Is IB still an MBA’s World?
Already have the A2A offer at a BB and open to doing IB long term, though couldn't help but wonder if it's still necessary to get an MBA at some point.
Everyone knows MBA associates suck and don't pull their weight BUT bottom line is - at the end of the day, nothing gets done about it and nothing ever will. I've never seen an useless MBA Associate get paid less than 2x top bucket analysts. They also come in at a higher political standing by default. Most importantly, the vast majority of VPs and above in my group started as post-MBA associates from the same few schools, which I did not attend for undergrad.
Hoping to get some feedback from more tenured folks on WSO, would you say it's still an unspoken rule that an MBA is necessary to make it long term? Do people nowadays still go IB > MBA > IB (Aso1 again)?
Might be open to going to BSchool after one or two more years as an A2A if possible to not come back as an Aso1.
Do people nowadays still go IB > MBA > IB (Aso1 again)?
^ This hasn't been a thing for years at banks. Every firm I know of offers A2A to strong analysts who want to stay.
"A2A to strong analysts"
I thought it was more like: great analysts leave to buyside, burnt ones dip to corp dev, bad ones leave and the remaining ones just go A2A
Not always the case. I do have a family friend who went from analyst to MD at a BB. I'd imagine he was a strong performer in his early days as an analyst. He never found buyside as an appealing exit for himself.
I’ve seen a few people go to business school as a 2nd year associate and come back as a 3rd year, but they all arranged it ahead of time and were at EBs
Good to know. Was the EB open to some sort of tuition assistance/reimbursement? I know that’s uncommon, just wondering if this person was able to negotiate it.
FWIW, I think Baird will do this if you started as an An1
How common is this? I personally have never seen this before in anyone’s background
I would guess pretty uncommon unless it is through a 2+2 admit program.
Pretty uncommon.
Only reason to do it really is if you want a break. From a financial and career progression standpoint it doesn't really make sense.
EVR now sponsors MBAs (remiburses full tuition) for analysts who do a 3rd year and come back as associates - might start seeing other EBs follow suit to maintain talent
Very interesting. Don’t suppose they offer that to laterals, do they?
following
Most people who go to a top B-school (T10/T15) from IB background have little/no desire of going back to banking. Usually people do it because they are burnt out but also because they want to leverage their past IB/B school network to get into a career they want to go into.
Having said that, banks typically value MBAs mostly because of their networks at post VP level. Its far easier to make those connections with people in industry when you went to school with them/have the same alumni network. At the end of the day, IB is a service oriented career and networks and access is what makes you stand out.
But this also presupposes a number of things, two of which being that 1. The MBA grad is willing to stick around for 6 years or so (very few do); and 2. The person is competent enough to perform well at the bank (majority of them do, but not all). I've seen most competent post MBA folks leave after 2-3 years for lifestyle reasons and I've also seen few post MBA associates/VPs get culled (usually at VP level) because they just can't perform well/are out of sync with the swing of things.
Seem like you index high on likability and destined to be a client guy
no you don’t need an mba, but you also need to leave behind baggage / chip on shoulder / need to feel more elite attitude that I think we all have as juniors. Maturity + strong technical skills / ability to grind you should have will give you the advantage
You're mixing up correlation and causation. Most of the senior people have MBAs not because the MBA was a prerequisite to get them there, but because most of the analysts have left, The attrition before even reaching associate level means most associates are MBA hires, subsequently most people who get to VP have an MBA, etc. If you came in as an analyst, you're not at a disadvantage at a senior level without an MBA (in fact, you're really at an advantage), and the MBA won't directly help much to get you to a more senior level.
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