I took a career gamble quit my first job at a boutique one year in to go to graduate school. Long story short, that gamble hasn’t paid off. At the time, I planned to get a PhD and become a professor or do quant stuff but I dropped out of the program and have spent the last few years working in non-academic positions. I have a good job and I like education even if I’m not a professor, but the comp is just terrible and I’m really limited in my career potential without that degree. I’m basically starting to wonder if I can get back into finance so I can make good money again. I really have no idea what, if anything, I could realistically get at this point though and that’s the purpose of this post. Is it realistic to get back into IB, possibly as an associate? Is PE possible at all? Am I totally screwed either way without an MBA? None of the firms I worked or interned with are looking to hire right now so I didn’t even get a sense of whether they’d be willing to hire someone like me. What do you think? I’m looking for general advice because I don’t know anyone in this industry anymore and my background is so atypical that I don’t know what’s even possible.
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What’s wrong with an MBA? If you don’t have any connections, it will at least put you back into the recruiting pipeline.
I’m not strictly against getting one, but I don’t want to get one unless it is my only good path forward. Furthermore, I am not sure if at this point I can into one that’s good enough. I am entering my 30s this spring and my academic and professional history is confusing to say the least, more confusing than I let on to originally. My graduate record is great, but my undergraduate is not. I frankly am not confident that I could get into a particularly strong MBA program. My Alma Mater and the school I work at currently are ranked somewhere in the 30s in U.S. News. I don’t know if this is good enough. They send people to Wall Street but not many. Can I get into a better school that I don’t have ties to? I don’t know. My graduate and professional experience is a lot more attractive to research programs (MA, PhD, etc.) than professional programs (MBA). In addition, my current university is willing to cover 100% of tuition for all academic programs if I pursue one part time while I work but won’t cover any of an MBA and those academic programs are some of the best in the nation while the MBA is not. So I only feel confident about my chances at a single school, which might not even get me where I want and which is offering a totally free PhD as an alternative. It almost seems stupid for me to pursue the MBA unless I get in somewhere great.
Yeah I bet my resume is jumpier than yours. I also only think I can break into one of the T15 FT MBA programs if I crush the GRE.
That’s pretty good you get your tuition paid for the PhD - could be a good path. What would you get your PhD in?
Looks like you're in a bit of a pickle.. Bump
If you're still in your 20s (even late 20s) you might want to re-enter as an analyst. 2nd year analyst if your first gig was true IB. 1st year analyst if your first gig wasn't true IB. You can try for associate but it's a pretty tough job IMHO . . need to understand the analyst's role well enough to manage them and often take over for them, all while also demonstrating you're ready to be a VP soon and an MD down the road. It's doable if you're ready, but you don't want that job if you're not ready. You'd be surprised how many older analysts (late 20s) enter at that age and end up happy . . they either wind up doing the standard post-analyst PE gig or they rise to associate which is where they'd be anyhow after an MBA, except they made a salary instead of paying for school
I’m really not sure what you mean by “true IB”. I was a M&A at a small but active boutique. It was mostly lower middle market deals but some larger ones as well. This was not a big firm and a minority of the seniors came from big Wall Street firms. My internships were more or less the same. I’m also turning 30 this year. Frankly, the only reason I’m even considering this is the monethe money was right, I’d start as a 1st year analyst but that does feel like I huge step backward. I have over half a decade of experience at this point and most of that includes managing people, deadlines. I’m in a relatively senior position in my current job. People in this position are more commonly 10+ years my senior. Comp aside it seems silly to take a step back into an entry level job.
That’s all very understandable. But it could feel silly the other way too . . many associate candidates are either MBAs who were decent enough to get into an M7 program and dedicated enough to IB that they’re making that huge MBA investment and going through the insane cattle-herding networking process . . that’s a fairly reliable candidate coming out the other end. I’m not sure how willing the banks are to turn down that candidate for someone positioning their non-traditional experience as associate-ready on the grounds that they manage people & deadlines.
If you have a good IB network where someone will advocate for you, then that would change the game quite a bit.
What was your that you were trying to get?
Why’d you drop?
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