The article presents results of a sociological study based on a 2007 survey of 280 graduates of the Management Faculty of the HSE (years of graduation from 1999 until 2006). Analyzed are factors of a career success of managers among the graduates. A particular attention is given to the indicators of education quality and the appropriateness of their current jobs with respect to the training they received. Described are segments of the Russian business environment that, for career promotion, are mostly guided by clan considerations or, on the contrary, by professional ones. The second pat of the article deals with the analysis of the respondents’ opinions on the content of courses at the Business faculty. The authors focus their attention at the relation of basic and applied knowledge in the education structure and their role in the graduates’ career development.