Retired Navy, ~41 yrs old, seeking realistic feedback
Enlisted in 2007, commissioned in 2017, expecting to retire 2027/2028. BS Finance from Southern New Hampshire Univ with 3.8 GPA earned while active duty. Have not taken the GMAT but am actively studying. Married with 2 kids, currently 10 and 7. I am fit and in excellent health, regularly pull 60 hour weeks. Rarely the smartest person in the room but I will study, practice longer and work harder to outperform my competition.
20+ years of soft skill development. Have traveled the world, fluent English, conversational Italian and Romanian. Tons of leadership and project management experience under my belt.
No finance experience outside managing standard budgets as well as my own personal finances.
Aiming for acceptance into a T15 MBA program and then somewhere in finance where I am honestly not set on anything in particular - it is all fascinating to me. Seeking honest feedback, opinions, advice, personal anecdotes etc. I aim high but I am also not delusional (I don't think)!
Congrats on hitting 20! Im in the reserves, did H/S, and have been in finance my whole career. Your plan makes sense to go for MBA especially if you’ll have it paid for. It’s a good way to integrate and to figure out what’s next. if you get a 700+ GMAT you’ll likely get M7 given your undergrad GPA.
You will for sure be one of the oldest in the class. Typically most people even vets are 5 years out of undergrad. The older vets are typically 10 years because they were pilots—so you’ll have 5+ years on them. Not to scare you away, just to set expectations.
As far as recruiting, I’ll leave it to you for whether you truly want to do IB, which is the most likely finance path, at your age. Putting up with that kind of grind is really best suited for a fresh undergrad with 0 going on in his personal life. Not a wife and two kids. Good news is that’s an overrated field anyways and pretty lame. If I were you, I would go and look into a search fund if interested in running your own business, operator roles, defense tech, etc. All of these I think would be more exciting, you’d have more applicable skills, better for your situation, etc.
Not to yuck your yum if you really want finance. I think the question would be 1) do I really want to do finance and why? 2) what kind of finance could I place into (likely IB) and 3) do I really want to do that kind of finance? Unfortunately we missed the golden age for finance I think
Hello and thank you for the thoughtful response. I agree MBA seems like a great option and yes, it will be paid for with post 911 and yellow ribbon, hopefully. I am aiming for the 700+ GMAT and based on other responses, will also prepare for the GRE. Lot of studying but I've got a 12+ months so one day at a time, no cramming necessary.
The age thing is a great point. I don't think I really mind it from my perspective, but I am curious how I'd be perceived by the rest of the cohort. Even if I were to get an MBA and go into IB or consulting, working with and or reporting to people in their late 20s or 30s -- coming from the military that doesn't really bother me either, it's common place. Ego gets checked at the door..
In my original post I stated finance is what I am interested in and I truly am; however, the possibilities within consulting seems equally interesting to me and I've been doing a fair share of research into that as well. It seems like that may be a better fit for me.
Cheers!
Similar age here. I'm curious if you have spoken to any MBA adcoms yet? Some of them may try to steer you towards EMBA based on your age and tenure. May be worth it to visit a conference to survey some programs if you haven't decided what to target yet. GMAC MBA Tour and MBA Veterans Network conferences are coming up soon.
Hello and thank you for your input! I have not spoken to adcoms yet but I am in the process of reaching out to some veterans clubs at a few programs. The EMBA has been brought up, specifically the one offered at Wharton.
I'll look into the GMAC MBA Tour and MBA Veterans Network conferences although physical attendance is unlikely at this point in time. I am currently service overseas, wrapping up my last few months in Italy and then on to Romania for a year or so..
Do you have any thoughts on the pros/cons of an executive MBA vs traditional when it comes to competitiveness in landing an IB or MBB role?
Thanks!
(1) You should connect with the nonprofit Service to School and also see if you can join the Enlisted Exfil Discord. The Warrior-Scholar Project will probably not take you since they're aimed at transitioning enlisted folk, but worth looking into them as well.
(2) Your school acceptances will boil down to: (a) effectively translating your service to a lay audience, (b) excellent storytelling, (c) a high-enough GMAT or GRE score (don't underestimate this, start studying ASAP).
(3) GRE will likely be the better fit; take both tests and see which you like more. They're weighted equally. If you go with the GRE, 320+ makes you competitive for T15; 325+ makes you competitive for M7 as a veteran.
(4) Bluntly, post-MBA IB is unlikely to lead to high finance. If you're interested in business at large, consider management consulting instead. It's more sustainable, you'll still get to scratch the itch, and the post-MBA exits are more interesting.
(1) I'll definitely check out the resources you've mentioned, thank you for that direction.
(2) I've read this same thing numerous, I understand it carries a lot of weight and my GMAT and GRE preps are underway.
(3) Understood you recommend GRE vs GMAT - curious why?
(4) I've been reading more about consulting and I'm intrigued, think I'd actually be happier there with the WLB. Salaries at MBB aren't bad , either.
How do you like consulting? What sort of post MBA exits are you eyeing, if any?
This is a bit of a guess without much to substantiate - but I’d imagine there’d be many aerospace / defense companies who’d appreciate your experience. Across newer startups, growthier but still big companies like Anduril, and more traditional folks like Lockheed, Boeing, Raytheon etc
Might be worth checking out the A&D group at a consulting shop before transitioning into corporate first though. Starting off in client services keeps doors open / gives you a little more time to figure out the longer term plan.
Greetings
Thanks for that suggestion, you're not wrong, it seems that like would be a more natural fit for someone with a DoW background.
What type of specific feedback are you looking for? I think your initial plan is fine. Your undergrad gpa plus your military service should get you into a decent business school if you get a solid GMAT score. These standardized tests are so easy because its all about work ethic - what I mean is that you can just read one study guide and then take a million practice tests to the point its impossible to not score well. It just takes effort and someone like you can do that easily.
Once you lock down your business school, you can start to explore what exactly you want to do in finance. Lean heavily into your military background, as many people will want to help you. The rare times I had to interview a military vet for a junior role, I would just automatically bump them to the next round.
I would suggest you look into corporate banking as opposed to i-banking. Corp banking pays slightly less, but its more of a salesy role as opposed to a grindy role. The corp bankers at all my banks were like a relationship manager who took the client out alot, and when time came for an RFP or real work, they would just rope in the product banker. At most you might have to oversee a revolver transaction but that's it. It's a sweet gig, but to succeed you have to be organized and great people person.
Thanks Smoke Frog, what you've provided is exactly the type of feedback I'm looking for.
Your suggestion is more or less what my plan is: 1) Get into school, 2) use that time to aggressively explore and network to find the right opportunity.
I've done well saving and investing up to this point, and I'll have a military pension that pays for all my basics and healthcare costs. Salary is obviously an important factor but I don't have aspirations or desire to sit on tens of millions of dollars especially if it costs me my family, health or happiness. If I retire from the Navy at 41, I will complete an MBA at ~43 (perhaps sooner if I can start an EMBA while active duty). At that point, I'd venture to say I've got a solid 10-15 years left in the tank where I'd willing to 'clock in' for someone else. The truth is, I love working and interacting with people, it gives me a sense of purpose. I imagine I'll work until the day I die in my own right, managing my own investments, properties and interests.
From the reasearch I've done the post-MBA salary and promotion schedules for MBB aren't bad at all, and niether is corporate bankings.
A question I have: Do you have any personal experience on how a traditional vs EMBA would be viewed for entry into MBB or corp banking? Assuming each were from schools of equal rigour and prestige, of course.
I think in general people kind of realize the MBA is more of a networking degree than an actual learning degree, and while people are also generally aware and EMBA is even more of a soft degreee than a traditional MBA, I have never personally seen anyone get “dinged” for having it.
In fact, I think an EMBA program actually awards a full mba degree so after a few years you can just say mba and no one will know. If doing and EMBA gets you the degree faster that’s great. But will you have time to properly network and research if you’re doing EMBA AND working?
Also, please anonymize your screen name. Never ever use your real name in forums like this.
I am someone who started as an MBA associate a couple of years into my 30s and I feel VERY old in IB. Most of my peers are several years younger with the A2As being 6-8 years younger. Most VPs are younger than me too (even MBA grads), and people tend to get weirded out by yelling at / berating / lecturing an “old” junior. They feel much more comfortable calling a 22-28 year old at 10pm and saying needs done by the morning. I’m curious what current bankers think, but I imagine a lot of people will struggle to hire someone 40+ to be their junior? As a junior associate you are treated like a second class citizen. Unless vets can recruit entirely with other vets and they are much more lenient on age given they understand it? Lastly, if you still have a year plus of service overseas, will you end up starting your MBA at 43? That would mean graduation at 45? Again I struggle to imagine many banks being receptive simply because I went through the process not too long ago and felt like my age was a weakness I had to overcome.
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