MBA after Big 4 Accounting to get into IB
Hi all,
I'm in the UK, and would like to get into IB one day. Unfortunately, I don't go to a target university, and haven't managed to get any IB internships. I graduate next year, and from what I hear, the chance of getting into IB after undergrad without an IB internship and not coming from a target school is next to zero (I still plan to apply of course, but I've heard it would be very,very unlikely).
Now, I'm interning with one of the Big 4 currently (PwC) in their audit department. Assuming I get a full time offer from them post-internship, would a possible route into investment banking be to complete the ACA professional exams (accountancy qualifications, though I think they've got a different name in the USA), then go and do an MBA, and try to enter banking as an associate?
The ultimate goal would be to work as an associate for 3 years, and maybe progress up to VP, then take the pay cut and transfer into being a Finance Director/CFO at a FTSE 250 company. I figure this way would allow me to gain the M&A experience that is regarded as advantageous for applying to Finance Director jobs, and of course, make a fair bit of cash while in banking too.
Is this a viable strategy? I definitely want to give banking a shot, but out of undergrad it's looking unlikely so I'm looking at other ways of getting in.
Yes it is possible. However it will be tough to land a top 5 mba coming from the big 4, they aren't known for being very selective. Try to do as much as you can pre-mba to land a spot at a top school and from there it's easy
Big 4 Accounting to MBA to Banking (Originally Posted: 06/10/2014)
I have landed a full time audit role at a Big 4 firm in Manhattan, in it's Asset Management division. I will get my CPA within the next year. Any thoughts on this career path: working at the Big 4 firm for several years (until I make manager, so 5 or 6) and then getting my MBA at a top school (I have a 3.95 GPA), and transitioning over to work for a BB as a banker? I have heard that the CPA designation and Big 4 experience helps with getting into MBA programs, and as long as I can tell my story (which I can) will also help in banking interviews. What do you think?
Quite a beaten path that is very realistic. Keep in mind most people go to b-school after ~4 years, and you may want to consider that rather than the 5-6 years you mention because starting IB 1-2 years earlier may make a huge difference (I'd much rather work those hours starting at 27 rather than 29, for example).
Also keep in mind you'll need solid ECs for top b-schools, a high GPA won't be enough (esp. if you haven't gone to a top UG school).
Why waste 8 years of your life to get into investment banking?
The trade off doesn't seem to be worth it. You have kids breaking out straight from undergrad and your boss will be younger than you.
Maybe if you spent 2-3 years at a Big4, then do an MBA, then it might be worth it. But breaking into investment banking in your 30s just doesn't seem like a smart "plan" if you weigh it out (i.e. you want to start a family).
I echoe the above posts. As someone who was in a Big 4 company and moved to banking (pre-mba at analyst level), I would strongly advise you to try the move after 2.5-4.5 years. This for the following reasons: - The top MBA programs in the US tend to prefer candidates from consulting/banking/financial roles with 2 to 4 yrs of experience; - After 2.5-3.5 yrs of experience within Audit, you learning curve would be much more flat than at the beginning, hence, it may be not that valuable to keep spending time there; - You don't want to start as an MBA associate at 29-31 if you can start at 27-29; - If for some reasons you still want to go for 5/6 hours within audit, then I strongly advise you to look at INSEAD MBA, which is a 1 yr program and strongly places into London IBD.
Adding consensus to the above as another Big 4 vet.
Also worth noting that members of the audit teams may be allowed to rotate through the transaction advisory (M&A) teams on a temporary or permanent basis. In some of the Big 4, the transaction advisory group includes valuations (where I've personally seen several jump directly to a BB analyst position) and sometimes also includes the "capital markets" (i.e., IBD) group, which each of the Big 4 have. Joining one of those groups would greatly increase your changes of jumping to an ibanking platform as an analyst or experienced analyst--that way you're able to save your MBA experience until after you've got some banking under your belt.
In any case, congrats on the offer, grironman.
University --> accounting big 4 ----> MBA ---> investment banking (Originally Posted: 06/24/2007)
In the future, I would like to work in investment banking. However, I would also like an accounting designation in case I don't succeed at an investment banker. Will this career path work?
I have a few questions about this path though...
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