MBA Associates, what are your career goals?
Working at an EB for 1 year now and am not clear if this is what I want to do long term. When is the “optimal” time to leave? How many of you actually see yourself doing this a long time (e.g., VP and beyond?)
Based on the most helpful WSO content, the decision to stay in investment banking or leave depends on your long-term career goals and personal preferences. Here are some insights:
Optimal Time to Leave:
Staying Long-Term (VP and Beyond):
Career Goals of MBA Associates:
If you're uncertain about your path, consider reflecting on what aspects of the job you enjoy and whether they align with your long-term goals. Additionally, ensure that any exit opportunity you pursue is well-researched to avoid jumping into a role that doesn't meet your expectations.
Sources: Questions about VP/D/MD levels at investment banks, https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forum/investment-banking/how-soon-can-i-leave-1st-year-ib-analyst?customgpt=1, Exit as a VP because lost interest, Leaving banking after one year, Making VP in 4 years?
Other than having coffee chats and getting laughed at by our VPs, MBA associates on our team don't do much. They are great for filling DEI quotas, though!
Analyst isnt wrong tho. MBA associates arent bad co-workers or investment bankers by default, but they lack a lot of abilities that analysts acquired in their first 2-3 years. How is an MBA associate without relevant experience supposed to check the model work of an analyst?
MBAs are more or less a tool to buy yourself a second chance for a succesful career, with a few exceptions like vets.
Can confirm this is facts 😂 our summer associate is an obvious DEI hire who deadass takes naps at their desk and shows up late to meetings. Even when they’re awake, they’re rarely doing work ever lmao
Is that at MS lol? We had such an MBA intern. She just returned as a full-time associate lmao
All this shitting on MBA associates is unfair.
In my experience, MBA associates have been great at pointing out where to change the color of shapes within the deck, and pointing out changes for the footnotes.
Thank god we have experienced people who know what colors to use for stickers in slides (they are experts because they’ve eaten a lot of crayons) and learned about advanced topics like Michael Porter’s five forces!
Are you being sarcastic? This might be true for average MBA graduates, but doesn’t apply to the best MBA associates.
At my top MBA program we went well beyond Porter’s 5 forces and covered topics like the 3 financial statements, debt and equity, rates of return, inflation, etc.
Candidly I did miss those lectures because I was in Chile with 30 members of my class, so my analyst had to teach me these topics when I started full time, but point remains.
fr man, the elite MBA's also learn not only about debits, but even credits as well.
Our group at GS keeps getting DEI candidates for summer. Quite hilarious to work with them at this point
Most post-MBA associate career goals to start are "make VP then i'll figure it out". Then you make VP and are used to the lifestyle afforded by IB money and your life got somewhat better so you get stuck doing it until they force you to leave.
The best times to leave IB are as an analyst or Director. Really MD, but most guys who make it just stick around forever or bounce between shops. Leaving as an associate or VP will almost always entail a substantial pay cut to land in a mid-levelish corporate job. If you wait until Director you can land actually meaningful roles in Corp Dev or CFO type positions at small portcos (latter heavily contingent on the individual but i've seen it happen multiple times).
This directly contradicts what other people have said on here. Not saying your wrong. But verbatim, multiple people here have recently said when I made a post asking if corporates give “credit” for years beyond associate or even VP, and they were saying you can’t just jump from being an MD to a CFO/Executive. Again, you may just be right, but it’s frustrating I can’t get a clear answer.
It really depends on the individual as well as some luck/timing on whether or not they can exit to a cfo / exec type job at a corporate. If they are fortunate enough to meet the right clients / have the right network and the right opportunity opens up at the right time, then they are sometimes able to make the jump to the client side at a high level.
Keep in mind that the banker isn’t applying or going through headhunters for those roles, they are usually called up by the client directly who they’ve been working with for years.
I’ve also seen it where the banker is about to get laid off / will never promote to MD and his/her group leadership will go out of their way to help find them a job at a client company.
Middle market PE-backed portcos are a bit different though and tend to use headhunter services, I’ve seen quite a few bankers leave at the vp or director level for “head of M&A” positions at these portcos that want to execute roll up strategies.
I believe the answer is more that it is possible at smaller companies or PE portcos, especially ones that you have worked on and have strong relationships at the PortCo and PE level with. However, I would not expect even an IB MD to move to a CEO/CFO level at a large cap public company.
This is so inaccurate lmao
Nah it’s accurate. At least explain your disagreement. Not even really controversial
Honestly, snag 2 bonuses and pick my head back up to see what's possible out there. Hopefully be in a good spot to recruit into something in my industry coverage or look corp dev, potentially PE portco type roles.
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