Infantry Officer to IB
So it turns out all that glitters isn't gold. Really not enjoying my current role as an Army Infantry officer. I've graduated all the schools necessary including ranger, but cannot see myself staying past my four year commitment. For anyone that has done the military -> MBA -> IB pipeline, how has you experience been? I was a finance major in college and have a few friends working IB and WM in a secondary city so I have a general idea of IB and what the day to day as an analyst is like, but nothing from the associate level on up. I'm about to assume a platoon leader role so I plan to take the GMAT in about a year, I get out June of 2025. Target schools right now are really all T25 with high chances for finance in NY, but HBS/Wharton/CBS/Stern would be ideal just based off my limited research.
For those wondering, yes, I did type this from the S shop.
It's a well beaten path, especially if you did a "cool" job and/or have flair (ie; Ranger tab). I'm a veteran at a target undergrad and I'm locked in for an IB summer analyst internship for 2023. It's very easy to recruit from the schools you've mentioned. Stern, and CBS send over a third of their classes into financial services --you can see their breakdowns in employment reports. Also, if you "know" you really really want to do IB, you can also apply for veteran associate programs which are basically catered to folks like you...this allows you to circumvent the MBA requirement (not sure how precious the chill/networking time is to you) and gets you in the seat, making money right out of active duty. BAML, UBS, and Guggenheim veteran associate programs come to mind. Feel free to dm me if you have any more questions.
Dude no shit you haven't enjoyed your time in the Army yet, you've been in TRADOC/the S shop the whole time lmao. Your opinion may or may not change in the next 12-18 months, but regardless it's good to get the GMAT knocked out sooner rather than later. You definitely want to get a good score out of the way so you can focus on the rest of your application. If you didn't go to a service academy or target undergrad institution, your GMAT score will more or less dictate which schools you'll be accepted to. Adcoms don't really give a shit what you did in the military, anything besides special ops/pilots gets lumped together. If you can get into ranger reg that'll help...but at the end of the day if an adcom has to decide between a ranger reg dude vs some chem corps pog with a 760 GMAT, they're prob taking the chem chump. That being said I've known a couple mediocre dudes (neither had badass military experience or high test scores) get into Booth, so def apply there. Stern isn't the highest ranked school out there but they do a great job placing into IB, higher percentage of sternies go into banking post MBA than any other program. HBS honestly doesn't make sense for banking, literally like 2% of the class goes into banking lol (vs like 30% of Stern students)...
Can vouch for everything said above. If you can get into Wharton/CBS/Booth/Stern, your odds of landing a banking gig are high, especially as a veteran. That being said, it's not guaranteed like you might expect. From what I've seen at my program (one of the four I just mentioned), about 80% of students who recruited for banking landed an offer. I spoke with friends from other programs and they said their school was similar. If you network hard and do your homework on technicals you'll have a very good chance. It's kinda like Ranger School - most people get through, but occasionally every now and then a good dude gets fucked lol
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