Do I stand a chance in Investment Banking?
I got my MBA in 2011 but have been working as a business intelligence analyst for financial services firms since 2012. I know SQL, Tableau, Python, R, Big Data and Excel. I'm thinking of going into IB since that's all I have ever wanted to be. I tried to get into IB in 2012 but couldn't get anything and I needed a job badly so I went into Business Intelligence. I'm 34 now and I'm about to take an IB bootcamp with IBI in the Dallas, TX area. I am very committed to learning financial modelling etc. What do you think are my chances of getting given my age and my experience. Please help.
yeah usually people on this site like to go out of their way to be unhelpful and make IB sound way harder than it is to get into (not that it is not hard), but I'm going to say that BBs, EBs, and top MMs are likely impossible for you mainly due to your age and lack of relevant experience. if you were an engineer per se you could have gotten picked up by an oil and gas coverage team due to your sector expertise, but since this is not the case, it'll be very hard.
if you really want to do IB, i suggest you target boutiques find people who made a late transition similar to yourself. maybe there is a md who got into banking a little bit later. boutiques are more open to taking on mba analysts too. when networking make sure you target older people regardless of their position as it will allow you to relate to them better to build rapport.
i actually like your skill set and think you could go for a career in trading or quantitative finance, but i'm not sure how to navigate such a move. may i ask what about IB interests you? at a boutique you could take a huge pay cut compared to status quo and on top of that, be bossed around by younger superiors. if you are after prestige and money, i'm sure with your mba you can find another avenue to achieve both. it's alright to accept the ib ship has sailed as you can still be very successful and wealthy without it.