Is MBA a Good Choice for me
I would like some advice from this forum. I know their have been posts similar to mine on this site. I am a rising manager at a Big Four accounting firm with 5 years of experience and a CPA. My ultimate goal is to work within Private Equity. I have networked with several professionals within Investment Banking and Private Equity with no luck landing a job. Most of the individuals I talked to were impressed with my background and my knowledge of financial modeling (given the fact I have no investment banking experience). However, no positions have been available to me. I feel I am at the point in my career where an opportunity to become an analyst at an I-bank is minimal due to my age and landing an associate position is difficult without the MBA boxed checked. Furthermore, I don't know if I want to start at the analyst level for an I-bank given the number of years I have already been in the workforce.
I have the following 3 questions:
1.) If I get my foot in the door at an I-bank as a second or third-year analyst am I going to need my MBA to move up within the firm (I know some analyst get promoted directly to associates)?
2.) If I get my foot in the door at an I-bank as an analyst and my ultimate goal is to do Private Equity, for me to make the move into PE or grow my career within a PE firm am I going to need my MBA?
3.) I know that I definately do not want to be an auditor for the rest of my life, do financial reporting, or internal audit. It has taken me 5 years to realize that Private Equity is what I have a passion for. What is the suggested path given my situation to get there?
I am in a similar situation. I started out in Big 4 Audit, did my CPA, I am now in Big 4 Advisory, and trying to get into Transaction Services (Restructuring is what interests me). I have just started pursuing my CFA, and at some point I want to get my MBA (also not sure when makes sense).
I only have 3 years of total working experience, and maybe shouldn't be giving you advice, but my suggestion to you is transfer into your Big 4 Transaction Services group. Depending on what you are most interested in/good at, consider Valuation/Business Modeling, or M&A Advisory, etc. You could even consider your CFA at this point, but you will have a better idea of whether going for your MBA makes sense or leaving Big 4 transactions services for a job somewhere in between PE and the Big 4.
I think if you just went for your MBA after 5 years of Audit, it would still be tough to land a job in PE.
Good Luck.
Can't really answer your questions since I'm not in banking but wanted to address the above post.
Here is my opinion - at your stage, if networking isn't working out and you have no luck breaking in directly, a top MBA program would be your only choice.
you'll have a tough time breaking into pe straight from a top mba program. i'm at an m7 program, with cfa charter and prior pe experience and it's still going to be a slog to land a post-mba position. your best chance might be top mba and ibd. alternatively you could try transaction services and try to get into a very small pe fund.
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