Any and all advice is appreciated!
I am a consultant at a Big 4 in the IT / Strategy department (I have done everything from large scale implementations to more short-term IT strategy projects) I would consider myself a general management consultant. Most of my clients were finance-related (big banks or insurance companies etc.)
After several years and 2 promotions, I realized that I definitely don't want to stay in consulting. However, I have absolutely NO experience or knowledge about finance or modeling (studied civil engineering at top tier undergrad) so I am insecure if I can even make this change.
Would it be too late to transition to finance? What areas in finance do you think is doable to transition into? I was thinking studying for the SIE Exam - worth taking it?
Tons of people without a finance background use a Top 20 Full Time MBA program to pivot into Investment Banking. You should look into that, as it's probably the most reliable path for someone like you who's wanting to make that career transition.
Your best shot is to get to a top MBA and recruit as an associate.
Thanks, but why not try to be an analyst and work my way to associate in 2-3 years? Top 10 MBA program would cost ~$150k and as an analyst I would be earning money. Do you think it is just really hard to get an analyst role?
Why would they hire someone who is the same age as a post-MBA Associate to be an Analyst, when they could just hire one of a thousand naive 21 year-olds from a Target School that's more than willing to work 80 hour weeks?
If MBA is an option, you don't want to go through the pain of being an Analyst in Banking if you can skip it. That said, I moved from Big 4 consulting to Banking at 27 and 5 years later I am still alive and in PE (but the move was in Europe and I think in the US is more difficult as people / recruiters are less flexible on this).
Do a full time or part time MBA, but in either case only at a top 10 program. Pursue associate recruiting from there. You'll be 29 or 30 on your start date, which is not at all too old to be an associate.
Thanks, but why not try to be an analyst and work my way to associate in 2-3 years? Top 10 MBA program would cost ~$150k and as an analyst I would be earning money.
highly unlikely to be given the chance to start as an analyst.. what's the point in offering you an analyst position when a bank could get some target school kid or snag someone from a top 20 MBA as an associate? They've already established these pipelines so these folks already have proof of concept on their side - what do you bring?
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