I'm a senior at a semi-target with a 3.8 GPA (Finance and Accounting Majors, Statistics Minor) and I'm about to start a career in trading at a top BB (GS/MS/JPM). I'm very interested in what I'm doing and am not looking for a way out before I even start, but I want to keep an eye on the future. I realize exit opps are limited for traders outside of trading, so in the event that I wanted to make a career change to consulting or PE, could having a semi-target school and a top BB on my resume coupled with a solid undergrad GPA and (presumably) good GMATs get me into HBS, Stanford or Wharton?
Also I'm a white male but from a VERY Southern state known for poverty/illiteracy/etc. Not sure if that matters to them at all.
You won't have much of a shot at H/S but should be competitive at the rest of the m7 assuming you execute on the GMAT and essays
Why is it that those two are so difficult? Is it true that they really just don't like finance people or traders specifically?
HBS/Stanford hate traders unless you're a female or an under-represented minority. They don't see trading as a valuable transferable skillset in the business world. They are also more general management heavy than wharton/columbia/sloan/booth. The finance guys who get into HBS/Stanford are almost always some combination of top BB+PE/HF.
Am I put at a disadvantage going to a different M7 school? Harvard sounds nicer but I feel like Wharton will place me just as well and I've read that they're finance friendly. Also I should mention the trading role I'm in isn't strictly trading, it's more like buying mortgages from small banks all around the country then securitizing and selling MBS and hedging the risk we take on. So in that respect what I'm doing is a lot more like being in business because I'm talking to regular people all day from all parts of the country instead of just other BB traders.
In Kellogg, I've met two people who did S&T:
1) BNP equity - American white male 2) MS - British white female
I'm sure there's more. Investment bankers are more common, but Sales and Trading seems more popular than I had assumed based on what I read online. High GMAT will get you into a M7.
to expand a bit. It's true you won't see many S&T at Harvard and Stanford....but you won't see any pure BB IB people either. It's survivor-ship bias - the top bankers go into VC/HF (they are the ones who get into H/S), much like the top S&T people go work for hedge funds or whatever - they are the ones who get into top programs.
Thanks, that makes more sense. So I guess the key to success for me is be at a top BB (I am) in a good product (I am) and perform well enough to get picked up by a good hedge fund. So at least it's under my control and not resultant from me not going to an Ivy undergrad.
I have difficulty understanding the appeal of PE if you're interested enough in trading to do it as a job. As someone in trading I just can't fathom switching to doing really intensive deal analysis in a slow moving environment with virtually unlimited hours.
I'm not sure I can either. I've just heard some traders get burnt out after awhile so I'm trying to keep other options in mind.
If you're burnt out trading you'll burn out in PE more than twice as fast. That is a categorically wrong reason to try to break into PE.
If you get burnt out, you can switch to risk, a lot of traders do when they get older. Or if you get really burnt out, compliance haha.
I feel like it will be more along the lines of "man, I really wish I had a job where I could come to work everyday and build toward some goal" as opposed to "man, I'm sick of being competitive and doing analysis and making money all day". I don't think I'll get burnt out in the sense of being sick of the competition and analysis and so forth, I just think I may want a job that feels more meaningful to me.
Ok, I may have misread your intent. Wanting to work with companies over the long term and build/optimize sustainable business models is a great reason to want to work in PE.
If you want it badly enough, you can find a way into the industry. You have a strong background and are clearly doing well in sell-side trading. The odds will be stacked against you, however. PE shops don't really see any usefulness from a trading skillset, so you'll need an MBA or at least a transition into a HF to gain some principal investing experience before you come truly marketable to a PE fund.
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