Marketing to Finance: Is Business School The Only Way For a Lateral Career Move? (Realistically...)
Feel free to get rid of this if it's been answered too many times, but I haven't seen a concise answer myself.
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Here's my situation:
- Non-Target Uni (went to win a sports championship)
- I have worked for a marketing agency and tech sales since graduating
- I started my own digital marketing agency during COVID (to be fair, because my prev. job cut pay almost 50% at the start of the new fiscal).
In terms of the agency though, it's actually going really well! At scale though, I realized marketing isn't what I want to do long-term in my career. It was just a solution to bullet #3 above.
The question then remains:
"To move into IB or PE, is business school realistically the only viable solution there is?"
I know there are OTHER routes to go (there always is), but just in terms of data, do they have more than a single digit% success rate? Would they take long enough to the point where it's not worth it? What would be the fastest thing to do here?
The reason I'm asking is that anybody who is willing to use their brain can learn jobs pretty quickly. Right?
I've worked "atypical" jobs before when I was younger, one of them being in travel & tourism (I learned the job in a week… as long as you freaking read your damn manual they gave you cover to cover and have some brain cells to spare, it wasn't too damn hard).
Also, I interned in DC in the Immediate Office of the Secretary (I was not a political science major … again, I just used a little intellectual horsepower and studied the politics, divisions, SOPs of the organization, and within a week, I felt like a seasoned vet).
So this is what has me thinking, do I need to go to biz school for this?
I'm so curious because I operate on the paradigm that anything is a learnable skill. That doesn't mean you're going to be the next Elon Musk or Bezos, but you can figure things out at a high level pretty quickly if you're willing to be resourceful and committed.
Plus, I’d love to save $400-500 grand (cost of school + not working cumulatively), and quite frankly, 2 years of my life if I can just get started now.
Who says you can't read all the books, take the courses, and get a mentor? In terms of cost-effectiveness, I think that’s a much more viable route.....but am I wrong?
I'm open to any direct & honest feedback. I'm sure others may be wondering the same thing in their careers.
Incoming/current MBA Associate. In your current situation, I don't see anyway of breaking into IB/PE without either family connections or prior finance roles. You neither have the prerequisite experience nor are you a target candidate for lateralling. If you do find a role, you will most likely be starting as an analyst, from what you've put up there, you're probably 24/25 if not older, that means you're starting with people 3 years your junior if not more, which to me is a big negative.
Doing a MBA will give you a reset on your career and will allow you to become a target candidate. Without the MBA, you neither have the network to land a role nor the prerequisite skills. Banks only hire 1st year associates from target MBA schools and without that you're not gonna get a spot. I think you should do a bit more research on the topic and, more importantly, figure out why you want to do IB. One last thing, without an IB role prior to MBA, theres virtually no chance of breaking into PE. MBA IB associates are not target candidates for PE shops and that career path is virtually non-existant (there have been people who make it either via connections or taking a 3 year setback).
"To move into IB or PE, is business school realistically the only viable solution there is?"
Yes IB. PE is most likely not in your cards. LT OUT
Unfortunately it seems that for a person with your profile (as you rightful point out, nothing is impossible) the path of least resistance would be going to B-School.
I think the alternate path will take 3-4 years and with less guarantee at that
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