Business School or Not??
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Hell yea.
Just to mention, historically restructuring doesn't pay as well as standard M&A. Good strategy would be to aim for Elite Boutiques and get in a generalist pool.
You sound like a boss, good luck on whatever you choose. Ultimately this decision is up to you as this seems like a poor financial decision... if you're happier as a result, definitely go for it. I think anyone on this site won't be able to give you the true advice you want, as only you really know if your life will be better in Finance or if this is just some "grass is greener" syndrome. Interested to see what you decide.
That's a fucking huge opportunity cost for you... You make 300K a year already, + tuition and fees...
I would never in a million years recommend you to go to B-School. Try to transition to a firm like Skadden or other Wall Street firms.
I work somewhere better already.
Troll? Skadden is Top 5 in the US...are you at one of the Magic Circle in the UK?
If you're at one of these firms, the more traditional route is from Partner at Top Law Firm -> MD at Bank / PE firm. If you enjoy what you're doing why move before you make partner in another 3-5 years?
you said you "tried to break into IB and failed"... can you elaborate? how long ago was this? did you bomb the technical questions?
if i were you i'd do my best to break in without an MBA. i totally understand your desire to move from law to banking, but paying $200k and foregoing an additional $600k of salary for an MBA when you already have the most (forgive me) prestigious professional degree attainable? that's a VERY tough pill to swallow.
I was looking in early 2011/late 2010. Very tough market. I know of people with better credentials that did not find anything. Mid 2010 was probably the best window to make the law to finance switch (recently). I have lot of friends with similar backgrounds that have also had fruitless searches. Also, I could likely get something, but it would probably be somewhere that I don't want to be. I'd rather start at an elite shop.
Better credentials... you mean your Harvard buddies got their econ degrees from Stanford instead of Berkeley or Michigan?
LOL.
Lol. Stanford... I mean that I know of one person with a Rhodes Scholarship and a non-traditional (for finance) background who couldn't find anything. The subset of lawyers who I knew that were looking for finance jobs the last two years was top notch. People with econ degrees from Stanford and various Ivys included.
I also know people with equivalent pedigrees to mine who did get picked up (two friends landed at top boutiques), but this was in mid 2010, when there was more of an expectation that the economy would turn around quickly. More recently the law to finance window has narrowed if not shut entirely.
I guess I refuse to understand how someone can be making 300K a year while looking at the MBA placements, and sees that only 2-3 people get 300K offers out of school. So, you are in essence going to be giving up 800K to have a small chance of getting one of the elite jobs that you already have failed to get. More power to you my brother...I don't see it, but good luck anyway.
Remember, you can do any book learning with a library card.
Why do you want to do finance? From your post, the best answer I could get from it was that you "THINK it might be more fun". If I did everything I thought would be more fun than what I'm doing now I'd probably be homeless or dead.
If you're a Harvard Law grad at a firm that you feel is better than Skadden, your network is probably already as strong, or stronger than the network you'd be getting at B-school. Most of these guys are going to be younger than you, former associates at megafunds or something (the banking ones). Certainly talented people, but you probably know plenty like them already. You can learn the material on your own. And as another poster said, you're probably only looking at 2-3 jobs from OCR that would be better than what you have now.
I think your best bet is to start calling friends, connections, Harvard alumni. Try to network into restructuring; you sound qualified. Don't think it's worth the $1,000,000 opportunity cost.
Have tried. And have reached out to the very top. Networking into restructuring was not possible. General M&A or Lev Fin was.
what about a 1 year MBA in Kellog or Insead. Or at least the 1.5 year MBA at Columbia.
You dont need any more brand recognition (HLS for god sake), and I dont think you need an internship to land an IB role. The 2 year investment is not worth it because you can still land an IB gig coming out of one of the MBA programs I mentioned.
if you in london, you can do the 1 year LBS MFIN.
I've thought about 1 year program's. None are appealing. I want long term credibility. If LBS had a one year MBA instead of an MFin I would consider that. The Kellogg and Columbia program's don't seem like they would do much for my profile.
It's not like your diploma says 1 year MBA on it.
your resume would
Not what I am looking for.
If you want finance badly enough, just go back to B-school.
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