Experience Scaling for MBA Recruiting

Imagine the following situation of two MBA Candidates hunting for a job:
Candidate A: 2 years consulting experience before MBA
Candidate B: 8 years consulting experience before MBA

Both candidates A and B want to go work for an investment bank now. As far as I've seen, investment banks recruit for associate level positions out of MBA programs. While candidate A may be happy going to become an associate since he only has 2 years of experience and his prior salary would have been lower, candidate B probably isn't happy that he gave up 200-300k a year as a senior consultant to go make 140k as a junior banker. Do investment banks/consultancies/corporations have a way to reconcile this or is it just "suck it up and become an associate or go find a new job"? Would the investment bank/consultancy/corporation ever say "well you made 200-300k previously so we can just make you our most highly paid associate at $250k"?

Does this response change based on the type of company? Are corporations more flexible to say "OK we'll start you at manager even though our OCR listing was for an associate"?

4 Comments
 

First year associate comp is around/north of 250k depending on BB / boutique so your numbers are flawed.

Regardless, banks will only hire as associates. I've never heard of an experienced level hire out of an MBA into banking.

Obviously corporates have more flexibility. But if they were looking for an associate, why would they hire a "manager" as you put it?

"They are all former investment bankers that were laid off in the economic collapse that Nancy Pelosi caused. They have no marketable skills, but by God they work hard."
 
Best Response
CountryUnderdog

First year associate comp is around/north of 250k depending on BB / boutique so your numbers are flawed.

Regardless, banks will only hire as associates. I've never heard of an experienced level hire out of an MBA into banking.

Obviously corporates have more flexibility. But if they were looking for an associate, why would they hire a "manager" as you put it?

I've heard of rare examples...people with very relevant skills and lots of experience - however, this was always done outside of on-campus recruiting and exclusively done through their personal network.

Anyways, the whole question is silly...I can't think of any senior consultant who would ever think of recruiting for IB. There's just not a value proposition. He's probably burned out (if not, he'll go back to consulting at a much more senior role than banking would provide), in which case why would he choose IB which is even harder. Furthermore, he's developed skills that make him extremely more valuable for corporations than finance, no reason to start with a blank slate with IB if you are already valuable.

 

@opsdude1 this helped, ty.

I'm just thinking about if I finish up 8-10 years of work in IB/consulting and I want to go join bizdev/corporate strategy life if an MBA is a reasonable way to make that transition (assuming I lacked connections to the type/industry of corporation I wanted to work for in the first place). Based on your response it's possible but more likely that you do it through networking anyways, so the MBA on its own lacks value in placing me into a manager level role.

 

Quo a qui voluptatem sint iusto amet. Animi molestiae dolorum sequi et. Veritatis eum ea fuga consequuntur placeat voluptas ab expedita. Cum consequatur adipisci omnis nam et et. Quasi iste architecto qui sequi laudantium nam eum.

Autem rerum dicta sit mollitia. Laudantium necessitatibus consequatur ducimus consequatur. Quos provident expedita placeat dolores.

Career Advancement Opportunities

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 08 97.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 02 97.3%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.5%
  • Evercore No 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.4%
  • Banco Santander 02 97.8%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.3%

Professional Growth Opportunities

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 06 98.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.8%
  • JPMorgan No 97.3%

Total Avg Compensation

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (16) $429
  • Associates (50) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (25) $178
  • Intern/Summer Associate (14) $159
  • 1st Year Analyst (84) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (75) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
4
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
5
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
6
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
7
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
8
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
9
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
10
bolo up's picture
bolo up
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”