Pre-MBA Associate Recruiting vs. B-School Sponsorship from MBB?
Hi all,
I'm starting at MBB in a few months, and I'm hoping WSO might provide some insight on the merits of pursuing pre-MBA PE recruiting from MBB (versus taking b-school sponsorship after 2-3 years). My 5-7 year plan includes business school (studying for the GMAT now), but I'm not set on any given path. I didn't intern in IB and have no substantial experience in finance; however, it's likely that I'd be able to get significant experience in my firm's PE practice by the time PE recruiting kicks off.
Right now, there are two options I'm thinking about:
Option 1: recruit for PE next cycle (with the delayed start dates, I'm not going to be prepared to recruit this cycle), spend 3 years at MBB, 2-3 years in PE, then go to b-school (assuming I get into an M7). I could save for b-school during my PE associate years, take out student loans, or potentially ask my MBB to sponsor me to come back.
Option 2: don't recruit for PE and head to b-school in 3 years under MBB sponsorship. I'd go back to MBB for the requisite 2 years and re-evaluate afterward.
I'm leaning towards recruiting for PE due to the increased comp, value of buyside experience, and the timing (recruiting pre-MBA being much more feasible than attempting to enter PE post-MBA without pre-MBA experience). To some degree, I fit the MBB cliche of not knowing exactly what I want to do in the long-term, so the proposition of "keeping my options open" is appealing. On the other hand, MBB seems like a more "fun" experience and I'm unsure of how valuable PE experience will be if I'm not planning to do PE in the long term. Going to business school earlier might also be better for my personal development given that I'm not set on any given path (I.e. I'd be getting the chance to broadly explore my career options at the age of 25 as opposed to waiting until I'm 27-28).
I've talked to some people at my firm about this, but I thought I'd ask WSO, too. Am I missing any of the respective merits or pitfalls of each path?
