Post-MBA Work-Life Balance

I have searched for this topic but have not really seen it addressed too much. Someone point me in the right direction if I totally missed it.

So I got into the top 10 business school (think whatever is at the top not named HBS or Stanford GSB). At this point, the first half of my career ends as I spend 2 years doing whatever people do at business school. I didn't think I'd find myself here at this point in my life, but I'm mid 20's, my career is going as planned...and now I've decided I don't want to sign away my personal life after b-school. I'll be married by the end of B-school and it's not the time of my life I want to sign away 2 years to MBB or BB. What do people in this position do?

I'm not asking you to make my life decisions for me, or analyze my resume, I'm fine doing that on my own. But any advice/suggestions or experiences worth sharing regarding career paths with an actual work-life balance post b-school?

TLDR: What to do post top-B-school if (god-forbid) you would actually choose family over $$$?

 

I would second corpdev or corpstrat at a F500...I currently work at a F500 tech firm in this capacity and the work life balance is great. I also made this choice for some of the same reasons as you (family, etc.) and have to say that I dont regret it in the least bit. Comp is fantastic, the benefits are ridiculously good, and i work on average 50-60 hrs / week with some travel (maybe once every other month). The work is obviously very similar to banking (corpdev) and consulting (corpstrat) so it's still interesting and not boring like an FP&A or accounting job yet I am still home most nights for dinner with my family and very very rarely do I work weekends.

 

I do not have any advice from personal experience, but just as an FYI, i know a lot of people who got married right around the end of b-school. (nowhere near as many ppl who broke up with their significant others, but more than a handful). And a good percentage of the newlyweds r in banking/consulting, in their late-20's, with spouses ranging from equally busy to stay-at-home.

So I am not sure u wud be signing your family life away if u chose a little bit more money and more exit options. I think the 2 yrs at b-school may actually change your viewpoint drastically. Relationship status plays a very minor role in what you want to do post-MBA. U find a way to make it work.

 
asianwannabe:
I do not have any advice from personal experience, but just as an FYI, i know a lot of people who got married right around the end of b-school. (nowhere near as many ppl who broke up with their significant others, but more than a handful). And a good percentage of the newlyweds r in banking/consulting, in their late-20's, with spouses ranging from equally busy to stay-at-home.

So I am not sure u wud be signing your family life away if u chose a little bit more money and more exit options. I think the 2 yrs at b-school may actually change your viewpoint drastically. Relationship status plays a very minor role in what you want to do post-MBA. U find a way to make it work.

Not so sure why this comment was downvoted, but I generally agree with this statement that the typical "good opportunity" job right out of a top 10 MBA is going to be MBB/BB, and that there are a lot of people who are in serious relationships (married or not) and have a varying number of children that they make it work out.

I'm of the general feeling that couples/families will make it work if they want it to. This applies to long distance, a spouse attending MBA and the other not (or the other not being able to move jobs), or a spouse working in MBB/BB. If you want it to work it will work so if you are ambitious for your career I say don't give up on it.

 

I've got some great advice for you. DON'T GET MARRIED!!! NEVER!!! You say you don't want to sign away your personal life after B-school. Then why are you getting married you idiot??? Say goodbye to your net worth when she's finally had enough and takes half of what you own.

 

I've got some great advice for you. DON'T GET MARRIED!!! NEVER!!! You say you don't want to sign away your personal life after B-school. Then why are you getting married you idiot??? Say goodbye to your net worth when she's finally had enough and takes half of what you own.

 
Best Response
TheTwoHacker:

I am planning to attend a top 10 MBA program. However, unlike many others, I do not see myself working the IB or consulting hours post MBA. I have a commercial banking background and wanted to transition into a general management role in a F500. However, after looking at the follow post from gmatclub, it seems like you will get crushed by work anyways. So mind as well go for IB/consulting for better comp?

What careers are there that are somewhat intelectually simulating, with decent pay 100-150k, reasonable advancement opportunities, and works you ~50-60 hours?

http://gmatclub.com/forum/so-you-want-great-work-l...

To add to what others have said here, it will also depend on the kind of role you want within a F500, or even by region/geography (which applies to IB or consulting as well). And even then, it will vary by company. For example, big pharma/healthcare is supposed to have a good culture in terms of hours and work-life balance, but then McKesson has a reputation for being cut throat (if that is indeed true, then the main culprit is likely due to how it became the company it did: through acquisitions, which likely creates a lot of upheaval and lack of security that persists).

Here's another way to look at jobs within any company in any industry. There are basically three kinds of jobs:

  1. Those who make the product/service,

  2. Those who sell the product/service, and

  3. Those who support the above two.

Generally speaking, if you want work-life balance, avoid the first 2, as they are tied to revenues and under the most pressure (deadlines, hitting targets, etc). For the most part, the backoffice/support roles tend to have more predictable hours and less travel. In financial services (even on the buyside) as well as consulting firms (or any professional services org - accounting firms, law firms, architecture firms, ad agencies, etc), the "makers" are the juniors on a client project, and the "sellers" are the partners/MDs. Those that aren't tied to client projects are considered support.

So in mgmt consulting, there are some support jobs even at the more senior levels - in consulting, they are often labeled with euphemistic titles like "business development" or "product management" or "research intelligence" or something like that (and most likely a non-partner position).

Same with F500. Those who are gunning for the popular exec positions in a product group are going to have crappy lives - for example, if you're hoping to become the product manager for Windows at Microsoft, or some hot Google product, you will likely work banker hours and/or travel like a consultant. Again, any of these jobs that are tied to revenue are going to be high reward (not just money, but mobility), high sacrifice. If you want work-life balance even in F500 firms, you'll likely have to look at support/backoffice functions (HR, treasury/financial planning & analysis, operations, etc).

Probably not what you want to hear, but work-life balance is a continuous struggle, plain and simple and it'll go through cycles. It certainly varies from one industry to the next, but you won't be able to avoid that dynamic completely (i.e. the spectrum of measuring work-life balance isn't "from really awful to really good" but "from really shitty to less shitty"). Work will crush you at times (and not necessarily because you want to, but it can when you least want it or least able to handle it). Or your family/personal life will suck up way more than you had anticipated, and at times at the most inopportune time.

Alex Chu www.mbaapply.com
 

I work mid/back off at a bank, the directors are highly paid, and work 50/55 hours max (8am till 530/630 generally). They'll check their blackberrying, and maybe occassionally go on at home for a few minutes if they need to talk to Asia, but that's about it. Plus, all they are doing is meetings mainly, which I prefer to excel/PowerPoint.

It's not guaranteed, but if you search it out, you can find a relative lucrative job with reasonable hours. That said, you're not going to become CEO doing that.

 

my 2 cents: I currently work in F500 transportation industry, mid-level mgmt in marketing, 45 hrs week, actually working around 40hrs. $120k. I get to work at 830 and leave at 5-6. I work out 2 hours everyday. The reason I'm pursuing an MBA this August is that I got bored quickly from working the same type of corporate job. But to answer your question, you should be able to find low 6 figure job easily.

 

Actually the kids will wreck your free time and your net worth (40% of your post-breakup income will go in child support for 2 kids) far more effectively than the breakup itself. The sheriff comes hunting after people and they actually put people in prison if they miss child-support payments.

 

The break-up itself will not hurt your net worth much because you will start out with $200 K in student loans, a huge mortgage, $30 K in marriage expenses, $30 K in legal expenses for the break-up. So your net worth at the time of break-up will probably not be much. After the break-up, if there are 2 kids, you will have to pay 40% of your gross income in child support. For three or more kids, it is 50% of gross income. This comes directly out of your paycheck before you get a penny. Then, the government tries to grab as much as it can in taxes from what is left. Then, they leave you with some miserable amount to live on. You cannot save anything and you probably cannot get married again because you will be broke and once the women know that you are on the hook for child support, that will be the end of most relationships. So you will have to work 80 hours a week to pay child support and taxes and you cannot save anything. That is just the reality and I don't understand why so many people are throwing monkey-poop at me.

 
TraderJoe1976:
That is just the reality and I don't understand why so many people are throwing monkey-poop at me.

Probably because the OP asked for advice on career paths with good work-life balance and not marriage advice. He noted, "I'm not asking you to make my life decisions for me, or analyze my resume, I'm fine doing that on my own. But any advice/suggestions or experiences worth sharing regarding career paths with an actual work-life balance post b-school?"

 
TopDGO:
I have searched for this topic but have not really seen it addressed too much. Someone point me in the right direction if I totally missed it.

So I got into the top 10 business school (think whatever is at the top not named HBS or Stanford GSB). At this point, the first half of my career ends as I spend 2 years doing whatever people do at business school. I didn't think I'd find myself here at this point in my life, but I'm mid 20's, my career is going as planned...and now I've decided I don't want to sign away my personal life after b-school. I'll be married by the end of B-school and it's not the time of my life I want to sign away 2 years to MBB or BB. What do people in this position do?

I'm not asking you to make my life decisions for me, or analyze my resume, I'm fine doing that on my own. But any advice/suggestions or experiences worth sharing regarding career paths with an actual work-life balance post b-school?

TLDR: What to do post top-B-school if (god-forbid) you would actually choose family over $$$?

Generally speaking, jobs in industry tend to have better work-life balance - corporate development, finance, consumer/brand marketing, investor relations, operations, product management, etc. Not always and there's always exceptions, but for the most part they offer more predictable (and shorter) hours than banking, and far less travel intensive (if at all) than consulting.

Investment management, hedge funds, private equity and VC also tend to offer better hours. Again there are sweat shop PE funds, but traditionally as long as you get outside of investment banking, it tends to be better. Even within banks, sales/trading has predictable hours with minimal travel.

One other thing to consider is geography. Again, generally speaking, jobs based on the coasts (northeast, west coast) or in global centers like London, HK, Singapore, etc. tend to have far more of a "live to work" mentality, so there tends to be less work-life balance no matter what you do.

Once you go into other parts of the US or the world (i.e Canada, continental Europe), there is more of a "work to live" mentality across the board, more family oriented, and so forth.

The thing is, a lot of top b-school alums do eventually chose family over $$$, they move out of the city and into the suburbs, trade in the flashy car for a minivan, etc - but perhaps not right away since most b-school grads don't graduate with a family. In short, it's great that you're thinking about it now, but I wouldn't worry too much about not being able to find jobs that offer work-life balance. Just avoid banking and consulting and you'll be fine. Oh, and also avoid a few of the Silicon Valley tech companies who build their offices like college dorms - because why leave the office if you have everything provided for you from fooseball tables to massages to gourmet organic foods to a gym on the premises! - younger single kids fall for that shit; when you get older, you just want to do your job and get the hell out as soon as possible for your personal life).

Alex Chu www.mbaapply.com
 

You could also consider less demanding areas of finance: ER (at some places), trading, risk management, or a FoFs.

Boutique PE shops to some degree. This is just based off of what I've read hear but someone mentioned they work at a boutique shop in Boston and work 50-60 hours, almost never weekends, usually out before 7pm.

 

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