Better Pre MBA Experience. ?

Hey guys I was wondering what a better Pre-MBA experience would be that would help me land a post MBA associate role in Houston, Texas. Should I be targeting Oil and Gas companies for corporate finance next year after graduation or should I be going for more bank roles like corporate banking or credit risk analyst? I cant land a IB Analyst role next year because i don't have a IB internship. I will try to land one with a boutique bank during the semesters.

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First of all, you don't need an IB internship to land an IB Analyst role - you just have to do the preparation and speak to why you want to do IBD. It's not impossible, but it's harder.

For your question, I would recommend targeting corporate finance roles at O&G firms. post-MBA associates have gotten a bad rep because they're getting paid to be a sitting duck for the first couple of months, especially when they come in with no pre-MBA IBD experience. If you were in O&G, the industry information will only make the learning curve steeper. Working at an O&G firm will at least allow you to grasp the industry better while learning the lingo and standard metrics. Corporate banking and credit risk are fine if you're aiming to do IBD, but I think being within the energy space will help tremendously. It also provides you with a great transition into why you hope to do O&G IBD.

 

Thanks for the information. I was thinking the same thing with going O&G route. It seems it gives better pre MBA experience and also it’s in the energy industry so I would have a easier time stepping into IBD associate since I already know the industry well after working for a few years. I will try to network and land opportunities for IB Analyst role but without an IB internship chances are highly unlikely.

 

I think either would set you up well for post-MBA banking. I see a lot of guys in Houston IB who did O&G corp fin or corp banking before business school.

If you had the choice, I would go with oil and gas corporate finance, and try to rotate/network into a corp strategy or corp dev role. From there, you could probably just lateral into banking as an associate without even getting an MBA. Have seen that happen fairly frequently at my bank.

 

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