MBA associate looking to leave
Title says it all. I am six months into the job (BB coverage group) and realize it just isn't for me. Not sure what the alternative would be outside of grinding it out until first year bonus. Also not sure how great bonuses will be this upcoming year. Anyone on here leave early post MBA, how did it turn out for you? Anyone currently feeling the same way? I can't be the only one out there….
Sounds like every person in my group 😭
Would advise grinding it out until the end of this year and getting your first full year bonus, not even for the money but due to the greater optionality, better resume when exiting and current job market. But if you really can’t stick it out, you’ll still be fine in the end.
Honestly the real marker is 2 years. So if you don’t want to wait until that leave ASAP. You are not an analyst with no other work experience.
Leaving post mba in the period 0-2 years after banking or consulting will get you functionally the same job.
Meaning that time spent won’t move your career forward. So best leave after 2 years or asap. Waiting for 1 year or something stupid is functionally a waste of time.
Yah. Exactly. A bunch of my fellow classmates left GS and BCG in the 8 months to 1.6 year timeframe to gigs that were analogous to what they could have gotten out of school. All went to tech.
Typical MBAs
Just out of curiosity, what kind of opportunities would present itself at the 2-year mark that might not necessarily be there at ~1 year mark?
If you weren’t in banking or even finance prior to B school. Then it will be difficult to recruit for the “next” finance position -> with “experience”, such as a Corp Dev Manager / Director at a Port Company or Fortune 500 / IR Jobs or PE / Asset Management gigs or a Finance role in a startup.
2 years of banking is solid enough to say that look you tried, you did it. You ran maybe 1 or 2 sell sides, you did a few financings, you seen the inside of a couple of committees. This experience is valuable to clients looking for former bankers to help them navigate both financings and M&A.
You may be able to land that FP&A job though without banking experience since that can be more operational tuned.
————————————————————-
Obv if you just found out that you don’t like banking, you probably weren’t doing it prior to school.
I think these posts are more for people to vent, just express their fears into the internet void or just want to read some comments of encouragement.
I can’t imagine you actually think having a top mba and leaving a top banking job after a few months is actually some type death knell.
You can do whatever you want man, just make sure you have the money saved in case you don’t find a job quickly after you quit.
How bad is it?
Current situation. What kind of hours are you clocking / how bad is your group
Hard time wrapping my head around the fact that OP (1) finds investment banking so unbearable that they want to leave ASAP only 6 months into the job and also… (2) is trying to keep optionality open to return to IB in the future.
Brother. Either decide that you want this, put your 110% into it, and keep grinding until whichever comes first: you hit the 2 year mark or lateral to a better IB opportunity. Or decide that it wasn’t meant for you and just move on with your life and put your 100% into a different role or field.
You can’t have it both ways. Chasing two rabbits at the same time means you’ll starve to death. First 6 months of the job is table-stakes anyway, it doesn’t get remotely bearable or enjoyable until you start getting good and leading interesting work streams and deals.
Not at all being critical, not suggesting there’s a right or even better answer. I just think you should make a firm decision and then continue down that path relentlessly. No matter what field, the successful and happy people I know have grit and go all-in.
What do corp. dev managers make?
Base 130-150k, bonus 15-25%, source cdev manager at f500
Fuck it’s that much of a pay cut?! That’s almost like a 50% drop, are the hours like ~40 a week?