmonises for the institutions that take part in its annual survey.
How to read and compare a business school's employment rate?
The permanent contract (CDI) employment rate at six months is the benchmark indicator for assessing a course's career prospects: it measures the proportion of graduates on a permanent contract six months after obtaining their qualification. It is called "net" because it excludes those who continue their studies or are not actively looking for a job, two categories that would artificially inflate the result if they remained counted.
Comparisons become distorted as soon as the scopes differ. Some institutions include work-study students in their figures, others do not; some count all contracts (fixed-term, permanent, freelance) whereas others only count permanent contracts. Before comparing two schools, you therefore need to check the scope used, the source publishing the figure, and the reference year: the same methodological rigour that also helps you read a business school ranking without being swayed by a single rank.
What the sector data say
The CGE publishes a national survey every year among the institutions that take part, based on a methodology common to all respondents. According to the CGE's 2024 Insertion survey, the average permanent-contract employment rate at six months for grande école graduates stands at 84.3%, for an average gross starting salary of €38,419.
This snapshot of the sector gives a useful order of magnitude, but it does not replace an assessment specific to a given programme, since each course has its own recruitment dynamics and its own partner companies. In practice, the Talent Centre offers every graduate support into employment, both individual and collective, and the master's cycle, like Excelia Business School's Master of Science (MSc) programmes, remains open to work-study throughout the course. The details of this scheme can be found in Excelia Business School's support into employment.
Excelia Business School also draws on an international recognition that sets the school apart in this landscape: it holds the quadruple accreditation (EQUIS, AACSB, AMBA and EFMD Master), which fewer than 1% of business schools worldwide can claim.
Which sectors do management school graduates work in?
A master's cycle in management opens the door to broad career families rather than a single career path:
- consulting and strategy
- banking and finance
- marketing and communication
- international trade
- human resources and corporate social responsibility (CSR)
- entrepreneurship
It is this versatility, rather than any specific sector, that characterises employment after a general management course.
According to the CGE, consulting and strategy remain the leading recruiting sector, accounting for around 22% of business school graduates in 2024. For a detailed description of the careers accessible at each qualification level, the careers accessible after a business school reviews them one by one.
Work-study, internships and verification: how to judge a promise of employability
Work-study genuinely affects entry into employment: according to a survey conducted at the end of 2024, 54% of work-study students remain with their host company at the end of their course, and 80% are in employment six months after their contract ends. A long internship produces a comparable effect, giving the future graduate continuous rather than one-off professional experience.
Excelia Business School's master's cycle is open to work-study during the master's cycle, which makes it possible to experience this dynamic from the inside rather than reading about it in a survey. The network also plays its part once the qualification is obtained, since the Excelia network has 53,000 graduates in 150 countries, a web that multiplies the points of contact when looking for a first job.
The question of employment is almost always paired with that of cost, especially over the scale of several years of study: our study cost calculator gives a personalised estimate, to be weighed against the prospects described above.
There remains the most useful question: how can you verify the figures a school puts forward for a given programme? Three sources make it possible to do so without relying on a single piece of communication: the Répertoire national des certifications professionnelles (RNCP – France's National Register of Professional Certifications), which can be consulted via a qualification's RNCP record, the Conférence des Grandes Écoles' annual report, and the programme's own page, which must specify its scope. For a specific programme, you can also talk to an adviser, who will detail this scope on a case-by-case basis.
Frequently asked questions
- How is a business school's employment rate calculated?
Every year, the Conférence des Grandes Écoles surveys the graduates of the institutions taking part in its survey, around six months after graduation, using a common methodology. Only graduates in employment are included in the calculation of the net rate, which excludes those continuing their studies or not yet looking for a job.
- What does a net employment rate at six months mean?
The net rate at six months measures the proportion of graduates in employment six months after obtaining their qualification, excluding those who continue their studies or are not actively looking for a job. This is what distinguishes it from a gross rate, which would count the whole cohort.
- Can the employment rates of two business schools be compared?
Only if the scope, source and reference year are identical. Two schools that do not include the same contracts, or that publish figures from different years, cannot be compared directly, even when their percentages seem close.
- Does work-study improve employment outcomes?
Yes, according to a survey conducted at the end of 2024: 54% of work-study students remain with their host company at the end of their course, and 80% are in employment six months after their contract ends. The continuous professional experience that work-study provides explains a good part of this effect.
- Where can you verify the employment figures announced by a school?
Three sources make it possible to verify an employment figure: the RNCP record of the qualification concerned, the Conférence des Grandes Écoles' annual report, and the programme's own page, which must specify its scope. For example, see a qualification's RNCP record to understand what it guarantees.
