Continue to work in Finance vs Go to business school

Hi there,

Background: I did my bachelor's in a B-school in finance in Portugal and did a summer internship in a small bank, and after finishing my bachelor's, I went to work at EY in M&A.

I received an acceptance offer to study for a master's in management at Nova SBE (my first option was Finance, this is the best university in Portugal). If I accept I will have worked at EY for 9 months. The good part of this program is that I can also specialize in finance.

My dilemma: 80% of the people I work with have a masters in finance from Nova Sbe. I know some people who even with a master's degree in finance from Nova were rejected, so why would I leave to go for the masters, would that increase my chances of working in IB or VC... Everyone around me tells me I have to get the masters and the truth is that everyone has a masters, but at the same time I feel like I´m working in a competitive place learning a lot. What should I do? If I don´t want to close my work options, would it be a good decision to go for the master's instead of 1 more year at EY? I also am not sure if I postpone my master's for 2-3 years if then I will want to do it...

Thank you for your help.

4 Comments
 

Some addtional info, I am 22 years old. Everyone tells me the best option is to go for the masters and they might be right the university is great, the professors are great, but I am still unsure.

 

You've hit the nail on the head, you'd just be leaving to likely end up in the same place. 

Where do you want to work? If you want to stay in Portugal, and think having a masters will positively impact you in the future then you can take it. If you want to go to London or elsewhere on the continent, you'd be much better served by other programs. If you are working with lots of SBE grads, I am going to guess the majority of recruiting outcomes for this program are not IB/VC. Could you likely not go from EY M&A to EB/MM IB? 

 

I´m just afraid of not doing the masters, because everyone around me has one. I could probably leave to EB/MM IB, but long term not having the masters degree won't it hurt? The thing on my mind is that the masters is just one year, but at the same time I am in a great place of work that I wouldn´t mind stay longer. I also think that I have a lot of time to work, so why not enjoy one last year of student life... Nova SBE would open my mind in othe areas, it has great professors and great talks from people that come from all over the world. I mean I am truly lost in this decision. Thank you for answering.

 
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