Penn Student: MBB Lateral into Buy-Side Financial Careers
Hello WSO, this is my first post so forgive me if I'm doing this wrong! I am an incoming freshman at UPenn planning on Econ or Poli Sci. I plan on law school to ultimately pursue appellate litigation & government roles but (for very solid reasons I have but won't bore you with) am considering a business career. I plan to do consulting ideally at an MBB for a couple years before Law School if my top goal doesn't work out (a graduate fellowship).
Consulting would be a means to law school & beyond (help pay off debt, build a network, exposure to different industries, as well as engage the qualitative sort of thinking I usually excel at), it also jives well with my Public Policy research I'll do in college if I don't land a grad fellowship or direct admission to HYS Law.
However, if I woke up one day and was told with certainty I would not be a lawyer, or if I realize working in business is far more interesting, being at the very top of deal flows and capital markets sounds far, far more appealing than being an operations systems thinker. The career consultants I've spoke to, or those that have exited into corporate roles, seem to like being 'in the middle' between the capital and day-to-day of business which does not seem to be my sensibility.
I know I am very young and will have alot of time to explore, especially at Penn. Was just chatting about this with a close family member who is a partner at BCG that consults PE firms who told me if the goal is finance, start with finance. For me, business itself is a secondary goal but within that, finance would probably be the move.
If all I had was offers from consulting firms after graduation, would it be possible to lateral into banking, PE, HF, etc etc after business school? Any other advice on choosing here?
It sounds like you should flesh out your goals more clearly before "committing" to anything since you seem to be interested in multiple disparate careers. This is completely normal given that you haven't started college yet. I was in your exact shoes four years ago and kept bouncing between tech, finance, consulting, and law/government roles. I ultimately went into MBB and I'm still considering options in law and finance.
For lateraling into PE from MBB, generally the only way to do that is into an Associate program before business school; it's generally very difficult to get into PE after an MBA without pre-MBA investing experience. A few years in MBB can also help you get into top law schools (and I'd apply to programs like the HLS JDP). But if you are set on finance, I would highly recommend applying for banking roles. In general though, I wouldn't worry too much about locking yourself into any one path at your current point--just enjoy your freshman year and keep an open mind to all opportunities. Join clubs and frats, meet people, keep your grades up, and everything will likely fall into place.
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