I graduated August 2016 from the Florida State University with dual degrees in Econ and Poli Sci with a 3.83 GPA, honors in the major (econ), a research intensive bachelor's certificate (poli sci), and as a Garnet & Gold Scholar. I had no finance internships nor work experience. My internships and work experience while in college were all academic research oriented. I'm currently a middle school math teacher.
I tried the whole cold-call boutiques thing, but they all somehow knew my dick was small, so I didn't get any bites. My cousin was a VP at Merril Lynch and is now in Private Equity, and I tried using him to network, but I never had a relationship with him in the past, so he probably didn't like being cold called out of nowhere.
So now I'm in a shitty job, with shitty pay. I want out. I don't even give a shit what I do in the future, as long as it is a job that has a fairly probable capacity to earn 200k or more in the long run.
Which route do y'all think will give me the best shot of raking in the dough:
(1) Obtain MAcc to get a gig at Big 4. Get my CPA and try to make partner.
(2) Obtain MAcc to get a gig at Big 4. Work 4-5 years & get CPA. Go to M7 MBA and try to land a spot in IB or PE.
(3) Obtain MSF. Work 4-5 years & obtain CFA. Lateral into IB or PE
(4) Obtain MSF. Work 4-5 years & obtain CFA. Go to M7 MBA and try to land spot in IB or PE.
So, you can slice this a couple of ways. You have some great stats so if you get a really good GMAT you can get into a bunch of good schools and most likely get scholarship money. IMO, I would only do the MACC if you can do it free, do it locally and only want to live and work in Florida.
If you are fine paying some, moving and not being in FL, then I would say you should target Vanderbilt, WUSTL, programs like that. You can go accounting if you want, but you'd enter as in valuation or something more finance related. This would give you great optionality. Or you could target IB.
Just supposing here. Suppose I get the full ride into Florida's MAcc program. Suppose I become a CPA and start a career in Florida. I think that it is possible, but I wonder how likely is it that I will be capable of making 200k or more a year, and by when?
Everything I read seems to contradict one another: "Stay in 15 years and you can break 6 figures," ... "Nah nah nah, you can make 6 figures easy after 6 years at a Big 4," ..., "the real money is in private accounting, do your due diligence at Big 4 and then transition to make the real cash, ... "guys are you high? Accountants will be lucky to make 90k-100k," ... "Accountants make 60k a year."
All that was from the internet. Talk to an accountant right? My mom's friend did Big 4 and then moved to US Sugar to be their accountant. He said expect 100k max. My dad's accountant did Big 4 and now runs his own practice. He said an accountant can earn millions, but anyone with decent sense can safely earn 200k.
Audit managers definitely break $100k ... Manager level only needs 4-5 years experience. If you are interested in public accounting, I would advise joining a firm with a reasonable partner track. From what I hear, Big 4 has a serious Senior Manager log jam.
Entry level audit guys should expect ~$55k a year.
Source: good family friend on partner track (senior manager/director level) at a regional firm. Guy is 33, lives and works in the suburbs and made around $140k two years ago.
Study hard for the GMAT and apply to MIT's MSF.
I've only taken math up to calc 3. Doesn't its MFin program require more pre-requisites?
No, it doesn't. Contrary to popular belief, MIT's MSF program is extremely flexible. You can tailor it in a way where it isn't more quantitative than the average MSF program. There's a mandatory prereq (think it's stochastic calc, but not sure) that's a killer, but beyond that, you don't have to take a single quant-oriented class.
MIT should be your target and Vandy should be your safety. Don't go to any other program.
If you fail cold call, you simply need to fix that versus doing a big detour to b-school. Your plans are too long, and our attention span is much shorter in real life. bake in some flexibility so that you're not "ideally" stuck in some job again, and for 5 years
UT Austin has a pipeline directly into the Big4 TAS groups (FDD specifically) as well. If you were able to go straight into one of those groups you would have a great shot at lateraling to a MM bank after a year or so. People do it every year. Takes some hustle, but it's alright.
TAS is also a good work experience for MBA apps. UF and a 3.8 are good stats for MBA business schools ">M7 as long as you can bang the GMAT. Not sure on your demographics though, white male finance is definitely at a disadvantage even with good other stats.
Regarding earning potential in Big4, audit you will start ~$55k and be at ~$100k after 5 years when you make manager. The FDD groups are similar, though at least within mine its very easy to make manager in 4 years rather than 5, and we make ~$115k in NYC first year manager. Can go another 2 years to director and be making $165k pre-bonus. It's a bit of a parking lot from there to make partner. Could be another 6 years easily before partner, but your salary will obviously keep going up and with bonus you should be at $200k once you're a director.
edit: misread, but FSU is also good for MBA's, though admittedly less prestigious than UF (as I'm sure you're hyperaware of being in FL)
Okay and Vandy's MSF has a pipeline directly into Deloitte's business valuation group (for those that failed to get IB). You would start out at $80k and jump to ~$110k 2 years out as a senior associate. Or, you can lateral into MM/BB banking after a year or two. At Deloitte, it happens fairly often.
The point is that OP can do better if he does well on the GMAT. Could do MIT > BB IB, MBB, PE or Quant AM.
Read MIT's "Suggested Background".
How can you say this? I can't find anyone from UT Austin MSF in TAS on LinkedIn
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