Careers After Business School
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Within a top business school, the range of specializations and Master's degree opportunities is often extensive for students, although certain trends can be identified from the latest survey by the Conférence des Grandes Écoles on the professional integration of business school graduates.

Graduates primarily pursue careers in consulting firms (21.9%, representing a 3.3-point increase in one year), the banking and insurance sector, and IT activities (ICT services and digital services companies), each accounting for approximately 13% of hires. This article explores all potential careers after business school.

Business School Careers: Developed Skills Ensure Strong Career Prospects

In addition to business school coursework, students are involved in various associations across different fields: sports, culture, humanitarian work, environment, professional development, lifestyle, and more. This contributes to their personal and professional development, particularly through the implementation of concrete, real-world projects.

Through this associative engagement, they develop key skills for professional life, including soft skills:

  • Versatility
  • Negotiation
  • Leadership
  • Ability to synthesize information
  • Autonomy and entrepreneurial spirit
  • Organization and rigor
  • Public speaking

In addition to soft skills, students also develop hard skills:

  • Project management
  • Event organization
  • Social media communication
  • Budget preparation
  • Market research
  • Sponsorship and partnerships

Beyond the key skills developed, associative life also provides opportunities for professional networking, which can prove extremely valuable for the future.

To prepare their students for entering professional life, business schools provide specific support through the Career Center. At emlyon, the Career Center implements specialized Career Tracks for selective sectors, such as Strategy Consulting or Finance:

Strategy Consulting Career Track: This program prepares students for recruitment interviews, provides case study training, and facilitates regular meetings with alumni in positions and HR representatives from firms such as Bain & Company, BCG, EY Parthenon, KEA Partners, McKinsey, Monitor Deloitte, Oliver Wyman, Roland Berger, and SKP.

Finance Career Track: This program enables students to practice numerical tests and enhance their applications, especially for those targeting Spring/Summer Internships or Off-Cycle positions in investment banking.

Furthermore, emlyon also offers other Career Tracks: Job in Tech and Graduate Program. The former prepares students for careers in the tech sector, while the latter focuses on Graduate Programs, which typically last several years and involve frequent job rotations.

Regarding professional networking, emlyon's alumni network consists of an active community of 48,000 graduates in 135 countries, supported by the Career Center:

The World Employability Tour: Webinars are organized with experts to facilitate exchanges, provide advice, and build networks in specific countries or cities.

Connection with alumni communities in France and internationally: There are business clubs, country correspondents, as well as meetings and events to foster exchanges and international professional opportunities.

Career Booster: Support for up to 3 years after graduation, including access to workshops, individual coaching, and exclusive job offers. Beyond these 3 years, support continues and the alumni team remains available to graduates throughout all stages of their professional lives.

What Careers Are Available After Business School?

Attending business school opens up the possibility of pursuing numerous careers across various sectors, depending on the specialization chosen by students.
 

Finance, Audit, and Consulting
Business schools prepare students for many careers in finance and management, particularly in consulting firms where job opportunities are abundant. The finance, audit, and consulting sectors encompass numerous positions, such as:

  • Management Controller: Monitors the economic and financial indicators of their organization and assists management in achieving profitability objectives.
  • Treasurer: This position is suited for those seeking careers in large corporations. The treasurer is responsible for managing the company's incoming and outgoing financial flows.
  • Accountant: Responsible for recording all financial movements and transactions.
  • Chartered Accountant: Validates and certifies all financial operations of an organization. This professional serves as a valuable advisor to the company's CEO.
  • Chief Financial Officer: Oversees all accounting and financial services within the organization. This executive is responsible for the organization's financial strategy, including budgets and other financial planning.
  • Trader: Buys and sells stocks on behalf of clients of a bank or publicly traded company. Calculated and proportionate risk-taking is a significant aspect of this profession.
  • Auditor: Controls the consistency and proper functioning of the organization in relation to operations involving purchases, treasury, debts, and sales.
  • Financial Analyst: Studies economic press and annual reports of organizations. The financial analyst participates in internal meetings and plays a key role in company strategy. They are particularly involved in mergers and acquisitions operations and corporate financial valuation.
  • Financial Consultant: Provides expertise and specialized advice to companies to help them improve performance and solve specific problems, such as launching a new product, defining a price range, or the potential acquisition of a competitor.
  • Please note: At emlyon, 40% of graduates enter consulting and 15% enter finance, with top recruiters including EY, Wavestone, Deloitte, Mazars, Bain & Cie, Sia Partners, KPMG, LVMH, EY, PwC, Capgemini, L'Oréal, and Crédit Agricole, according to the 2025 professional integration survey of 2024 graduates.
marketing-et-communication

Marketing & Communications

Careers in marketing and communications aim to provide solutions on how to sell and communicate about a product. The goal is to gain market share. Today, with digital technology and the influence of content creators, this sector is undergoing significant transformation. Several key positions remain essential, including:

  • Assistant and Product Manager: A product manager and their assistant are present throughout all stages of a product's lifecycle (design, manufacturing, marketing plan, sales communication). Their mission is to adapt it according to specifications and target audience.
  • Marketing Research Manager: Gathers and synthesizes information about products/services to then market them precisely.
  • Merchandising Manager: Responsible for optimal product placement in retail locations. This role requires close field presence and strong negotiation skills.
  • Advertising Manager: Approaches advertisers for advertising spots and negotiates with them for media exposure, for example on television.
  • Marketing Director: Establishes the product/service launch strategy to follow, as well as the brand image to convey.
  • Marketing Manager: A marketing manager is the marketing department professional responsible for defining and leading a company's marketing strategy to develop visibility, attract new customers, and retain existing ones. Their role involves analyzing the market, understanding consumer needs, designing targeted campaigns, and measuring their effectiveness.
  • International Marketing Manager: An International Marketing Manager is an executive responsible for defining, leading, and adapting a company's marketing strategy across multiple foreign markets.
  • Data Analyst and/or Data Scientist: These positions involve processing and analyzing customer data to establish recommendations on business strategy and marketing strategy.
  • Multimedia Project Manager: This role involves executing a project according to client criteria (budget and preferences). It requires taking on multiple roles: creating a website, filming professional videos, developing advertising campaigns, etc.
  • Public Relations: This work aims to promote an organization and its events to employees, management, institutions, and customers.
  • Press Officer: Manages media relations, with the goal of getting media outlets and influencers to communicate about the organization, projects, events, and products/services the company delivers.
  • Communications Director: Develops and implements the organization's internal and external communication policy. This is a high-responsibility position that is very demanding from a human perspective.
  • Account Manager: Must ensure management of client portfolios and customer relationships. This professional is indeed the client's primary contact throughout the customer journey.

Sales and Purchasing

Every company needs to sell its produced goods and services. The sales and purchasing function (and its numerous positions) will therefore always have excellent career prospects, regardless of the various roles or types of organizations:

  • Business Developer: The business developer's role is to increase revenue for a geographic area or product/service category through the implementation of a commercial action plan.
  • Sales Director: Leads a team of sales representatives and ensures sales targets are met. Supervises and defines sales strategy while being responsible for recruitment, promotions, and training.
  • Sales Engineer: Combines technical and commercial knowledge about a product/service, with the business developer's objective of increasing revenue in a defined geographic area or specific market.
  • Sales Representative: Responsible for developing revenue in a geographic area or product category, as well as increasing sales figures and attracting regular customers.
  • Account Executive: Serves as the liaison between the client and company services on commercial, technical, legal, and financial aspects.

Logistics and Supply Chain

The term "supply chain" refers to logistics and supply chain management. Cross-functional positions in logistics and supply chain are primarily found in industry, retail, and services:

  • Export Area Manager: Aims to sell goods abroad by managing a sales network in another country.
  • Buyer: Has a highly strategic function, especially in the current period. This role involves purchasing the products and services the company needs while negotiating the most advantageous prices and optimal deadlines.
  • Planning Manager: Works to reconcile production objectives and customer requirements while monitoring various parameters (product availability and inventory flow) with the goal of cost minimization.
  • Purchasing Director: This professional is responsible for managing the supply chain and optimizing purchasing-related expenses within a company.
  • Logistics Director: Manages flows, transportation, storage, and delivery of products/raw materials. This role also involves analyzing results and managing logistics teams.
  • Logistics Coordinator: Organizes transportation and ensures compliance with delivery deadlines for goods and their condition upon arrival.
  • Additional information: emlyon's MSc in Supply Chain & Purchasing Management is ranked 2nd in France and 4th globally in supply chain according to the QS 2026 ranking.

Banking and Insurance

In the banking and insurance sector, career opportunities after business school are numerous, as evidenced by often high salaries and the diversity of available positions:

  • Corporate Client Manager: Manages a client portfolio, proposing offers tailored to client requirements.
  • Insurance Broker: Negotiates the most competitive insurance contract (life, health, auto, home) from existing companies for clients, based on their expectations and needs.
  • Banking Advisor: Helps individuals manage their investments or savings by offering the many services of the bank where they work.
  • Wealth Manager: Advises and supports clients in managing, optimizing, and transferring their financial, real estate, and tax assets.
Ressources-Humaines

Human Resources

Management and human resources are present in all types of organizations, so there will always be potential opportunities within this function. There is a range of positions including:

  • HR Manager: Manages recruitment, training, payroll, and labor relations to align human strategy with company objectives.
  • Training Manager: Evaluates employee and company needs regarding skills that employees must develop to meet the constantly evolving expectations of businesses.
  • Recruitment Manager: Manages the recruitment process from A to Z (sourcing, qualification, interviews, administrative tasks).
  • Career Management Manager: Adapts the number and profile of employees according to company evolution.
  • Career Management Officer: Aims to help employees define their professional projects and identify various actions to implement. Can work in an external consulting firm or within a company.
  • Human Resources Director: Oversees personnel management including recruitment, training, promotions, and terminations.
  • Employer Brand Manager: Responsible for attracting and retaining employees through the implementation of appropriate communication tools to promote the company's HR initiatives.

Project Management

Most organizations today work in team-based project mode, which necessarily requires management positions in project management and leadership.

  • Project Manager: The person responsible for ensuring the smooth running of a project from start to finish, including planning and execution.
  • Project Officer: Must comply with specifications established with their hierarchy regarding a project to successfully complete it. Works in collaboration with the project manager and is responsible for executing the operational aspects of a project.
  • Risk Manager: Analyzes and measures all risks related to an organization's activities. Also has an advisory role, providing management with information elements to make sound strategic decisions.
  • Executive Assistant: Serves as the CEO's right hand in administrative and commercial tasks. Considered a Swiss Army knife, with responsibilities ranging from communication to personnel management.
  • Management Assistant: Reporting to an organization's executive, the management assistant helps them achieve objectives and daily tasks.
  • CSR Project Manager: Develops and implements a strategic CSR plan with objectives and performance indicators to measure the impact of CSR initiatives.

Entrepreneurship

Today, increasing numbers of students want to start businesses during or after business school, with the ambition of creating a startup, for example. To support future entrepreneurs, each school has its incubator to help students develop/launch their projects:

  • The art of pitching
  • Fundraising
  • Patent filing
  • Business plan and business model writing
  • Competitive analysis
  • And more

emlyon's incubator, founded in 1984, provides strong support for students and alumni with entrepreneurial projects through six pillars:

  • Support: The incubator helps student-entrepreneurs make good decisions through coaching from mentors, professors, and experts.
  • Connection: The incubator facilitates and accelerates access to essential stakeholders such as business angels, bankers, business networks, partners, potential clients, lawyers, chartered accountants, etc.
  • Community: Student-entrepreneurs benefit from advice from other entrepreneurs and relevant networking.
  • Visibility: The school's alumni network helps provide visibility and recognition to an entrepreneurial project of an incubated entrepreneur.
  • Inspiration: Support occurs during the development of the business model and business plan to help student-entrepreneurs innovate and stay on track.
  • Challenge: Mentors and other incubator experts are also there to challenge entrepreneurial projects by providing advice and tips.
  • Please note: emlyon offers a course called Projet de Création d'Entreprise (PCE), taught in the first year of the Master in Management program with the objective of enabling students to develop an entrepreneurial project: from ideation to market implementation.

What Are the Most Lucrative Career Paths?

The most lucrative career paths after business school are primarily concentrated in finance, strategic marketing, and certain high-value-added human resources positions.

In the finance sector, careers such as investment banker, financial analyst, auditor, or strategy consultant are among the best paid, with average starting salaries often between €45,000 and €60,000 gross annually, with rapid progression.

In marketing, senior product manager, growth marketer, or digital marketing manager positions are highly sought after, particularly in tech and luxury sectors, with attractive compensation and variable bonuses.

In human resources, careers as HR Business Partner, talent management manager, or compensation & benefits specialist also offer good salary levels, especially in large international corporations.

The choice of career, sector, and specialization remains decisive for maximizing income.

How to Enter a Business School?

Entering a business school depends on your baccalaureate level and educational background. After the baccalaureate, admission generally occurs through post-baccalaureate entrance exams providing access to a 3 to 5-year program, with general training in management, finance, or marketing.

It's also possible to enter a business school through lateral admission after a BTS, BUT, undergraduate degree, or preparatory class. This pathway allows you to directly join a Bachelor's or Master's program, depending on your level. Admission procedures include application file, written tests, and motivation interview.

Tuition fees vary by school, program, and mode of instruction (traditional or work-study). Work-study programs often allow you to finance your studies. Properly preparing your professional project and comparing programs are essential for successful integration.

After Business School: Continuing Education Is Possible!

After obtaining a Master in Management, some graduates will enter the workforce, while others will want to continue their studies, developing dual expertise, for example, through a doctorate, MBA, Advanced Master, or MSc:

  • An MSc or MS: These diplomas, accessible after a bachelor's degree +4 or even +3 for MScs and +5 for MS, accredited by the Conférence des Grandes Écoles (CGE), provide specialized training in a field of expertise.
  • An MBA: It's worthwhile to pursue an MBA (Master of Business Administration) if you want an international dimension on your CV, thanks to courses in English. An MBA is a career accelerator.
  • A doctorate: After a Master in Management program, it's possible to complete a thesis in a public or private research laboratory. The thesis can be professionally-oriented, as companies fund research projects in specific fields, with potential employment opportunities afterward.

emlyon offers several Advanced Masters (MS) recognized by the CGE through work-study or traditional programs:

Work-study programs:

  • Advanced Master Entrepreneurship & Innovation Management: Students will develop skills to create new businesses.
  • Advanced Master International Business Lawyer Manager: This MS meets the new requirements of companies recruiting business lawyers with an intercultural dimension. This MS is exclusively for recent law graduates holding an M2/DJCE or CRFPA.
  • Advanced Master Digital Transformation, Marketing & Strategy: Trains students to become drivers of digital transformation in organizations.

Traditional programs:

  • Advanced Master International Business Strategy & Development: In partnership with CentraleSupélec, this MS aims to train students in international business development.

For graduates, it's possible to complete an International MBA at emlyon part-time or full-time. The main difference lies primarily in the MBA duration. This program emphasizes:

  • In-depth understanding of international markets
  • Cross-cultural management
  • Solving strategic issues on an international scale

Career Prospects After Business School: Key Takeaways

In conclusion, top business schools offer their students career opportunities across numerous and varied sectors: marketing and communications, sales, logistics and supply chain, banking and insurance, finance, audit and consulting, human resources, and project management.

Students also have the option to continue their studies by pursuing an MS, MBA, MSc, or doctorate to develop dual expertise, for example. Pursuing complementary training can be very useful in a context where various labor market trends, including the emergence of artificial intelligence and the green transition, are disrupting traditional career paths.