Part-time MBA grad feeling hopeless about switching into trading/IM
I graduated from a TOP 10 MBA program - Top 10 overall per USN, not a specialty ranking like Top 10 Part-time - and want to get into either trading or investment management.
Negatives: I have zero experience. I have a MBA GPA of less than 3.0. I was laid off 8 months ago. I do have a JD but didn't take the bar. My 8 years of experience are in non-profits doing mostly research/writing and some marketing. I am in my 30s.
Positives: While in business school I took mostly quantitative finance courses in fixed income, derivatives, arbitrage, stochastic processes, and such.
I went to my career services office and they recommended I use linkedin.
This career switch seems overwhelming and impossible because I have never even been in the office of a finance firm or bank. I know nothing other than my coursework and have no experience to show for. I am willing to take the CFA or CAIA but career services said it's not what I should focus my time. He said networking is everything.
Networking is everything.. I don't see harm in studying cfa material in your "free time" tho
Read wallstreetoasis.com - that will be a good starting point. Try searching something...anything.
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if you want to do investment management the cfa is not a waste of time at all. At your age and with a random background, it's probably going to be all but a requirement. Networking is important too but don't overlook credentials.
I assume the answer is financial reasons, but why would you do a part-time MBA if your ultimate goal was to jump from non-profit work to IM? An internship between your first and second year would have made this process so much easier to make the career switch. Your best bet is networking because this really is a relationship business. All you need is a family member, family friend, friend, former colleague, classmate, etc. that can put you in touch with the right person and give you a shot. Probably too late to prep for the upcoming CFA exam but if you have enough free time it is certainly worthwhile.
Yes financial reasons. The program I most wanted to attend - because of the coursework and professors, which is somewhat a silly reason now that I went through business school - was in the city I was working in already.
So to give up income for 2 years to go full-time to the same school did not seem like a smart move at the time, compounded by the fact that the city is so expensive to live in to begin with. Now that I'm in this "no internship, older, no experience" mess, I've become somewhat depressed and overwhelmed.
But everyone here seems much more upbeat about it than I was, so that makes me feel quite a bit more confident about beginning the process.
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