Different City Advice

I've spent my whole life in the Northeast and am beginning to think if I don't switch things up soon that I will never leave. I'm an undergrad at a semi-target and recently I've started to think that it would be nice to try to do my best to get an analyst position in a new location (Houston, San Fran, Florida) but the majority of ocr and the alumni base is up here so I have found it difficult to reach out to people in these places.

Would my best bet be to wait and apply to MBA programs in these locations? I'm a little worried because I have heard that its best to go to grad school where you want to work, and ultimately i think i would want to live back in the northeast, but i don't think i'll ever know for sure until I get a new experience. If anyone out there has any advice on this i'd be real appreciative.

 

For analyst positions, there are opportunities in Houston, SF, and Chicago outside of NYC. During recruiting you should maybe ask if there's a possibility of working at any of those locations. Houston is strong for energy, Chicago has good amount of solid MM banks and regional BB groups, and of course SF has a lot of technology groups.

Houston is a really cool city and it's DIRT CHEAP, if you can stand the hot and humid weather. SF is almost as expensive as NYC but the weather is nice. The culture is really diff. in SF- a lot more laid back. Chicago in my opinion is an awesome city, weather is similar to NYC, rents only cost about half of manhattan, genuinely nice people, lots of things to do, clean, and filled with college graduates from mainly all Big 10 schools ready to have fun.

Regarding MBA for switching cities- I think it would be better to try to do it now because you never know if you will get into the top schools like Chicago and Stanford which will give you more access to those cities. Also you never know what kind of opportunities you will have after analyst stint and if those will include relocating to other cities.

 

I hear you on the wanting to move around idea, but depending on your personal profile and background it might not be the easiest thing to do. From my experience, people from different parts of the country (or globe) really dont have much inventive to hand a job to a person outside of their sphere of knowledge/experience (too risky for them). Meaning, if an hiring manager in San Fran. has a choice between a kid from Cal or the Northeast, they would much likely learn towards the local kid whom is a same alumnus of tens of other people in the same office.

To overcome this you need to do what has been said ad-nauseum on WSO; network, network, network! That or you need to exhibit some sort of interest or expertise in the field that is associated with where you are applying (Houston=oil, San Fran=tech, Florida=?). Id bet that networking will be more effective for an undergrad.

 
Best Response

You can absolutely get over to a different city.. the bigger question is why? Basically, we're going to choose the least risky person... so cluelessjoe is correct.

The second part of your comment is the interest in going to a graduate school whatever it may be the need to be from the same area actually decreases. Sure the public schools are likely going to prefer in-state a little bit more but the major top programs are private anyway so this is a non-issue.

Why not think bigger? Do you "NEED" a graduate degree? What do you want to do? Who says you need to follow the tired old "analyst -> MBA --> Associate --> VP".... Life usually doesn't work like that anyway and direct promotes are rapidly increasing nowadays.

So make your decision based on which job opportunity is the best, don't make decisions in the future that could be destroyed in a single phone call.

"Gerry_Garner would you like to interview with D.E. Shaw?" -- boom you don't care about b-school anymore.

 

Thanks for the responses. Sorry I didn't mean to suggest that bschool was something that I am 100% certain i want to pursue. I was just bringing it up as another potential tool that would allow me to relocate if I have a desire to in the future.

I think right now the way I'm thinking about my future career is IB > PE/VC/Who knows? Haha i mean in theory I have an idea about what I want to do but as an undergrad that hasn't gone through the grind who knows what i'll want to do after a two or three year analyst stint. I'm just thinking i'd like to mix it up early, especially as analyst stints are only temporary anyway, before life catches up to me and ties me down to a certain geographic region.

 

"In theory I have an idea about what I want to do but as an undergrad that hasn't gone through the grind who knows what i'll want to do after a two or three year analyst stint. "

This is the correct mindset for sure and to be honest "mixing it up" during two of the worst years of your life probably isnt the greatest idea. Life doesn't end in your late 20's or anything it has just begun.

In school you're taught to be "married have a kid" by 29 and follow the "plan" but in reality as your experience grows so does your "liquidity" pun intended because it means you can move to a new place because you have the cash and you're not tied down to anything. Tied down really refers to personal responsibility.

Another thing, if a group likes you in banking or whatever you decide to do... They will absolutely allow you to transfer. For all you know you can ask for a transfer to London. Good workers are getting harder and harder to come by so focus on getting your work together and let the pieces fall as they may towards year 2/3. If you're real smart you'll work politically and not be grinded as hard as you thought...

As the saying goes: "Are you hard working or are you smart you can't be both."

 

reach out to people in IBs in Houston. They are DYING for people to show interest if they are from the northeast (start getting up to date with oil & gas). just find them on the websites and start asking them for info and tell them you want to find out more about them and stuff, and that you wanna work (if you are sophomore in college, still have time, if you are junior, recruiting is just getting done now-- think you might be a bit late). It could be great, and it's a bit easier to get into banking there than in NYC, and frankly imo, more exciting

 

I have a few friends who work in sattelite offices of BB's and elite boutiques in atlanta, they love it. Making NYC money, but living in a city where $2K a month will get you something in the W Residences.

One of my buddies just bought a brand new C63 AMG Coupe and is living in some baller penthouse, 2nd year associate. I'm looking to move somewhere like that too.

 

Combination of warm weather and lower cost of living and Raymond James would be a nice gig haha. Atlanta is an option that I have never really thought of before. I imagine its filled with a lot of kids from good schools that have trouble placing in NYC (like Emory, Georgia, etc.) that could be an option. Does anyone know any firms that have a strong presence there. Do BB have a strong presence in theses other cities or is it mostly MM and boutiques?

 
Gerry_Garner:
Combination of warm weather and lower cost of living and Raymond James would be a nice gig haha. Atlanta is an option that I have never really thought of before. I imagine its filled with a lot of kids from good schools that have trouble placing in NYC (like Emory, Georgia, etc.) that could be an option. Does anyone know any firms that have a strong presence there. Do BB have a strong presence in theses other cities or is it mostly MM and boutiques?

Most of those kids end up at SunTrust or RayJay or the small local boutiques. Most of the BB's and a few elite boutiques have a precense in ATL, but recruiting is very hard from what I hear and its your usual target schools.

 

I've talked to a few guys who worked at Raymond James down in Florida and absolutely hated it. Basically what they said is that in NYC working at your classic BB the hours/lifestyle suck, but there are thousands of people doing the same or similar grind so it is manageable. In Florida you have the same hours but everyone else is working non-finance/banking jobs with not nearly the same sort of demanding hours.

 

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