Mehjubeen,

Not to sound condescending at all but what was your purpose in pursuing an MBA? Surely you must have had some vision of what you?d like to get out of it and then pursue the needed concentration in order to realize that vision or at least get one step closer. Don?t know too much about your background/experience nor do I have adequate knowledge of ?project/program? management, but based on data you?ve provided above combined with an MBA degree, possible alternatives to look into include: (1) working within business development or marketing role for a biotech/pharma company (2) consulting firm with biotech/pharma focus where you can leverage your industry knowledge and build on that by gaining strategy/operations experience or (3) PE/VC firm where you have the opportunity to again use your industry scope to analyze companies, seek and monitor the most viable investments and set up the dashboard for the best strategic/operational initiatives for the firm. Please keep in mind that each alternative have their caveats. Option 2 (while nothing is written in stone) would premise that one has strategy/marketing concentration/background; option 3 is most challenging and requires one to have a strong grasp of finance, strategy and operations. Ideal candidates typically have I-banking/Consulting and most wanted industry experience. Many who have done option 2 or 3 likely end up pursuing option 1 in a high position role or running their own companies.

You need to make a roadmap for yourself as to what is your experience, what are your skillsets, and your 3-5 yr goal. This will allow you to hone in on companies to target, address how you can actively contribute and what you?d like get out of your experience with the firm?all this will enable you 2 better position yourself during interviews. Trust me if you have clarity or at least make it look like you do, the interviewer will think so too :)

In terms of the average salary for MBAs, many things go into it but the biggest is ?brand? of schools. And all options mentioned above definitely place a high emphasis on this and seek accordingly. This year?s top MBA class witnessed base increase all around. My knowledge is based on Wharton, Columbia, Harvard, Univ of Chicago and Kellogg so if others know more, please add your insights.

There?s a $5-7K price differential between the top 15, 10 and 5 schools but here are the basic figures: Overall ($90K, up to 15% bonus) ? typically tends to be industry and marketing role companies; management consulting ($115K, up to 35% bonus) with potential profit sharing; Investment banking ($95 may have gone up to $100K) with 60%-100% of base as bonus; PE/VC (same deal as I-banking with ownership in company and performance of portfolio)

Anyways, hope this was helpful. Good luck!

Cartiergal