Finance after the Military

Hello monkeys,

I'm a new member but have been using the site for about a year now. I'm a college student and have been considering a program for the Marine Corps that would include officer commission after graduation and 4 years of active duty requirement. I wanted to poke around and see if anyone has had any insight into the financial world as a former military member or if you know or worked with anyone that is/was. I want to hear about the experience, lifestyle adjustments, successes and failures, and how to get a target job that can open doors for many different paths after 4 years in the USMC. Any insight?

 

I saw you posted on Houston earlier - ex-military (inc plenty of marines) is pretty well represented in Houston/O&G so you could definitely tap into that network if you wanted to go the UT route. Regardless of where, people are definitely funny about going straight in, esp w/o finance background. Whereas there's a pretty well paved path military-MBA-associate and from your background sounds like you'd be well placed to do that.

 

with your west point backround, have you looked at getting into the top mba schools and coming in as an assoc? we used to have a wharton resume file on here with a hundred or so student resumes. i was surprised by the number of officers there. your leadership skills will be assumed, and the mba will help you learn the finance you need.

 

Most likely you'll need an MBA to break in. Once you have that you are golden. Both MBA admissions offices and every conceivable profession in the business world (finance, consulting, everything) absolutely loves prior military. I separated from the military a few years back and then went to b-school. It's tough to break in without the MBA, but once you're in you're golden.

 

I work with a few West Point and Naval Academy grads. They were in a similar position as you 5-10 years ago and made the transition without a problem. They all have their MBAs from top schools (Chicago, Penn, UCLA) and transitioned into banking. I enjoy working with these guys because they're straight forward, no-frills and are adept at dealing with shit.

One used his West Point connections to land a gig and one did recruiting through traditional MBA on-campus recruiting.

I think you're in a great position to take advantage of getting into IB after an MBA. From what I can view, if you come from a solid military background you have a leg-up on getting into a top MBA program because your experience and training is very unique.

 

I'm in the same situation, only I'm Aviation and won't get out till I'm 29. Is there a major problem getting out of an MBA at 31? I'll have about 7 years of military experience (currently doing logistics for my battalion) and from the looks of it a very small bit of experience flying, which shouldn't have anything to do with application.

 

Firms understand that MBAs who were prior military will be at the upper end of the age range. It doesn't matter at all. The only thing is whether or not you are willing to put up with some of the bullshit you'll have to deal with. I was prior military, and finished b-school around around 31. My tolerance for crap is a lot lower than, say, the analyst on my desk. So as long as you don't let that hurt you then the age doesn't make a difference to any firm.

 

I think you need to give more info for people here to help you. I'm just a college student, but I think someone who went to West Point and graduated at the top of their class would be treated very differently than someone with a more "ordinary" background, right?

I have a question for you. Let's say I go to OCS (Navy or Air Force) after college. I don't make them pay my students loans or anything. I take no incentive going in. I do my 4 years and get out.

How much $$$ can I get towards B-School through the GI Bill?

 
JamesHetfield:
I have a question for you. Let's say I go to OCS (Navy or Air Force) after college. I don't make them pay my students loans or anything. I take no incentive going in. I do my 4 years and get out.

How much $$$ can I get towards B-School through the GI Bill?

If you go the OCS route, you will get 100% GI bill funding after you complete 3 years of active duty. This will cover a chunk of tuition, a chunk of fees, and a living allowance for the 9 months school is in session. Each school has a different approach to how much money they will allow a GI bill student. In general, most state schools will cover 100% of tuition and fees. For private schools, you can get anywhere from 100% at places like Kellogg and Tuck, to 30-40% at other institutions.

 
JamesHetfield:
I think you need to give more info for people here to help you. I'm just a college student, but I think someone who went to West Point and graduated at the top of their class would be treated very differently than someone with a more "ordinary" background, right?

I have a question for you. Let's say I go to OCS (Navy or Air Force) after college. I don't make them pay my students loans or anything. I take no incentive going in. I do my 4 years and get out.

How much $$$ can I get towards B-School through the GI Bill?

Not much. It depends on the school. The GI Bill has a ceiling. All tuition above that ceiling is paid by the schools Yellow Ribbon Program. The YRP is an agreement with the school and the government to pay additional money on your behalf towards school. XYZ university has a policy to give x amount of students y amount of money and the government also pays y.

For instance, take my situation. I need to stay in STL due to my wife's school needs (I would love to go to Boston, maybe after school.) I am applying to WUSTL and SLU as a veteran transfer (I earned an Associate's degree during my enlistment). IMO WUSTL is the better of the two, many of you would probably agree. If I get into WUSTL, I'll get 100% full ride. At SLU, I'll likely end up with a small amount of student loans because their YRP is not nearly as generous as WUSTL's.

Disclaimer: Stupid spelling errors and awful grammatical errors are due to this evenings alcohol ingestion.

When a plumber from Hoboken tells you he has a good feeling about a reverse iron condor spread on the Japanese Yen, you really have no choice. If you don’t do it to him, somebody else surely will. -Eddie B.
 

The numbers for the Post-911 GI Bill is no more than 100% of the most expensive IN-STATE public school to be applied anywhere for a maximum of 36 months. Plus a housing allotment. Anyway, I'm just curious to see if anyone has made the transition from enlisted or officer into IB. I don't care if you did your UG before or after service, I'm just asking about your experiences, your story on what you did to make it in and if you found anything unique with your situation, as in you had to jump through certain military only hurdles.

Don't get sidetracked with the money thing, I'm still gonna whore myself out to every grant and scholarship out there under the sun, it's not really an obstacle right now.

 

Not to pry too much, but how old are you? You say you are too old for banking, but there are quite a few analysts in my group alone that are nearing their 30's. Granted, either they worked in business/banking for a couple of years and took a detour and then (re)joined banking, but the point remains that the ceiling age for being an analyst might be higher than you think...

If that happens to be the case, then I would start taking business, finance, and accounting classes at the college where you are enrolled currently, and then contact alums of the school or more preferably, others who have served in your branch (or the military in general) and are at places where you'd be interested in working.

 

Cypress,

Two routes to go:

  1. Military -> Analyst. You'll need to finish up your undergrad degree and have a good GPA. More importantly, you'll need to get your foot in the door. Start reaching out to vets in finance on LinkedIn...it's a small, tight knit community, and can really open doors for you. Also, quite a few of the big banks have programs specifically for vets...Goldman is one of them.

  2. Military -> MBA -> Associate. Again you'll need to finish up your undergrad. Keep in mind, that all schools are not created equal in the eyes of the adcom...be wary of the for-profit/online college degrees. Regardless, finish with a high GPA. Study for the GMAT and do well on it. Adcoms typically don't know what constitutes a successful military career or a humdrum one, so don't worry too much about that. Get into the best MBA program you can, and the rest will take care of itself.

FWIW, Post 9/11 GI Bill does help, but like you said, it's capped. So, unless you max out your GI Bill and qualify for the Yellow Ribbon Program, the benefits aren't as great as they would seem at first.

 

Why exactly do you want to go into the military?

When a plumber from Hoboken tells you he has a good feeling about a reverse iron condor spread on the Japanese Yen, you really have no choice. If you don’t do it to him, somebody else surely will. -Eddie B.
 

From your description of what you like, it sounds like Wealth Management would be a good fit. You have a good resume, and would have a lot of options, so I'd only do the PWM thing if it truly is your passion. You would certainly have more exit options if you went the IB or S&T route, but if sitting in front of a computer screen for 20 hours a day and banging on excel isn't your passion, you might just end up hating life.

Just my $.02


Either you sling crack rock or you got a wicked jump shot

-------------- Either you sling crack rock or you got a wicked jump shot
 
No. I'm not trying to criticize people's professions here, but in general, if you do <abbr title="investment banking"><abbr title="investment banking">IB</abbr></abbr> or <abbr title="Sales and Trading">S&amp;T</abbr> then you are really over-qualified for <abbr title="private wealth management"><abbr title="private wealth management">PWM</abbr></abbr>. The move to <abbr title="private wealth management"><abbr title="private wealth management">PWM</abbr></abbr> will be a step down (the vast majority of the time) in pay, prestige, and complexity (especially from <abbr title="Sales and Trading">S&amp;T</abbr> to PWM). 

Private banking and wealth management are simply lower on the food chain within the bank, on average. That said, some firms, <span class="keyword_link"><a href="/company/ubs-ag">like UBS</a></span>, are putting such a focus on wealth management that they are building out structured products desks within wealth management that are usually comprised of people coming over from the investment banking side. The selling point is usually that the work/life balance is generally better (although that is highly dependent upon your comparison point), and that you "don't always have a gun to the back of your head", i.e. better job security. 

The trade off is that you will spend the bulk of your time with less complex products and smaller deals because you are usually servicing either retail clients or very small institutional clients. In addition, 9 times out of 10 the pay will be much lower. In the past some private banks had an eat-what-you-kill mentality than allowed them to get paid well (picture the Bear Stearns "brokers" you read about on Bloomberg getting $2-3 million comp packages--good pay, but definitely lower in prestige, exit opps, etc. than the guys in IB or S&T). But many banks are now moving to a different Private Banking model that is much more collaborative and team-oriented, which in turn improves the culture/work-life balance, but cuts even further into your pay.

Dont' get me wrong--private banking and PWM are great career fields and can be very lucrative, but they are very different in many aspects from IBD and S&T (which are in turn very different from each other, as well). Each of the 3 career fields will attract very different types of people with different goals.

 

I certainly appreciate all of your inputs on wealth management. From my very brief description of myself, are there other ibanking fields you all would recommend?

Founder, Volunteer Forever http://www.volunteerforever.com
 

Honestly, don't sweat it to much right now. Go to b-school and figure it out there. Once you get to b-school you will have the opportunity to meet people from every imaginable background, and you'll learn a lot more there than you will on this board. In addition, full-time recruiting starts about 1 month after you get to school--you'll learn a ton during recruiting.

That said, do NOT spread yourself too thin. You can wait until school starts to figure out what you want to do, but you need to be sure you at least limit your focus rather quickly. Very, very few people successfully do recruiting for S&T, IBD, and consulting and still land job offers. You usually need to limit it to 1 or 2 core areas. And as far as firms are concerned, don't worry about that. That will work itself out in the end, and firm choice is very dependent on you chosen career field, chosen team/desk, etc.

 

Good point about the firms skins. I'll just let it ride. Only thing is I'd like to have my career goals a little more solidified for my bschool app. Unfortunately,being in the military I don't get a chance to interface with any investment bankers, etc. so I don't have too much detailed insight into these fields.

Founder, Volunteer Forever http://www.volunteerforever.com
 

Don't worry too much about that, either. Just pick a story/goal and stick to it. Also, ad coms fully understand that people coming from "non-traditional" backgrounds are going to have a general career change as their main goal.

When I was doing apps I thought I wanted to doing consulting, since the vast majority of vets in b-school do consulting. So that's what I wrote in my essay. Then everything changed and I switched to S&T. Ironically, I was the only military vet at my school that went into S&T, and one of only a handful that did finance at all. The rest of them were M/B/B for consulting.

And the funny part about this was that all the other vets avoided S&T with a general attitude of: yes, I know I can make more money there than in IB or consulting, but it's too risky. Coming from a bunch of combat vets, go figure.....

 

Thanks skins. I'll pick one career field and stick to it in my essays. What branch of the service were you in and where did you go to biz school? Did you go through recruiting for ibanking and consulting while you were in business school?

Founder, Volunteer Forever http://www.volunteerforever.com
 

I was pretty much set on S&T by the end of the first semester. I did go to a few info sessions on consulting, but I never pursued it. For IB and S&T you spend the first few months of schools going to info sessions (all on campus) that were bank-wide, and then going to S&T specific cocktail hours/info sessions, then doing 1 trading floor visit per bank, etc. All that will fill up your schedule very quickly. Then add trading simulations or lectures hosted by banks on campus, and a few other events, and basically you're slammed through the winter break.

So S&T and IB recruiting is very heavy on the meet and greet on the front-end, and then you spend the last few weeks before interviews just studying and prepping for technical questions. Consulting recruiting, on the other hand, is very heavy on the back end--you have much more free time early on, and then the last month or so you are prepping non-stop for the case interviews. So because the timing is different, I have seen people do both. But it's very hard, and most people just end up spreading themselves too thin and getting no offers. So it's better to focus on one area--that's the way to land multiple offers and give yourself the best chance (caveat that current job market conditions are obviously a huge player--I graduated during the boom so it was quite different from the situation now).

Standby for an email.

 

Are you in Sales or Trading? I'm sure you can indicate preference, but how does the decision on where you end up get fleshed out by your firm?

Also, people talk a lot about "exit options" being good from S&T. What options are these (looking for examples)? I suppose most would be interested in sticking w/ a finance/Wall Street oriented role thereafter, but do people go into corporate jobs after S&T, say, in the industry they focused on during trading (e.g. industrials, transportation, etc.)?

I ask about exit options b/c although IB-type jobs interest me, I worry that it is due more to the mystique of the Street and pay than to a genuine interest in the role these positions play in the economy. I know my initial-impressions of the industry (from reading only) as a glorified middle-man are not unique or original, but it bothers me a bit that I may not feel like I'm adding useful value. I think S&T would give me a deep understanding of financial markets (and an excellent pay check), but if the initial attraction wore off after a few years, what are the ways you can capitalize on that experience and skill set?

I'm starting business school this fall and have been furiously investigating IB careers. But like the OP, I'm currently in the military and have little exposure to former professionals (other than a couple people I met during admit weekend).

Thanks for any input you care to provide.

 

You probably need to zero in on what you want to do before anybody can give you sound advice. Finance, actuary, Phd, etc - kinda all over the road. That said, with your background, and I know subs are highly selective, you would make a very competitive MBA candidate provided you do well on gmat.

 

1st piece of advice, sign up for another four years and take the SEAL challenge. I trained hard during college to do it and pussy'ed out in favor of a finance gig. Regret it to this day : \

To your question, I don't think any other option besides an MBA from a competitive school is worth considering. There are some great quantitative tracks you can take at most good MBA programs specifically at MIT/Sloan, Chicago/Booth and Wharton. I'm guessing if you're sub surface officer you've got an engineering degree. That with some glowing recommendations from your commanding officers will be a really competitive application package. There will be a lot of other military folks in your MBA program, and you'll have some excellent networking opportunities as well as access to career resources just for veterans.

A MFin would be fine, but it's not too much cheaper than an MBA and the networking and career transition resources aren't nearly as robust. Plus a MFin will only give you a few additional specific finance courses vs an MBA.

The CFA would also be helpful for you, but that is 3 year process that can be expensive given you won't have sponsorship from a company. If you're not working during that time, that's a 3 year employment gap. Come back to this further down the road if you think it's necessary.

Ace all your PE interview questions with the WSO Private Equity Prep Pack: http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/guide/private-equity-interview-prep-questions
 

Use the post 9/11 to go get your MBA at a top school. I know Cornell's yellow ribbon is unlimited and I will probably be targeting there in the future. I'm a four yr vet and in my last yr of undergrad. If you need any advice or help on the transition PM me.

Also look for veterans programs. American Corporate Partners (ACP) is a mentoring program for veterans where you get paired with a successful person in finance. Also recruit military is another one.

twitter: @StoicTrader1 instagram: @StoicTrader1
 

1.) Quants have better work/life balance than bankers. 2.) Both have better work/life balance than living on a submarine. 3.) The median banker probably earns more money than the median quant. 4.) Younger MFEs still have the option to get an MBA. 5.) If Uncle Sam is paying for Cornell, Cornell has a fine MBA program, but an excellent ORFE program.

 

Take a job at ML if they offer one. It is a good way in for people that don't have traditional backgrounds. Trading or IB might work for you, if you find someone that sees things the way you do, like another service academy grad. However, it sounds like a tough road. It is better to take something that will get your foot in the door first.

 
Best Response

With an MBA from a good school it's definitely doable. I worked in Accounting and Finance for 10+ years and got a part-time MBA. I still couldn't break in at the bank I already worked at. Yet the guy I networked with who had the job I wanted had never worked in finance, but spent time fighting in Afghanistan. IB loves military guys because they know you won't complain. If they say run through that wall - you will do it.

So your story is this: Can you work hard and be a leader? WEST POINT check. Can you handle the finance aspect? Well your weak GPA doesn't address that question so an MBA from a reputable school should round you out nicely.

Keep in mind I'm talking about investment banking. That is completely different from being a financial advisor. FA is a sales job with little to no budget. IB is more structured and will give you a healthy skill set to take out into the worforce should you decide you want to get out of IB.

 

If you want to defer getting into Wall Street by 2-3 years but increase your chances considerably, I would highly recommend you to take the GMAT and apply to a top 5 MBA. I would be very surprised coming from West Point and serving as a Ranger would not get you an acceptance in the top 5. HBS especially loves someone with your background and top MBA programs pretty much make an exception on their unstated age cap for ex-military guys.

 

Thanks for the replies. This website is awesome.

Grad schools makes the most sense. The issue with that is I have a family and need to provide for them,so full time student is not in my future. I could try and get a typical corporate job (finance, management, etc.), do a part-time MBA, and then try and come in at the associate level....maybe. An issue with this strategy is many of the top-tier MBA's dont have part time programs. I also have been told from some IB folks that recruiting is really focues on full time MBA students who can do an internship in the summer between first and second year.

I dont see too much love on WSO for the Financial Advisor role. Why is that? Seems like you could make a great living by most peoples standards (200K+ if you are successful and put your time in), better worklife balance than what I read about more traditional wall street roles, and you can live in, say Naples, Florida or San Diego instead of being tied to NYC. Whats the deal?

Silver6
 

Hey man, just wanna say thanks for serving our country. To address some of your questions:

1) Wharton, Kellogg and Booth all have part-time MBAs the last time I checked. 2) Do you get to go to school for free if you choose to? I am very unfamiliar with this, but my best friend from high school also served in Afghanistan (he did not have your pedigree - no West Point, no special forces), came back, finished undergrad, finished med school (all fully paid for by the govt) and now is in his orthopedic surgery residency. One of my buddies also did a full-time MBA with a family so I don't think it would be absolutely impossible to do. Your family will have to be very understanding and that those 2 years would be a major and worthwhile investment. 3) Most of the ppl on here are either in school or less than a decade out of school, so they naturally gravitate towards a corporate setting (myself included) b/c we've all been largely institutionalized. I think being an FA could be a great career opportunity but carries a lot of risk not unlike other entreprenural ventures. Yes, you will need to be a great salesman and build your book. I actually wonder what the fail rate for FA is. But the idea of sales/cold-calling/talking to strangers without some social lubrication is actually quite uncomfortable for many, so I'd magine thats why there isn't much love on this forum.

 

Thanks again for all the responses. I am currently in North Carolina, but I can move pretty much anywhere in about 6 months. The Army will relocate me as far as New York, and anything further will get paid for by my wifes company (she works from a home office so she can relocate very easily). I am 27 btw. Someone mentioned age cap...is this an issue at 27?

At the moment Dallas, TX is making the most sence if I decide to go the FA route..

    • .More benefits for veterans in texas than any other state(tuition at UT- McCombs would be about 100% covered for an MBA, full or part time)
    • Dallas is a pretty wealthy town for prospective clients(allegedly more fortune 500 headquarters than any other city, Big Oil, Defense contractor hub, etc.)
    • you cant beat texas for patriotic "give this veteran a shot" sentiment. I was stationed there at once point and its part of the culture.
    • I know there is no success like new york success, and I am a proud NYC native, but I have seen the light when it comes to quality of life living in other major cities. I have a familiy and 3 young kids so as much fun as I would have had as an ibanking analyst living in mid-town and chasing ford models, if I go the NYC route I am going to be commuting from Jersey or the Hudson River valley.
Silver6
 

With your background, you should be networking your ass off and most importantly, no one will care about your GPA.

Vets place very well into SnT. Suggest you get on LinkedIn and search for vets at each IB; there are many vet programs and the heads of them are easily accessible. You're an Academy grad so you have a vast network on the street; use it to your advantage. Have your story straight about what you want to do and start doing info interviews for next year's vet programs (GS VIP, BAML Vet program, and JPM'S vet program).

 

Thanks Ivy, sounds like you have some first hand experience in this realm. I would PM you, but I dont have enough points yet...new to this website.

Does anyone have first hand experience with the big institutional vet programs? I would like to hear more about it...I have googled around and not a ton of information on the company websites/articles floating around the internet

Silver6
 

You could use the post 9/11 GI Bill to get a full-time MBA. They give you BAH of an E-5 while you are in school. I'm using the post 9/11 for undergrad (enlisted for 4 years) and get 2K a month in BAH in the Boston area while my tuition is fully covered as well at a private college costing about 35K a year

twitter: @StoicTrader1 instagram: @StoicTrader1
 

Texas is my home of record, but im originally from NYC. I am very familiar with the GI Bill...but thanks for bringing it up. Basically the way my situation works out I can have half of a public MBA at either UT or UNC, or 10k towards a private MBA. As far as stretching my benefits go, if I were to go back to school on my own texas or UNC would probably be the best ROE, but then again if I can get into a top tier program (not likely with my GPA I think) the money spent branding myself as a harvard, Booth, etc. alumni is probably well spent.

Silver6
 

GI Bill + BAH + State Unemployment + Disability--> MBA

A single guy could easily milk this on his own. It may be manageable for your family depending on where you live and your wife's income. I'd definitely use up the GI Bill though.

 

I'm a little late on a reply, sorry. But it seems like you are getting a great deal of good advice here. I can only add that UT would be much better than UNC. And If you stay around Texas a UT MBA is going to be a big advantage for you, all the way around. I'm in Chicago and I would say that overall it has a very good rep here. It's not Booth or Kellogg or even Mendoza, but I have never heard of anyone getting knocked for having gone to McCombs.

 

Hi Wints,

If you're looking for jobs, here is a job board (it's quite new) with the latest vacancies available on the BusinessBecause website. These are jobs dealing with financial analysis, project leaders and other business/finance related job openings which have been posted on their job board. It'll be useful to check out as you're on the look out for jobs in the corporate finance sector.

The link is http://www.businessbecause.com/jobs.htm.

You will have to register on the site to view full details (just takes a couple of mins), but it'll be worth it! The jobs are all over - US, London, China etc. Have a look! It'll help! Thanks and good luck! :)

 

Before I finish my MS, my plan is to start a Sales/Trading club at the school, bc it does not exist. Not only can I find people w/ similar interests, but it will obviously help score motivation points on the resume.

I already do a fairly significant amount of charity work, but will contribute more with the available time.

 

...so in other words, youre hot $hit.

CFA is useless in trading, MBA only marginally better. You already know this, though!

Get a job after your duty is up is the best advice youre going to get.

I hate to be a dick especially to a soldier but other than a whole lot of bragging what was the point of this post?

 

I'm really wondering what else I can do to improve my profile. I don't have the Wharton/Princeton/Harvard thing though everything else seems to fit.

I feel I can competently get through interviews, and I can probably get a good word put in, but I'd like to be demonstratively better on paper than my competition. There's no telling where the markets will be in two years, so self-improvement is always the best policy in preparation.

I have considered opening a commodities account but don't know if I would have the time or wherewithal to actively trade. Plus most retail investors lose their shirts in commodities because those assets more than anything else are driven by the size and volume of trades...

Definitely don't have the $ to do index futures. I could just amplify my commitment to an options account but would have to trade at night so primarily japanese market since I can't trade during work.

 

Isn't the biggest thing in trading discipline, decisiveness, and conviction, but also pragmatism when the tide turns?

Merrill connections in trading are on credit swaps desk.

Morgan trading connections are in commodities & equity futures.

KKR guy used to be at Goldman, classic ibanking but probably knows some folks.

Another Goldman contact on sales side for interest rate products in hedge fund sector.

TD guy helps arrange financing for hedge fund and institutional traders.

Can get a professor recommendation PhD MIT, was economist at NY Fed, then bond quant, then customized interest rates for secondary market structured products (something to that effect) @ Citibank in mid-late 80s... currently consults w/ foreign govts on regulatory matters for primary markets.

EDIT - Another connection just moved to ECM syndicate desk at DB, unknown sector at this point

 

Here's some honest friendly (though it may not sound like it) advice that I really hope you can take to heart.

Find something you want to do and go after it!!

If your going to let the fact that you didnt go to an ivy league college control youre life and make you feel insecure despite having a graduate degree, military experience, and all the rest, then I feel sorry for you.

 

Let me please refer to my original post asking what else I can do to enhance my profile for the 24 months following graduation.

The CFA seems a fruitless endeavor for my aspirations. I could take the GMAT until I crush it and apply for MBA school but feel it would be a waste. I could voluntarily deploy for a 365 and will get decorations (they hand them out like candy for going to Iraq/Afghanistan). I could pick up another language (working on Mandarin at the moment). I could try to set up a full derivatives account using tradestation and various other platforms/strategy/algorithmic software. I could get significantly better at computer programming.

My point is, aside from the cultural value derived from a language, or the raw experience of a deployment, all of the other options I have listed seem rather benign with respect to any value-added proposition for my profile.

 
I was active duty military and now work on a trading floor, so I am familiar with your situation. While I agree that a <abbr title="Chartered Financial Analyst"><abbr title="Chartered Financial Analyst">CFA</abbr></abbr> or <abbr title="Masters in Business Administration"><abbr title="Masters in Business Administration">MBA</abbr></abbr> may not be totally necessary for work on a trading floor (trading, sales, or structuring), the bottom line is that the vast majority of most trading floors with a focus on structured products and derivatives are filled with people with advanced degrees. 
Your masters in finance is more useful than an <abbr title="Masters in Business Administration"><abbr title="Masters in Business Administration">MBA</abbr></abbr>, so you're covered there. Here is the problem--if you join a desk as a direct hire (vs. out of a recruiting program from a grad school) then you are paid out of the desk pool, rather than HR as a new recruit. Which means they expect you to contribute right away, which is tough if you are a career-changer. That's why people always recommend a full-time grad program, because that way you can utilize full-time recruiting. The bottom line is that you will have a wide range of job opportunities in finance with your background, if you do on-campus recruiting. If you try to get hired as an "experienced hire" (i.e. not from an academic program), then it will be much, much tougher and your options (as far as role on the trading floor, products, etc.) will be far more limited. 

That is why doing a full-time MBA is so key for prior military personnel. Email me offline is you want to discuss in more detail....

 

American Corporate Partners. See if they can hook you up with someone who has been down the path you're looking at. Good networking opportunity at the very least.

When a plumber from Hoboken tells you he has a good feeling about a reverse iron condor spread on the Japanese Yen, you really have no choice. If you don’t do it to him, somebody else surely will. -Eddie B.
 

With your history why dont you go to B School then hit the street... You dont want to be stuck at the bottom of the barrel if you have the opportunity/ background to start as an associate... Dude i would hit B school, use your frat connections to get you an internship during your first year then, when looking for a full time job you can point to some relevant experience.

 

I guess I figure that if I could get my foot in the door I could dominate the younger competition and get promoted earlier. With my military experience I understand what it means to go these ridiculously long hours especially with a demonstrated focus. I have a pretty solid understanding of the market and I honestly wouldn't mind doing either M&A or S&T, though I know they are entirely different beasts. I just don't want to get stuck in OPS or Analysis recommendations as a full time job.

 

however you will have some good competition, and promotions are always tricky to forecast (a lot of it depends on personality fit with higher ups etc.) You also assume there will actually be the right opportunities to distinguish yourself, which may or may not be true.

Given that you aren't even in the industry yet, making this kind of assumptions seems a stretch. I think you'd save yourself a lot of grief by doing an MBA. Save yourself the gruelling analyst years (you don't lose time (possibly actually gain one) just the cost of the MBA), get an insurance policy in case economy turns sour, and give yourself a chance to try IB during summer.

 

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