After ESTEEM

The ESTEEM Graduate Program provides its students with a unique combination of technical expertise and business acumen that allows them to master the modern marketplace and become leading innovators among the world’s most successful startups and corporations, as both entrepreneurs and "intrapreneurs."

ESTEEM emphasizes the action of entrepreneurship, not just the study of it, with a combination of world class entrepreneurship/innovation curriculum, an incredibly hands-on and practical capstone commercialization thesis (creating a full and robust go-to-market launch strategy for a particular innovation opportunity), and tremendously insightful out-of- the-classroom experiences (i.e., attending trade shows; traveling to industry conferences as well as the sponsor’s headquarters, R&D centers, innovation hubs, manufacturing/distribution/retail sites, etc.). By the time they graduate, our ESTEEM students find their technical and soft skills, as well as their leadership potential, to be impactful and marketable in a rapidly changing global economy due to the rigorous academic experience, exposure to real-life business ventures and actual engagement with key stakeholders, and exceptional mentorship and networking opportunities they have received. Students are launched into career tracks outside of narrow technical roles, taking positions of leadership and delivering true impact at the intersection of business and innovation.

Outcomes: Average Information for ESTEEM Classes 2023, 2024, and 2025

  • 57% of our students have at least one full-time job offer by graduation

  • 83% of our students have at least one full-time job offer 120 days post-graduation

Average Starting Compensation

In the United States the average starting salary for someone with a Bachelor’s Degree is $60,000. Those graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Notre Dame have a median salary of $82,000. The average starting compensation* for ESTEEM graduates from the classes of 2023, 2024 and 2025 was $103,399. It is important to note that this average includes those students who may have founded their own company while here in ESTEEM (or very shortly after graduating from ESTEEM) or who have joined another startup or small, rapidly growing enterprise. In all of these cases, the average starting salary is typically lower (and thus pulling the overall average for the class down), but many if not all of these students are also receiving some level of ownership/equity in the company, and thus may result in a much higher return on their investment for having selected ESTEEM as their top graduate school choice.

*Average compensation includes salary, signing bonuses, and any moving expenses

Types of Positions Our Students Go Into

One of the great benefits of receiving a Master’s Degree from the ESTEEM Graduate Program is that we have seen many of our graduates go into higher job classifications compared to the positions they would go into straight out of completing their undergraduate studies. For example, many of our students will start as a Senior Associate vs. an Associate, or a Senior Product Manager vs. a Product Manager. We see many students placed in leadership positions/rotational programs that attempt to fast track them and provide more clearly defined leadership pathways, giving them more responsibility and thus higher compensation, especially over the longer term.

Pie chart showing the industry breakdown of Mendoza College of Business undergraduate alumni who responded to a survey. Consulting and Technology are the most represented industries at 26% and 25% respectively. Health Care/Biotech/Pharma accounts for 16%, Education/Advanced Degree is 9%, Other is 6%, Manufacturing/Transportation and Financial Services both represent 5%, Consumer Products/Retail is 5%, Energy/Utilities makes up 2%, and Nonprofit/Government accounts for 1%.

Types of Industries Our Students Go Into

Upon graduating from ESTEEM, our students will enter a variety of industries, often based on the areas of interest they developed during their time in the program. An average of 26% of our students go into startup/early stage companies from these various industries.

Types of Companies that Have or Are Employing Our Students

Our ESTEEM students receive job offers from companies of all sizes in various industries all over the world. Below are some examples of companies our students have previously received offers from.

*indicates a startup/early stage company

Consulting Healthcare, Biotech, Pharma Technology Energy/Utilities Nonprofit & Government Education & Advanced Degree Manufacturing & Transportation Finance & Investment Consumer Products & Retail Media & Entertainment

Consulting

  • Avanade
  • Bain & Company
  • Boston Consulting Group
  • Booz Allen Hamilton
  • Clarity Solutions
  • Daly Ventures*
  • Deloitte
  • enFocus*
  • Ernst & Young
  • IQVIA
  • KPMG
  • McKinsey & Company
  • PwC
  • ZS

Healthcare, Biotech, Pharma

  • AbbVie
  • Eli Lilly & Company
  • Enlighten Mobility*
  • Feinstein Institute for
  • Medical Research
  • Flagship Management*
  • GE Healthcare
  • Medtronic
  • Ochre Biotech
  • Northwell Health
  • Scientist.com
  • Torigen Pharmaceuticals*

Technology

  • Amazon Web Services
  • Apple
  • Google
  • IBM
  • Intel
  • Lenovo
  • Meta
  • Microsoft
  • Stackline*
  • Telnyx*
  • Texas Instruments
  • The Boring Company
  • Trek10*
  • Uber

Energy/Utilities

  • Bloomberg New Energy Finance
  • BlueWave Solar
  • Energy Vault
  • Greentech Renewables
  • Invenergy, LLC
  • Johnson Controls
  • Lumen Energy*
  • Neighborhood Sun*
  • Octopus Energy Generation
  • PearlX
  • Thea Energy

Nonprofit & Government

  • City of Boston
  • City of South Bend
  • European Space Agency
  • United States Air Force
  • United States Army
  • United States State Department

Education & Advanced Degree

  • Carnegie Mellon University
  • Cleveland Clinic Lerner Medical School
  • Harvard University
  • Loyola Medical School (Chicago)
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Stanford BioDesign Fellowship Program
  • University College Cork (Ireland)
  • University of Notre Dame
  • U.S. Fulbright Scholar Program
  • Wharton (Penn) School of Business
  • Yale University

Manufacturing & Transportation

  • 6K, Inc.
  • 10Beauty*
  • Coast Southwest, Inc.
  • CupPrint US, LLC*
  • Electric Vehicle Gear*
  • Glen Dimplex
  • Human Systems Integration, Inc
  • Ideal Tridon
  • Marmon Food Service Technologies
  • Mattel, Inc.
  • The Boring Company
  • TireRack
  • Tyson Foods

Finance & Investment

  • Breezy Point*
  • Centerview Partners
  • Estuary Capital*
  • Evercore
  • High Alpha Innovation
  • Insight Partners
  • Irish Angels
  • Morgan Stanley
  • Morningstar
  • Osage Venture Partners
  • Raymond James
  • SV Health Investors
  • Techstars
  • TrueBridge Capital Partners
  • Unusual Ventures

Consumer Products & Retail

  • Abercrombie & Fitch Co
  • Aldi, Ireland
  • Blueland*
  • Latitude Outdoors*
  • Liquid Death Mountain Water
  • Proctor and Gamble
  • SRAM
  • SharkNinja
  • The 1926 Company (WatchBox)
  • The Home Depot
  • Uline

Media & Entertainment

  • Broadcast Sports International, LLC
  • Casting Networks, LLC
  • Disney Imagineering
  • HeyGen
  • MailOnline
  • The Walt Disney Company
  • Topgolf
  • Universal Orlando Resort