PLEASE READ -Active duty with MS in Finance and MBA
Hello fellow members,
When I get discharged from the military I will have an MS in Finance and an MBA. I will also start working on my CFA as well before leaving the military. My goal is land an Associate position in Investment Banking. Any advice? My current job in the military is with accounting and finance, I will have 7 years of experience. What are my chances of being a top candidate for the position, is there any other qualifications I need? thank you
Hit up JPM and GS - both have rotational programs / internships for vets and are about the most military friendly "military" banks around.
So it all depends on the bucket they put you in. I'm going through the MVIP now, we have a guy from Stern MBA in our class (I think he messed up his normal recruiting cycle), but he's with a top coverage group right now, and once he's done with the program he starts as an associate. But there was another guy a couple classes ago with a no-name MBA and started in a top product group as associate too. I'm sure if you show up to the program with a deep understanding then you will most likely be transitioned into an associate position. Most major banks have a Vet program, and they should start to open within the next couple months. Feel free to pm me.
You're already unprepared with these degrees. I'm not saying don't try, but why did you get these degrees in the first place?
I am a vet too, I don't want you to be thrown out on the curb, but your profile to me seems like you are a loyal service member with basic accounting/finance skills and an unpolished resume with very weak degrees. Is this incorrect?
You might want to consider applying to a top program (I don't even know what degree) and use your 9/11 GI bill to pay for tuition and housing and transition from there. By all means apply this cycle, but they might place you as an analyst over an associate given your background.
I can't figure out if you're enlisted with a bunch of online degrees or an officer?
What. You really want to go through this?
Let's break it down:
Webster MBA
92% Acceptance rate
Rated #182
https://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/webster-university-OB…
With all your fancy degrees, think of the barriers to entry to obtain this esteemed Webster MBA. None. 3.0 Undergrad Average GPA and accepts everyone. I can't even imagine who gets rejected from here. Probably the 2.4 student with a range of 2.5 - 3.5.
Some cringe at attending a top 30 MBA or even hope that a Georgetown MBA will give them adequate chances at good Wall St. opportunities. You attended a #182 ranked program.
You still haven't mentioned your rank and it now seems like you're an E5 or so. If this MBA helped you to get E6 or something like that, great. But, its value outside the military is next to zero. Sure not 100% useless, only 99.5%. I can't imagine you're an O3-O4 with this mindset. I've done some financial consulting for the DoD financial teams in Indiana - are you on the Army team there or something?
Even in undergrad business you learn Porter's Five Forces. What are the barriers to entry to get into Webster? None. If everyone could get a Webster MBA to get into Wall St. IB, the acceptance rate would plummet. Read Seth Godin's "The Dip". Its a short read, but his premise is that you have to get over hurdles in life that are difficult to achieve. You also have to know when to stick with it and when to quit.
In your journey, the hurdle that you overcame is achievable by everyone, diminishing its value. As someone who practices business/finance/accounting, this premise should be clear to you.
I'm being pretty harsh on you (but its the truth); maybe you have been caught up in military life and actually obtaining an MBA was something like an 'icing on the cake' over your peers. But, that's not how it works on the street. On this note, you need to be aware of your weaknesses to not only play them well in interviews, but to make the movements in the proper direction to strengthen yourself where you can. If you think the Webster MBA is so great and talk about how amazing the learning and program was like you had a HBS professor going through a groundbreaking case study, you're going to look a bit off. Hopefully they only catch you as naive and not delusional that day.
The most important thing you can do walking out into civilian life again is to know where you stand (truthfully) and where you can go from there. Your resume is likely to be tossed out of of a lot of large corporations, but if you want to target smaller businesses that might need help with the financial operations of a small business, you could go from there. They won't know what Webster is and will smile kindly upon a young vet. But, if you want to go to the street. Be prepared.
I'm not going to bash you without leaving some feasible plan, so: - Apply at will, see what happens, acquire interview experience - Get started on the process to obtain some sort of real degree with your 9/11 GI bill
You also might want to stick around in the reserves for a little bit if you can.