Any chance at Associate?
As I'm sure you can see, this is my first post--I am looking forward to being a good student monkey, and hopefully contributing as an experienced monkey one day.
So here is my situation. I am currently looking to enter the industry from what I would consider a non-traditional background. After high school, I enlisted with the Marine Corps for four years. After that, I decided to do the college thing, where I just (Dec 2010) completed my B.A. in finance with a 3.88. I passed my Series 7 last week and will be sitting for the 66 next week. I am unemployed as of now and was able to get sponsored through a non-profit positioned to help veterans transition from the military. As of now, I'm considering PWM and PE for potential areas of interest.
My questions are, 1) Do I have a chance at getting into a small firm (or any firm for that matter) with out any relative work experience? 2) I am currently thinking of applying for an associate position, do you think I have a chance at getting in at that level, or am I being completely unrealistic? I would like to think that my military experience (leadership and whatnot) should count for something...
One avenue I am considering is shooting for the associate program with JPM. Any thoughts on that or anything else for that matter is welcomed and greatly appreciated.
You will not enter as an associate with 0 prior experience and no MBA. One of our fairly prominent members here managed to break into PE right out of MBA with only military experience beforehand, but that's an outlier and not the norm by any means.
Your experience will definitely count for a lot. There are tons of servicepeople on the Street and they are immensely loyal to one another, you have that going for you. That will get you in doors at the very least, but you need to be applying for analyst positions since that's all that you've got the credentials for. Great initiative going out and getting some certifications in, but with only a Bachelor's, entering as an Associate is an incredible reach.
You've got military experience, a phenomenal GPA, certifications, and an interesting story all in your favor. Do some networking and you ought to have no trouble placing, just aim for something appropriate and you ought to do just fine. What sort of school did you go to (Ivy, public Ivy, top-5 undergrad b-school, SLAC, etc.)?
Actually, if we're thinking of the same person, he managed to break in before his MBA even started. He withdrew from the MBA upon getting the offer.
Oh, wow then. Even more of an outlier. Why haven't I seen him posting lately? Did he start already?
I believe that he was potentially signing off from here for awhile. From what I understand, the situation was VERY unique.
I imagine it'd have to be.
It's a small state school in CO. I did graduate in 2.5 years if that counts for anything? I'm guessing no. And thanks for the input thus far. I knew it would be a (very) long shot for associate, however I'm the kind of person that always goes for it. What's the worst they can do? Say no?
It's just a very established hierarchy. You start at analyst out of undergrad and move to associate after three years in banking, or you enter as an associate after an MBA. You have an undergrad degree, therefore you'll simply get laughed at or denied outright, unfortunately.
Keep in mind that I am new to this industry so there will undoubtably be dumb questions. This may be one of them... If it is that structured and it will take 3 years to reach associate, or 2 years for your MBA then associate--why not go that route? What are the pros and cons of going the analyst route vs. the MBA route?
Why are you so set on entering as an associate for some reason? Just try to get an analyst poistion...
its hard to get into an MBA program without prior work experience (especially programs that are actually worth it to go, where banks recruit) - hence you start as an analyst.
Because an MBA is not a magic ticket to an associate role, and no good MBA program will want you straight out of undergrad without some experience in between.
Speak of the devil!! Where have you been, off conquering more of the world?
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