B-School: Admissions & Recruiting
Hi, everyone ... I am VERY new to this field. I am a male in my early 40's, considering business school for a career change into finance. I already have degrees in math (Caltech) and law (UCLA), and got licensed as a patent attorney, but am still invisible to law firms (due to low first-year grades, no CS / EE degree, and now lack of law-firm experience). Instead, I have been teaching / tutoring all levels of math, economics, and the GRE and GMAT. I took the GRE myself a couple of months ago and got a perfect math score (with a EE degree in mind, actually). Much to my surprise, I started getting unsolicited emails from MFE programs, including Berkeley. I would now like to fully explore this option. My strengths are a solid academic / quantitative background, a law license, a mature understanding of the economy, entrepreneurial / client experience, and a very high GRE score (I’ll take the GMAT too for good measure). My weakness is a complete lack of work experience in the banking / finance industry. I don’t want recruiting to be a crap shoot, so I’ll either go to a top-ten B-school or none at all. My two general strands of inquiry at this time have to do with getting IN to such a school, and what to expect coming OUT of it.
GETTING IN: Is it in fact possible to get into a top-ten business school with a strong GMAT and undergrad / law school record, or do these schools expect industry experience first? Is it easier to get into an MFE program than MBA?
COMING OUT: I have a pretty good sense that the finance field is much like acting, sports, or drug dealing (bear with me here on this analogy) … there are a few top-dollar jobs at the top that are so visible and glamorous and inspiring that the field becomes flooded at the entry level. The legal field is the same way. I know many newly-minted lawyers who are clamoring for unpaid internships just to get experience on their resumes. I don’t want to graduate into another lower-level pool like that. I’m entertaining this option in the name of job security. I don’t need a $200K salary plus bonus, but I do hope for a good solid 95% probability of finding a stable, full-time, $75K starting salary in a job where excellence is rewarded. Is that indeed the reality for today’s graduates of the top ten schools? Or do even Haas and Columbia graduates often find themselves striking out with on-campus recruiters, and scrambling for every $35 / hr gig they can get? Does it make much difference whether you have an MFE or MBA?
Thanks for your patience and any insight that you can offer.
Naïve Newbie
Early 40s might be a problem Getting a perfect in the GRE doesnt mean you are a genius especially when you have a Math Degree (I will also say it is a requesite for your background) - lets keep in mind it is high school Math
Now a strong background and good experience like yours could be extremelly wanted by business schools so just apply and then see
Before applying to anything, I think you should spend some time doing some research on the finance industry to find out what jobs you would actually be interested in.
People are naive in to their 40s?
LOL in some regards, I'm afraid so!!
Honestly, it sounds like you would be better suited to academia, accounting, or fortune 500 jobs than finance, it has none of the criteria you mentioned. You could easily go to a top 30 MBA and get a F500 job making 60-90K right out of school, it's stable, and you'd have free time. If you're looking at a top 10 MBA to score a 75K finance job, ask yourself why you think you want to do finance at this point, and if it fits your personal goals: I'm not sure you're too clear on either at the moment.
UFOInsider: Thank you, very insightful. I didn't know anything about the various options / career paths, so that's why I'm asking around!
Figure out what job you want, then go to grad school. Some F500 jobs may take you as is, you may not even need to get an MBA. Look around and ask around like you are, and when you find what you want to do, look at school as just the means of getting there....and realize that school recruiting is just one means of getting hired.
You state that you want a job that pays you $75k a year...
Then decry people who earn $72800 per year? Huh?
Anyway, why don't you just get a $75k a year job without wasting two years on an MBA? Ever had any interest in tech? A guy smart enough to manage Caltech should be smart enough to learn to code pretty quickly, even without any prior experience.
In short, why are you so set on finance?
You have good degrees from Caltech and UCLA. You're a licensed patent attorney. You could get a 75K full time a year job right now without B-school. I'm a little confused why you haven't yet. I presume you have reasonable work experience the last 10 years.
My guess is that your age will prevent you from top 10 B-schools. Unless you looked at part-time or Exec MBA.
Pissed off the mob with your comments, eh?
So here's something for you to look up because you really do need to learn more about the Finance jobs, especially from a site called Wall Street Oasis. I've read that age isn't a limit on getting in a B-School, it's just that they would require more success from you vice someone who's 27. Work experience is important and if you're a failure to mediocre at law then I would assume that would be a ding for you, but at least they would expect a lawyer to be older. A very high GMAT would be a plus, for anyone. Getting into H/W/S or an M7 would do wonders. The M7s put out amazing numbers for their graduates and if you got a 75k job you would actually hurt their numbers.
So if you got a job in Wall Street expect long working hours, 80-90 if you're coming in as an Associate with a total compensation of $220k-ish assuming you got a top tier bonus. This means that at second to the bottom you pulled in over $200K and the numbers go up quite a bit as you get promoted. People don't really want to work Wall Street for $75k.
Just a little something to help you out.
From the Adcom types I've read that your age doesn't stop you from getting in, they just expect more. So when you're 26 it's easier do X amount of work and get in, whereas if you're 36 they require more than just the X amount, they require x+y.
Sorry for the misunderstanding, I didn't mean to decry anybody! Haha. I guess I should have clarified my example ... $35 / hr PART TIME gigs, a few hours here, a few hours there. That's how I spent my first year out of law school. I was incredibly surprised by the job-market reality. I thought that a top-20 law degree would be worth a lot, but if you don't get high first-year grades and a good job offer immediately, it can close the door on your whole career. Now I'm exploring the finance field to see if the recruiting is similar. It could be a very powerful fresh start for me. And yes, I am simultaneously exploring the EE option as well.
Thanks for your feedback!
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