Why has Consulting become more popular than IB for post-MBA career??

One or two deacades ago, IB must be the most popular career out of MBA. looking at HBS's employment report in 2021, only 2~3% went to IB, while 30% for consulting. More surprisingly, Columbia sent 16.3% to IB and 33.4% to consulting in 2021. I am not curious about the difference in the nature of the two careers, but why it has changed for the past 10 years. Can anybody shed some light on why consulting has become more popular than IB for MBAs?

Here are some of the reasons I can think of. Correct me if I'm wrong.

  1. In the past, I-bankers earned A LOT more than consultants and tech guys, but the gap has been narrowed down?

  2. The PERKS of bankers(expenses/spending) have downsized extensively? (using corporate credit cards for expensive dinners or parties?)

  3. PE/HF recruit more out of MBAs than in the past? (so more peopel choose buy-side over IB?)

Any two cents will be appreciated.

 

I’m at an M7 MBA right now. People just don’t think the pay is worth the hours anymore. I think a lot of my classmates prioritize some sort of WLB over huge pay. Consulting is seen as having much better hours than IB and with TC starting around 250k people don’t see much of an advantage for IB as they used to. Tech jobs are also huge post MBA now, high pay low hours.

 
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Consulting has “better hours” but they are away from home 4 days a week. In either scenario they are not seeing their SO, friends, or family during the week. I guess they value getting off at 7 to have dinner at the Omaha Chili’s before heading back to the Marriott to watch Netflix. 

 

It’s WLB mainly, but IB is viewed as old school and less accepting of people with different backgrounds. Consulting and tech are viewed as a better deal with respect to the balance of WLB and compensation, and more accepting of people that don’t fit the standard mold/look for a banker. This becomes clear at networking events or during the networking process outside of school. IB focuses on “fit”.

Another thing that I’ve heard people be concerned about is the hybrid work model. Some banks (not all obviously) are saying they want people in the office 5 days a week, which again is viewed as an old school policy, while tech has generally been more open to a hybrid work model.

Banks will never have a hard time finding bodies to fill their seats but it’s clear that a lot of people simply don’t want to do it anymore.

 

Also, IB meaning, for the most part, having to be in NYC. Consulting allows for the same "prestige" in LCOL, MCOL cities, where people can actually buy homes and raise families. Something many are looking to do at that stage. 

 

Lol what perks? My friend at one of the large HFs can expense tables at the club and dinners, if I order my dinner 10 min too early my expense manager is up my ass. the pay gap I would argue is still real but the QoL is just far better in tech (I'll group mbb into that since most people plan to leave and work in tech anyways). I forsure couldn't imagine doing this shit if I were in my late 20s early 30s.

 
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+1 to consulting/tech being more welcoming to people who don't fit the H/W Greenwich lax star mould. Know everyone likes to dump on diversity / inclusion efforts, but a big reason why banks are doing that is because that lack of diversity is genuinely pushing people away. 

It's not just race/gender either - I'm the only analyst in my entire class who grew up not upper middle class+. I remember at one of the happy hour one of the other analysts was talking shit about people on free/reduced school lunch, not realizing I have been on free lunch my entire life. These things do not create a welcoming environment for people of different socioeconomic backgrounds. Consulting/tech still skew that way, but way way less than IB/PE.

 

You have any evidence to back up consulting taking more poorer people? I have seen mostly rich upper class kids as the profile. The only difference is the major (humanities/English) instead of more technical fields like accounting/econ.

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Same economic profiles but the sentiment is that consulting people have better understanding of their privilege

 
capex fairy 

It's not just race/gender either - I'm the only analyst in my entire class who grew up not upper middle class+. I remember at one of the happy hour one of the other analysts was talking shit about people on free/reduced school lunch, not realizing I have been on free lunch my entire life. 

As someone who has what I imagine is the same background as you (blue collar/lower-middle-class; first gen college student; only one parent with a high school diploma), I know exactly those feelings. For me it hit earlier (in college). I was lucky enough to go to a top LAC; the place was crawling with kids from prep schools, kids who "summered" in the Hamptons or Bar Harbor, people who legitimately went quail hunting on the Vineyard or Nantucket during Thanksgiving, etc., etc. It was such a culture shock, and I was so far out of my depth. I heard tons of comments similar to that one you mention.

I found the most useful and productive strategy was just to be direct and very aggressive with these people. For the most part, they really don't know what to do when someone confronts them, and you will more than likely gain some of their respect (or at least fear). I'm being 100% serious. It's probably what the youth of today would call sigma male energy or something, but I can promise you that it works. I ended up becoming friends with a decent amount of them because I didn't cower or listen to any of their bullshit, and I think they kinda respected that.  

 
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It was such a culture shock, and I was so far out of my depth.

Still in college, at a target, and come from a similar background. Definitely experienced this as well and it took me a LONG time to adjust but eventually found my footing once I understood how careers/IB all worked. So I guess since the time you were at college things haven't exactly changed that much in that regard.

Do you still harbor these feelings now, now that you're more established, have a solid career and I presume have a better understanding of how the world works? 

 

wow - I am also a fellow free/reduced lunch kid who went to Title 1 funded public schools all my life. Feels nice to see someone else from a similar background here. 

 

True about the people who don't get offers. T20-T25 I'm matriculating to, ~75% get offers for summers who try for IB. Consulting is lower but many who strike out in the summer do get the FT offer the next year if they are 100% sold on consulting and are taking recruiting seriously. At my matriculating school, IB is easier to get based on % who get offers who recruit for summer internships. Consulting is much more popular though.

 

Dude at a T25 75% of people vying for IB getting offers is not true. That number is somehow obfuscated. 

 

Graduated from an M7 in 2021 and currently an As1.

IB is still highly regarded and recruiting is still competitive, as a good 10-20% of people didn't get offers. Don't believe the bs that 100% who try get it. I know many classmates who tried and got no offers. This is at Wharton/Booth/Columbia

1. IB has been in structural decline since 2008. Lower fees = fewer seats.

2.  Bad marketing - IB does a poor job marketing itself. Banks do a poor job selling MBA students on the career path, so the only aspect many focus on is money and firm clout.

4. Recruiting - The sentiment from many of my classmates was that IB recruiting is BS and fake. The networking nonsense is seen as gatekeeping, as banks can cut you for random reasons or simply ghost you.

5. Personalities - IB isn't accommodating and banks do stick to a cookie cutter mold.

I got an offer from MBB and chose IB instead because I wanted to work on transaction and found a good group that I meshed well with. Bankers still earn a lot more than consultants, but I think the man driver for students is less WLB and more a cultural shift.

No one recruiting for MBB has any delusion of WLB, but consulting firms have taken ques from big Tech that cultural positioning matters. MC tress wellness, events, community, and fun. Though it may not be always the case that tonal shift is a huge driver for many to favor it over banking.

Well, your comment on recruiting is true. Can’t tell you how many qualified candidates have gotten dinged or written off because of “fit”.

 

On the last point, do you think consulting > ib for transitioning into tech roles like PM post-2 year stint? Seems like IB is great for finance stuff but if you don’t want that, it’s a bit rough.

 

Because its hard to pull 80 hour work weeks at 30, which is around the average age of an M7 graduate. 

With the exception of top elite boutiques or GS, most IBD shops will pay around 350k (maybe even lower) all in to a post MBA associate. MBB will pay 250k. 100k difference pre tax is around 60k post tax. Good portion of my M7 class already came from money, so an extra 60k post tax to compromise health, happiness, etc. wasn't really worth it.

 
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Except it keeps going up the longer you last, granted the first 1-1.5yrs in IB can be brutal. To your point I'm at a top EB and mid-top bucket, but I made almost $700k as an Aso3. Nothing else I could do now will pay me anything close to that.

Nice! You know as well as I do that's the exception to the norm. 
 

I don't think ibd md vs mbb partner compensation is that much different. Difference might be the million or so more you might save over those years to MD in banking vs consulting. 

 

It may be true that IB pays substantially more than consulting and that this gap expands over time, but I also wonder what the average tenure is for a post-MBA banker vs. consultant. I've seen it said here that most MBA associates leave after 2-5 years and take a substantial pay cut in doing so; if consulting is a more tolerable and sustainable lifestyle, could you argue that it comes out ahead in pay in the long term?

 

Nice! You know as well as I do that’s the exception to the norm. 
 

I don’t think ibd md vs mbb partner compensation is that much different. Difference might be the million or so more you might save over those years to MD in banking vs consulting. 
 

 

IB money is significantly more than consulting. Comparing good banks (top 5-10) vs. MBB, I’m pretty sure the IB MD will win every time. Imagine bringing in a $30mm M&A fee where you keep btwn 10-40% depending on what bank you’re at, not to mention all the equity and debt along the way that can boost you even higher. I know as of 2015, MBB Senior Associates (2nd to 3rd year) were ~$225k all-in, whereas that’d be an insulting total comp # for a first year IBD Associate. 

Make no mistake about it, while work-life is better and prestige just as high, there are a few key reasons why consulting beats IBD. First, IBD students go into MBA knowing they want IBD, whereas most MBA students go in having no real conviction to what they want to do. Consulting is perfect because it delays them making a real decision with their lives and gives them a broader skill set to leverage to a wide variety of jobs. It keeps the playing field open as long as possible so no real decisions have to be made. Most students will not admit this.

Also, this creates a herd/FOMO effect that pushes more people in. Some/many students will admit to this.

Consulting also breeds a little more camaraderie compared to banking since you meet so many people, travel together, etc. It’s a little more fun than the day-to-day of banking. Most students aren’t really conscious of this reason, but it’s another driver. 

 

The weekend thing is a bit of a myth.

if you're flying out to client on Monday, it really looks bad if you waltz in because of a late flight. So you're taking the first thing smoking out of the airport. Think back to what your Sundays look like when you have a 6-7am flight and do the math.

Also, some projects will get intense, like a due diligence or maybe certain situations. 

And you may need Sundays to catch up on expenses, depending on firm and level.

Sundays involve "work" or real work to some degree. 

 

I think it can be boiled down to the fact that post-MBAs typically stay in IB or MBB for 2 years before likely going to a corporate or startup. In that scenario, the post-tax compensation difference does not make up for the fact consultants go home at 10pm and rarely work weekends versus IBankers finishing at 2am and consistently working weekends. 

Not to mention, that as an IB junior, its mind-boggling to see that much of the hours arises from deeply inefficient seniors and processes. For example, why is an associate and analyst creating a 30pg deck before an MD gives his input and THEN revamping the entire deck? Why not just have a 1hr drafting session beforehand save 20+ hours on the backend... Multiply this by a thousand smaller items and then you reach the absurd hours listed...

 

Is it fair to say that a decent chunk of the 'hours worked' in IBD are really just 'being constantly available'? Say you work an 80-hr week as an Assoc, how many of those hours are you actually building a deck/model or doing some kind of research/analysis versus replying to emails, waiting for comments etc?

 

This is true. A lot of IB hours are 'inflated' thanks to this. Downtime is not really talked about a lot in IB but it could be as much as half your weekly hours (or more) during some periods. I think a lot of people would say the unpredictability is the main issue rather than the actual hours worked if they are being honest/thoughtful about it.

 

>more travel

>allure of exotic locations

>>travels to rural Ohio and suburban Pennsylvania 

>exotic

do Americans really?

 

All of the above answer why someone might choose to compete for consulting vs IB...yet does not address the actual question.

The reality is there are more seats in consulting than in IB - that is a big part of it. This wasn't always the case. Look how much consulting has grown relative to IB. Also part of this is a lot more IB direct promotes, which ties to the less seats relative to consulting whereas consulting still wants MBAs. While its easy to point fingers and say consulting/tech are more popular, and no doubt there are elements there, the reality is there are more of those seats than IB. Its not as though IB seats are going unfilled. 

**Edit** another likely huge driver is that sales and trading and equity/credit research as been gutted the past two decades, I'd imagine thats a lot of MBA jobs that left. 

 

1. Consulting has a wider funnel at both ends. It's easier to get a consulting job compared to finance. IB tends to want MBA candidates with good pre-MBA experience or at least folks who have demonstrated interest in finance. On the other hand the consultancies will interview and possibly hire anyone who they think is smart enough and good at cases. Once you do consulting after a few years you can also pivot out in many directions such as bizops, internal strategy, sales strategy, analytics, etc. IB exits tend to be more finance focused.

Also if you strike out with IB summer recruiting you're screwed. If you strike out at MBB summer recruiting you can always recruit for T2, Big 4, tech consulting like accenture, or something in a completely different industry and still try for an MBB/Tier 2 full time job.

2. Stigma associated with finance post-financial crisis, its lost its luster

3. IB hours + the fraternity bro finance culture turns people off. Consulting has a shitty lifestyle with awful people as well (I know first hand, and I think MBA students in general don't realize how shitty MBB or similar can be) BUT it at least looks like a more sustainable option compared to IB.

 

I would say that for some of those who don't enjoy monotony, consulting is a middle ground between IB ( presentations, models, etc.) and what Big 4 does (research, variety of services, etc.).

 

Work-life balance as a junior at the top banking firms is not great but people are kidding themselves if they think the MBB lifestyle is rosy (especially at McKinsey).

The reality is banking has not done a good enough job marketing itself beyond “you’ll make a lot of money”, ignoring that most people will burn out after 2 years.

I had the benefit of being A2A but I couldn’t imagine being in my late 20s / early 30s as a junior in either profession. The fall-off in your energy level and tolerance for bullshit is real as you get older 

 

Havent read all the replies but it is noteworthy that a lot of folks go Consulting >>> MBA >>> Consulting. A friend of mine was making ~120k all in and went to an M7 only to reenter consulting as a VP at a T2 with all in comp of 250-300k. He did a part time MBA program as well, so for him it was a huge win (not losing out on 2 years salary). Oftentimes people dont need to do IB >>> MBA >>> IB, as they can continue to hit promotes without an MBA

Additionally, breaking into IB at say 27-28 isn't super appealing. Everyone knows the rep that MBA Associates have, and it isnt good. Likely you dont have the excel / ppt skills to be efficient in the work you do, so everything will take 1.5x as long. If you come from FP&A or other into IB at 28 without having built a CIM or put together an operating model you are so far behind the 8 ball. In other words, you will have a brutally step learning curve in a super high stress environment, and you will have to log extra hours in an industry already known for long hours. 

Lastly, I think it is easier to break into consulting with various backgrounds. Consulting will take just about anyone who is sharp, and most MBA grads from top schools meet this criteria. Coming from STEM, Finance, Ops, even Marketing, and you still stand a good chance at making it into some area of consulting.

Consulting has so many different product and service offerings that it can appeal to almost anyone, regardless of background or area of interest. To want to excel in IB you pretty much need to be finance oriented with an interest in M&A and or cap markets.

Ofc there are exceptions to all of my generalizations, but I think that helps to explain the general trend of more MBA students gravitating toward Consulting. 

 

A few things bankers don't sell over consultants:

First, you get hard skills and real knowledge and experiences. Far less time spent putting together fluffy presentations compared to consulting.

Also, bankers know their industries FAR better than consultants.

Consultants can do cool projects and if they're lucky develop a strong spike in a certain area(s), so not to say it can't be done, but I think the average banker is far more "literate" in their craft. 

This is another way of saying that bankers go in more depth than consultants, which we all know.

 

So I think this is pretty generalized, and not entirely accurate. I spent a fair amount of time in IBD and Consulting, and you aren't acknowledging the fact that consultants solve a lot of operational problems. For example, in IBD you acknowledge where a company is strong and weak, and you intimately know their business model, but you never propose high level and granular recommendations to increase efficiency / margins etc. If you are in a strong consulting role, you advise clients (C suite / VPs / Directors) on how to improve their business model. This can be anything from focusing on which products to sell, where to open new locations, to which raw materials manufacturers they should switch to. 

Don't get me wrong, the IBD skill set is the best you can get in finance. But to say consulting is mostly fluff and that they dont know businesses very well relative to IBD folks is a bit of a stretch. 

I think if you want to go into PE / VC / Corp Dev / maybe even HF, you really want exposure to both industries. If I could do it all over again, I wouldve done two years in IBD, found an industry I wanted to specialize in, and then gone consulting. Gun to my head, if I had to pick between IBD and Consulting for my first two years pre-exit into a buyside role, I would choose IBD and its not even close. 

Dont forget about how much BS there is in IBD. You spend hours making menial edits to PPT decks (yes this is just as common as consulting, but not exclusive to consulting), sending out 1000 emails a day tracking deal progress, reaching out to prospective buyers, and making meaningless model adjustments based on MD or VP assumptions.  

 

You’re totally right. I’ve spent time in both sectors too and was trying to generalize into an easy takeaway, and reflecting on people I know. I agree with everything you’re saying. 

 

My 2 cents, wife went to M/B/B and I went to IB post-MBA in 2015. Comp is materially better in banking over medium-term, but unless you want to go to a buyside finance role (and even those are a wash in Europe), exits are better from consulting. Also, for those who stick it out long-term, path to consulting partner is 4.5-6yrs vs. 8.5-10yrs to MD. The likelihood you will get a downmarket (or two) in that 8-10yr period is damn near 100%. Big Tech has been better than both from a comp/wlb perspective for the last decade with RSUs/options, but tbd how much longer that’s the case.

 

I think it's partially because the population of MBA students changed. 1-2 decades ago it was mainly finance guys, who would obviously be targeting holy grail of finance IB. now admission committees at MBA programs try to have diverse classes. and now you only have 10% of class being finance guys, and they still target IB or PE or VC. but the rest 90% are all sorts of strategy people from various industries, tech guys, etc. - so this crowd obviously targets consulting and strategy and tech.

 

^ This is the real answer. MBA programs used to be all well off white guys looking to go work on Wall Street, and it also formerly mandated for most analysts after they finished their 2 year programs.

Now, it's optional for a career in finance, the MBA program is more diverse ethnically, background wise, and personality wise, and the finance population at MBAs has many more options with PE/HF/VC.

 

Having recently left IB post-A2A for MC, I can echo the poster above that having both IB/MC experience should only further enhance a profile relative to having just 1 of the 2 even for PE/VC/HF exits (added plus if you're specializing in the FS space or TMT for VC). I've seen folks exit to solid buy-side seats if that's what they wanted (some without any IB or "high finance" experience prior to consulting), and the current state of the job market definitely helps too. 

In terms of the appeal of consulting vs. banking, I've taken note of the following since I've made the switch which has helped offset the pay difference:

  • Much less work-related stress - consulting doesn't compare to IB in this regard
  • No weekends - hard to ascribe an accurate dollar figure to this especially when compared to working every weekend (to some extent) in IB - this has been a game changer for social plans and overall recovery / mental health
  • Traveling / co-locating with your team in other cities is a refreshing change of pace/scenery compared to seeing the same office every day as a junior in IB. Between remote work, being at client site and co-locating, I'm in my home office 1x-2x a week at most and there's usually always something interesting going on at the office 
  • Much more flexibility with specific work hours and where you work from location-wise in general - it's almost encouraged to work from company offices in other cities to help meet others at the firm, and it seems like remote work will be viewed much more favorably compared to banks going forward
  • A lot more firm events, offsites, team dinners, happy hours, etc. compared to banking where these were virtually nonexistent 
  • Earnings points/miles/status from a lot of travel
  • Free snacks/fruit, coffee, and alcohol in my office which I had none of at the bank I worked at (this could vary by firm)
  • Networking - I've easily met more people the past 6 months in consulting than I did in 4 years as a junior in IB
  • Project-based work fosters variability/optionality - always changing subject matter and learning something new every few months, while also being able to meet a new team (although you could express a desire to specialize and work on the same types of projects if you'd like)
  • Much more time off / PTO - literally was off for 10+ straight days over the holidays because of a "project break" without needing to take actual PTO just for some context
  • People are much nicer in consulting and a lot more varied personalities/backgrounds (and a lot more females if that matters to you)

All in all - yes the pay difference is not insignificant, but at the end of the day it's not like juniors/mid-level people in Consulting are struggling to make ends meet while juniors/mid-level people in banking are chartering jets and yachts every weekend. Sure, that extra money compounded may lead to an extra vacation home down the line, but if you live a relatively normal lifestyle - you're better off than most people by working in either of these highly-paid careers. 

 

Because younger people tend to be more liberal when it comes to opinions on work and consulting has much better hours than IB while offering arguably the highest comp for the hours worked (although I'd say PWM has the best comp per hours worked in finance). Younger folks care more about the WLB than the total comp. They want the time off to go do stuff outside of work. Consulting is also generally a little easier to break into as well compared to IB. I also think the more liberal students will look at IB as a 'bad' industry whereas consulting is more positive in the media. 

 

Answer is pretty easy.

For literally every factor outside of money, tech and consulting are better: hours, culture, exits. More and more people seem to be coming to the conclusion that when you’re in your late 20s making $200K+ in every scenario and on track to make substantially more whatever job you choose, it is dumb to pick a job that works 80+ hours a week. This may get MS because this site is 100% IB biased, but it’s clearly showing up in the data.

 

People, who go into consulting post MBA usually just want options and career flexibility, they haven't decided where they want to be long-term. They also don't care an iota about finance usually. While those, who tend to go into IB, want to remain in finance in some form. That's really it. Back in 06-08 I hear that there was a lot of interest among MBA graduates in wanting to go into IB (which I presume was due to the pay differential), but this wasn't the case 5+ years later (16-18) when I was at business school, which seems in-line with your observation    

 

anybody with half a brain cell can "grind" and learn IB interview shit. especially at MBA level, the technical questions aren't even difficult, a month of prep is all you need tops. nearly 100% of people who are in m7 that aren't internationals get a top BB/EB offer.

however, getting an MBB role requires 100s of hours of casing and is very competitive (nearly half of my m7 wanted to get MBB internships, would say half were successful). has nothing to do with laziness

 

Lol I actually found it much easier to prep for case interviews than IB interviews. In case interviews, you just have to learn the casing method/framework and then practice as many case interviews as you can (which is actually kinda fun) but for IB you need to review and remember LOADS of information as well as the appropriate concise way to answer them (fun too, especially when quizzing yourself/using index cards).

 

Former banking current consultant here to give my unsolicited 2 cents... 

Possible reasons for MBA volume shift to Consulting from IBD

- Base Salary: In banking--in my experience in New York--typically each level's salary stays pretty consistent (e.g., VP1-3+ $250k or $275k base) and only bonus scales. Consulting? Not only do they bump base, but since they saw a ton of attrition during/post 2020 COVID salaries have been bumped to historic highs. Our group gave a ~45-50% raise to level 3 engagement managers moving them into high 3/low 4 base. Granted bonus--and ultimately TC--is lower, but most MBAs have debt that need to get paid off. Maybe they're looking for guaranteed annuity cash flows over one-time variable pay? I don't know

Hours: Consulting normally has better hours, but this is not always the case. There are some groups like 'true' or 'proper' Management Consulting that easily push 80hrs+ a week when leading cases. M&A consulting is similar. If you go down the tech implementation or ops route, then your hours are notably better and the downwards pay scale for those teams is only somewhat impactful (e.g., 10-15% lower)

Culture: I personally loved the culture I was in during banking. There's an initial personality curve. 1) when you start, folks are typically polite, but not exactly warm. They don't know you and haven't 'placed' you in their minds. Meaning, are you good/bad, asset/liability, will they have to write you down or up? 2) once 'placed'; if you're good and social enough, then everything is great. If mediocre, polite. If bad, radio silence. You'll always find jerks, but typically you'll get a solid group

- Availability: Many more seats in consulting. IBD classic offers--mainly though I know there are other products/offerings--M&A advisory & capital raising/placement. Consulting? You name it. Strategy, Restructuring, Commerical Due Diligence, Financial Due Diligence, Operating Model Assessment/Target, People & Culture (aka outsourced HR/hiring/firing), Enterprise Technology Enablement, Fairness Opinions, Valuation, etc. If it's a service that fits into Front, Middle, or Back Office, then consulting is there to push SoWs and take fees. This results in a high need for bodies. Given most consulting firms are a partnership model, then to keep things economic you need 'leverage' aka junior and post-MBA hires

To your 3rd point... Do PE/HF really recruit more out of MBAs than in the past? I was under the impression that PE path is largely 1-2yrs as an Analyst in Lev Fin, M&A, and--maybe--DCM at a top-tier IB, then 2yr pre-MBA Associate at a PE, then MBA, then--maybe--post-MBA Associate. Perhaps that's changed, but I don't know. HFs recruiting out of MBAs? I mean... maybe, but I don't think its as common place as you're describing. I'd assume more folks go IB than buy-side out of MBA programs. 

 

This has been repeated above but post-MBAs value optionality. The reality is that post-MBAs want to spend two years max in professional services and plan on pivoting into S&O, product management, Chief of Staff role, etc.

When it comes to pivoting into those roles the consulting skillset is going to be valued more than IB, especially for post-MBAs. Look at LinkedIn to see exits for post-MBAs who worked at MBB vs. EB / BB and you'll probably see a more diverse (and IMO more interesting) set of exits with those who went into consulting. 

Corporate Development or some corporate finance role is the most common exit for post-MBAs in IB

This is going to get some flack but I found people who went into consulting to be a little more well-rounded than people who ended up in IB

 

Disclaimer: I'll make some broad generalizations. The people who go into post-MBA IB have homogenous backgrounds (worked at Big4 doing audit, valuation, due diligence, etc. or they worked at another financial institution working in a non-transaction capacity). In my school people who went into consulting were Peace Corps, TFA, engineers, ex-military, and everything else in between. In class discussions, the consultant group tended to be more engaged, offered better insights, and were more personable. 

In some ways the job search is almost self-selection. Consulting firms and the companies that follow will select for people who are smart / analytical but have a high degree of people management and EQ. In finance, people are rewarded on their ability to execute.

Last thing, people and client management are two different things. You'll need client skills in either field. 

 

A totally under appreciated field is tech sales. If you're a middle bucket sales guy, you make $300-$400. I work at a late-stage tech company and our best guy made $3M this year "working" like 30 hours per week living in Utah....

 

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Career Advancement Opportunities

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Jefferies & Company 02 99.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 19 98.8%
  • Harris Williams & Co. (++) 98.3%
  • Lazard Freres 02 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 03 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Harris Williams & Co. 18 99.4%
  • JPMorgan Chase 10 98.8%
  • Lazard Freres 05 98.3%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.7%
  • William Blair 03 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Lazard Freres 01 99.4%
  • Jefferies & Company 02 98.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 17 98.3%
  • Moelis & Company 07 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 05 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Director/MD (5) $648
  • Vice President (19) $385
  • Associates (86) $261
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (13) $181
  • Intern/Summer Associate (33) $170
  • 2nd Year Analyst (66) $168
  • 1st Year Analyst (202) $159
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (144) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

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success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”