San Francisco, California MBA Programs and Business Schools

San Francisco's economy is historically tied to the California gold rush, when thousands of fortune seekers flooded into the city. Today, you aren't likely to find any prospectors wandering the city's streets, but many of the top Bay Area businesses are among the most venerable and historically resonant companies in the U.S, including apparel company Levi Strauss & Co., chocolatier Ghirardelli and Wells Fargo Bank.

However, San Francisco is not a city mired in the past -- it also boasts cutting-edge technology companies and various other start-ups. There are more than 4,100 IT firms located in the Bay Area, accounting for the most patents of any U.S. metro area, according to the San Francisco Center for Economic Development. Health care companies, including Catholic Healthcare West, California Pacific Medical Center, John Muir Health, Kaiser Permanente, and McKesson are among the city's largest employers. Area Fortune 500 companies include oil behemoth Chevron, tech standouts Apple, Intel, Cisco and Google, retailer the Gap and utilities company Pacific Gas & Electric.

Growing Management Jobs in San Francisco: Information Technology, Entrepreneurship, & Finance

San Francisco could be one of the top U.S. markets for graduates who obtained a technology management MBA degree. According to the SFCED, about a fifth of the San Francisco workforce is already employed in the tech sector, and the California Employment Development Department projects 3,600 jobs will be added in the IT services, software and digital media spheres. Computer and information systems managers working in the greater San Francisco area earned mean annual wages of $156,350 in 2010, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (bls.gov) reports.

Given the many health care companies based there, graduates of business schools in San Francisco who focused on health care are also likely to be well-positioned in the City by the Bay. Health educators there earned mean annual wages of $61,720, according to the bls.gov. Grads of MBA programs in San Francisco who might have obtained an MBA degree with an emphasis in entrepreneurship could also find opportunities as the SFCED states that the city attracts 36 percent of all U.S. venture capital investments. Historically, students who focused on finance while attending San Francisco MBA programs have also thrived in the city, given its position as the financial capital of the West Coast. Wells Fargo and Bank of America are major employers, as are the city's Federal Reserve Bank and the Pacific Stock Exchange. San Francisco management analysts earned a bls.gov-reported 2010 mean annual wage of $108,940, while that number was $155,520 for financial managers. With many of these thriving sectors in San Francisco, you could find the city a good place to put your MBA skills to work.

Additional Resources Found on MBAPrograms.org
Business Schools for Finance
Business Schools for Entrepreneurship

Additional Resources for San Francisco
Bureau of Labor Statistics' Page for San Francisco
EDD Contact Information for San Francisco
San Francisco Center for Economic Development
Glassdoor.com's 2012 Best Places to Work in San Francisco