Hey guys. A friend of mine has been accepted into a top10 MBA program right of of her undergrad (she smart and connected at the school). She wants to work on the buy side in the long run and is concerned that she might not be able to land any good MBA-level internships between her first and second year of b-school, because she doesn't have full-time pre-MBA experience. She is considering rejecting the MBA offer (no deferral options available) to work for 2-3 years (already has an offer from a BB) and reapply to a top5 business school in the future (but no guarantee of acceptance). Thoughts?
How would employers in finance look at a woman in her early 20s with a great educational pedigree but without much full-time experience?
Im still in UG so take this with a grain of salt but....why in gods name you would turn down a FT BB offer for an MBA? Work experience will only make her a better MBA candidate, not to mention the $$$ factor which can't be discounted no matter how you look at it.
Well yeah, but now she got tuition-free MBA and if she goes to work the $$$ will in a large part have to go towards her tuition (if she decides to go for an MBA in the future) so:
salary-tuition=working for a min wage for two years
But this questions is not su much about money but about what is best for her career in the long run: -does she really have a chance to get into a top5 MBA program after 2 years of work experience? (risk averse personality) -is forgoing the tuition-free MBA really work taking the abovementioned risk (might end up with no mba offer after all) -is mba at all useful in finance anymore? -would the BB blacklist her if she rejected an already accepted offer
It's a hard one as she will never know the outcome of the path she doesn't choose to take. But as Eminis said, it's the key point here, if she has an MBA offer now, after 2+ years of work experience she will be an even better candidate. The problem of not having experience for internships applications goes away. Further, she will get loads more out of an MBA having worked previously. The programs are designed for those with experience to broaden their knowledge. Oh, and ignore the money, it's irrelevant when you're starting out.
Eh? Is this program any one of M7+Tuck+Haas? Don't pretty much all the top programs require some work experience first?
Honestly, though, if she can manage to swing an acceptance into a good program now, imagine what she'll be able to land after 2 years of BB experience. Or, since she wants to work on the buy side, 2 years BB + 2 years PE. Really hard to get PE slots post-MBA without pre-MBA experience, especially if you're looking at the megafunds, or so I've heard.
Thank you guys for the input! I agree that getting into PE/HF would be impossible for her, if she accepts the MBA offer now. But she's also looking at asset mgmt as an alternative path. All depends on what she would be able to secure her summer internship in after the first year. Do you think other sectors within the financial services might be more open to non-traditional MBA students?
On a different note, so far we've look at the US job market and trends. What do you guys know about how European or Asian employers might look at her internship application? Is the job market more accommodating in London or Geneva?
The jobs market here in London and Geneva are more forgiving. Our lack of lots of top institutions to study at means firms are always forced to look further afield. The concept of "Target/Non-Target" is fairly alien here.
Having said that, MBA internships at Associate level will still, in the main, require experience.
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