Urgent...picking between offers!!
Hi all,
Long time reader....I just finished my MFE from a good university. I have had interviews but have not found exactly what I wanted. I have no work experience and now I have two offers. One is for a credit/portfolio analyst with a leading commercial bank in their commercial real estate unit. They are the biggest commercial bank in terms of Commercial real estate loans. However, the pay is horrible. It is for 42k (no bonus) in a major Northeast city (not nyc). Is this not a low offer for this role and my education?
Other offer is for a business analyst/valuation role with a unknown corporation for 60k (plus bonus).
The 18k is a huge difference and would validate having my master's.
Would appreciate all your feedback and thoughts.
Thanks
How are you getting such low offers with an MFE degree from a good university?
That just sucks.
Both are undercutting you, but the economy's not in great shape for finance. Ask the commercial bank to match your other offer, otherwise I'd go for the brand name place while continuing to actively search for positions elsewhere. I still feel like anything in valuation/real estate credit analysis probably isn't going to take advantage of any of your MFE educational background.
I don't know if it is the economy or the lack of work experience. maybe a combination of both. Also, not being in NYC has its setbacks. Since it has been three months since graduation, I have been more open to different opportunities.
Gutshot are you saying to take the higher pay ? Do commercial banks typically pay this low.
Apologies if I was unclear. I honestly can't assess your financial situation or career goals, but I would suggest taking the job that opens the most doors for you going forward, and focusing less on initial pay.
there was a wharton MBA here a few days back that didn't have a job for a while post-graduation. And from the quantitative side, I've seen HFs offering hourly-based pay to MFEs and PhDs who can't get a job otherwise.
What GutShot said. My 2 cents is that the business valuation role will likely open more doors...
The MFE program can't be that good then tbh. In my program, by graduation 90% of the class had offers and the lowest one was 70K base (me - I chose consulting vs. going to a bank). Everyone else was in the 80K base range. within a month after graduation, the remaining 10% had offers too. In any case, 42K is an insult. 60K is still quite low, but you'll actually be able to live off it. Just make sure that there's some growth prospects in the role.
The following is an excerpt from 'Choosing an MBA Program–Where Can You Do Your Best Work?' published on May 6, 2010 by Robert Bruner, the dean of the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.
"A few years ago, I was counseling a second-year student who had received two job offers and was trying to choose between them. The dilemma was stark: on one hand, high pay at a large, well-known firm in a big city to be part of a three-year leadership development program that would rotate him through many different jobs quickly. On the other hand, there was an offer for frankly low pay, to work for an unknown rapidly-growing small firm located in a dodgy neighborhood where the student would be a general manager from day one. The realities of student loans and economic uncertainty being what they were, the student was leaning toward the high-pay job offer. He seemed to be looking for my blessing on the choice.
Instead, I asked him, “where can you do your best work?” The look of astonishment on the student’s face told me that this was a new way of thinking to him. He offered some blah blah blah about hypothetical career progression. I politely suggested that he go away and think some more about my question. Not long after, he accepted the job with the small company. A few years on, he is successful in every way: happy, well-compensated, a big cheese in a much bigger company, and doing the work he feels ready and able to do. I’m glad that he and I had the conversation when we did. But the end of an MBA program is a little late to start thinking this way."
Although the situation above doesn't mirror your predicament 100%, I think the concept is still applicable. Good luck.
Regards
Haha. If someone gave me this advice I would have thought it was academic feel good bull shit and taken the safer offer. Not saying I would have been right, but b-school deans seem to beat off to this kind of story.
I guess that makes me a b-school dean.
You are exactly right. It's really just a way to not have to answer the question. Plus they don't want to steer a kid into something that will make them miserable and potentially feel responsible when the kids goes postal and shoots up the office, lol.
The concept is good though. We talk about it a ton here on WSO and there is always a fair amount of uncertainty about following your heart vs. following the paycheck. Ironically, if I end up attending b-school next year, I will almost certainly be "forced" to follow the paycheck, at least for a short while. Of course that is okay at this point because I'm not truly passionate about anything in particular but obviously that can change in an instance, especially at b-school when you are surrounded by a few hundred people with different backgrounds and all sorts of ideas about products and services and companies, etc.
Regards
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