How soon can I bang out an MBA for IB recruiting?
When should I do an MBA?
"As soon as you can, after at least 1~2 year of work experience. There is no need to wait to have 3-5 years experience or more to do an MBA. In fact, the younger you are, the better, and the more attractive you will be to investment banks. After 32~33, even with an MBA, it gets very hard to get a job in investment banking. The main reason is that the lifestyle is unlikely to appeal to people with families, or people that don't have the physical stamina to work extremely long hours. While some people in early or mid thirties can still make the switch, it will require a lot of convincing to get the offer from investment banks. "
Is the above bs? Working 1 year with an MBA seems like a great way to have debt and no valuable experience. But it does seem great to only putz around in a non IB role for 1 year rather than 3 or so. Basically can I just work 1 year then get an M7 MBA or close to it and be a attractive candidate for BB as an associate?
From what I’ve been told, the MBA is also your best chance to take a break from work and easily pivot in job function or industry. Doing that at 23/24 years old feels too early. If an MBA is looked at as one of your big breaks and chances to find what you really want to do, don’t do it that early
I think the only reason someone should do a MBA at 24 is the 2+2 program and I believe this is almost exclusively marketed to consultants and Bankers.
Putting your chance of admissions aside (which is a big thing to consider), banks in the MBA recruiting process will be turned off if you have anything less than two years IMO. Sure, you might be able to get by with two years of experience if it's impressive. But in general, you will be competing with applicants that have on average 3-5 years of meaningful experience.
FWIW, I'm at an M7 and have yet to come across a single person with one year of work experience, let alone 2. I have met some with three though.
Having 1 year of WE is not going to get you into a solid school typically unless you are some kind of savant. Also, I don't see IBD being very interested in hiring an associate who is the same age as analysts. I think 3+ years would be the sweet spot. That does not bring you to 33...Graduate college at 21-22, work until 25-26, enter b school, begin FT younger than 30.
Just my .02 after going through MBA process and IB recruiting.
The high speed path to this is 3 total years experience -> MBA -> associate. This is what I am doing. Works fine, but as others have said with less than this you just won't be able to get into a suitable MBA program.
Honestly If you know an MBA is in the works no matter your route I imagine that applying early and often is not a bad approach as it gives you several years of M7 applications.
In an MBA program right now. Everything that I've seen and heard is the exact opposite. Put one way, banks will be hesitant to hire MBAs at the associate level when they're the same age as most analysts in the group.
At an M7 and just wrapped IB recruiting. Would echo the above in that 3+ YOE is ideal, but we had two people with 2 YOE and they did just fine. Your option set may be more limited though, as a few banks mentioned they prefer candidates with 3+ YOE. There were also several people on the older end of the spectrum (32 years old +) who recruited successfully, but they typically had a military background.
Having been on both sides of this in core MBA IB recruiting (Wharton, CBS, Booth, Stern), I would say 2 years WE is borderline and is definitely a liability. Guys I recruited with who were 25 and younger mainly ended up at your Citi/Barclays type places in groups like industrials. Sure in a vacuum they interviewed fine, but when competing against people with real management experience in specific industries, they just lost out every time.
At a boutique, when we interviewed a couple candidates who were young like that, it absolutely came up - even if they had good experience - that they were very green.
The sweet spot for MBA, in my opinion, is apply at 25/26, matriculate at 26/27, graduate at 28/29. If you are bored before hand, maybe start a start-up or non-profit and bulk up your resume for HBS.
My problem is that I jumped around majors, college was not a 4 year play for me. I graduated with a 3.6 econ degree but I have a year experience right now and I am about to turn 26. I am looking for short cuts to make up for lost time, but it seems that I should play it safe and get 3 years experience.
I would heed their advice re bolstering your application in the meantime. It’s covered ad nauseam on the internet. A big part of MBA applications is how you craft your story - meaning it needs to make sense why you are applying now to that school, want x career path, etc etc.
The earlier you think this stuff out the better.
Ya to echo the other reply - 1 year WE is going to be a VERY tough putt to get into MBA in the first place. You also need to be honest with yourself what your real GPA is (have a feeling that that 3.6 may be a major GPA) - because that is what school's evaluate. More than that, what are you offering these MBA programs? How could you contribute in a class room with 1 year experience? Not much at this point.
It sucks but the move here is to be patient. If you matriculate at 28, graduate by 30, you are still on the bell curve of MBA students.
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