All -
I am looking for some advice on how I ought to tackle the next few years of my career. I'll provide a brief overview of where I am today and what I hope to be doing later on in my career as my "profession", if you will.
I graduated in December 2012 from a non-target and landed what I feel is a great job as an analyst in corporate banking at a BB (one of BofA, WF, JPM, Citi), in the sponsors group . My group underwrites the debt financing for LBOs, recaps, add-on acquisitions, etc. that is originated by investment bankers. Given that we rely on EV for collateral, a significant component of my job is projection and DCF modeling (not as technical as IB, but modeling nonetheless). I really enjoy it.
Eventually, I know I want to work in investment banking in an M&A or (preferably) restructuring capacity--and I want to work in middle-market. There's a chance that I would also be interested in private equity--but I am not dead-set on getting to the proverbial buy-side. I also know that I'd like to get an MBA from a top-tier school.
With this said, my dilemma lies in what my next steps should be. Path "A", if you will, would be to continue in my role as an analyst before a (likely) promotion to associate in the next year or so. After two years as an associate, I'd go to business school with the intent to land an investment banking job in the aforementioned groups.
Path "B" would be to look for a job as an investment banking analyst (likely within my current company) and do that for two years before business school.
For the record, I prefer path "A". I love my job and my group and feel that it would benefit my greatly to have experience as an associate. However, a case can be made that the skills I would attain in IB as an analyst would work more in favor.
Thanks.
