I’m a third year PE associate at an O&G fund. I know there is typical debate about whether or not business school is worth it in this day age given the price as well as opportunity cost? But I’ve been considering a switch up in my career in the next 3 years or so and was wondering if it would be better to try and get an MBA or if perhaps going back to school to a particularly better school for finance undergrad would be worth more? My undergrad was in STEM. What do yall think?
Edit: suppose my long term goal is to get involved in public markets preferably at a L/S fund
What do you want to do next? MBA is great for career switchers if you want consulting or BB IB, especially if at a small-name O&G PE fund you're going to have trouble getting out of, but you should want one of the main exits to make it worth your while.
Most top schools won't let you come back for undergrad when you already have a degree, and the recruiting would be for entry-level analyst roles which you are too experienced for.
Guess id like more optionality to work at different places not just O&G PE which are smaller funds. I’d like to work at a L/S HF.
I don't understand the argument for an undergrad degree at all. Top MBA program would best position you to get a L/S HF job or whatever other business job you want.
Go back to high school and just completely reset
If you're truly able to generate alpha you can come from ASU and make it to a top MM L/S.
The only firms that you'll be precluded from would be SM like Lone Pine, Pershing, etc. that care a lot more about prestige but even 99% of GS/KKR/HBS candidates strike out there/ get a chance to interview so wouldn't worry about that
Path is certainly harder from a nontarget background but to answer your question definitely an MBA. Not even sure if going back to undergrad is even a rational question
lone pine is cracked - am definitely watching them closely after mandel stepped down and am interested to see how it does.
also am watching alua to see how it does - purcell was co-cio with sundheim at viking and he's trained some of the best analysts on the street.
hopefully 2025 is a great year for us all!
Isn't Brett Caughran literally from ASU lol
What would be the path to an MM L/S without top IB/PE and target school background? What are some ways in which people with non-typical backgrounds get their foot in the door and prove themselves?
How can you even think of re-doing undergrad. That’s absurd.
Just do the MBA if you want a career switch.
Don’t know if this is a London or US focused question but generally top US unis will not allow
you to do a second bachelors degree. Oxford/Cambridge will which is what I assume you are considering
Why don’t you apply to L/S from your current gig?
I think the correct question to ask here is MBA or MSF from e.g. MIT, Princeton.
And that's a tough question. MSF will probably be filled with people fresh out of undergrad. If high-finance recruiting doesn't go your way, you will probably be stuck with an IB/consulting analyst job.
For the MBA, people will be at similar points in their career than you, but the high-finance switch is probably more challening. On the other hand, if you strike out, you can at least go into IB/consulting at the associate level.
I think MSF path is higher risk/reward and MBA more safer.
Hope this helps.
3 years into PE and re-doing undergraduate to get AGAIN a finance role? what you're smoking
if you're into public markets you just need to knock on the door of 100+ HFs, convince someone that you can achieve alpha, and they may take a chance on you
if you want to "re-brand" yourself just to get into P72/Pershing, etc. then it's not really passion for it, but another pursuit of prestige, which makes this sound even more silly
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