Professional Sports to IB?
I am a 28y/o and have been playing professional sports for 4 years in the 2nd division of my sport, I've been asked to return for a 5th year even though I have been vocal about retiring as I finish up my MsF soon.
Is it better to come straight from sports or try to land something relevant to banking before making a move to IB?
I have networked in the late half of 2023 to assess potential opportunities to go into banking as I hear there are qualities that banks like about athletes.
Over the winter, I see there are continued layoffs and feel that I am swimming against the current here.
Debating between taking the 5th year to prep for B-school applications next year or retire and try to get employed in something transferable to IB to then pursue an B-school
I have considered trying to hit 3rd round applications for B-school which is due in 3 months but that seems to be putting myself at a disadvantage.
Thank you for any advice
I’ve noticed people in numerous groups love hiring former athletes from college or pro sports. The logic is if you’re good enough to be amongst the best at something like sports, you can easily do ppt and excel in ib
Do you think it looks better coming straight from playing or working in the "real world" first?
Depends on you. If you come across well and study and know your shit you can learn everything on the job in a few months.
If you play pro sports at a high level you likely already have the discipline and work ethic to excel, unless you’re Johnny Manziel.
It never hurts to ask; just go interview and call around and see what your interviewers think. You’ll get a sense of it quickly
I think it's highly dependent on the sport and level. Someone who went to the Olympics, or played in a major division of a recognizable sport, will get lots of interviews. Someone playing deep abroad in the minors, especially outside of the immediately recognizable sports like basketball/soccer/football, is going to need to hustle a bit more. It sounds like you are in the latter category.
Do you have any prior experience in finance or a traditional job? I might try to get some finance work experience for the next year and then do B-school. I know you've worked for 4 years but IB ASO will discount that as less traditional work experience.
Most of my soccer career has been in the US 2nd division (can think of AAA baseball). Most people would recognize the MLS, I agree with you.
I have no prior work in finance just education. Any roles that you recommend looking into that would change that view of having no or little finance experience?
Corporate FP&A is an idea, and would be a good place to sit for a while and get into a target MBA. Ideally fortune 500, but apply around. You may not be able to be super picky with no financial work experience.
I would also look into "athlete returnship" type programs. A bunch of the BBs have internships for athletes/military types (usually not in IB though). Still think MBA is the best route but take a look at these as an alternate option as well.
My group has often takes a handful of former college athletes in just about every class. If you're good enough to be playing professionally after graduating, you should have the right mindset and motivations to do well in IB. You should have a good story for why you want to work in IB. If you studied something relevant in college or went to a good school, then that is an additional credential then that could be helpful as well.
It's very difficult to get a finance job regardless of your background, even if you came from an Ivy with a 4.0 or if you were an olympian, however, try to go in technically prepared and make sure to focus on transferable skills that you can bring to the table and how you can add value from your experiences in sports
Thank you for the feedback,
It seems like the main thing im missing is just experience outside of sports to gain confidence in anyone looking over my applications
Bill Keenan and his book discussion materials talk about this. He was an ex hockey professional --> Columbia MBA --> IB.
Thank you for sharing this
Not to take anything away from this guy, but he comes from a billionaire family and his dad runs a PE firm. Once you're at a target MBA it's easy enough to land IB, but standing out enough to land M7 is the challenge
The MBA route is what im focusing on but certainly not coming from a background that will benefit me such as that, thank you for adding context
If you don't get into IB, you could Alternatively get another job then do MBA before doing recruiting
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