Long-time reader, first time poster here, so forgive me for the lack of etiquette. I'm currently stuck at a fork in my career path. A little background for everyone: I'm a >5 yr engineer who has been in the corp dev space for the past 2 years and has networked an opportunity with a bank in my industry. This opportunity would expose me to banking, but keep me mostly isolated to the technical side of transactions. On the other hand, I've been accepted to a T15 MBA program and plan to pivot to finance IB from that program this fall. I think the MBA will improve my job prospects in the future and provide skills that I don't currently have, but I worry that I'll ultimately be in a similar position as the current technical side role in IB after 2 years and $200k of expenses + deferred salary. Does anyone have any advice on which route to take? I'll list my perceived pros for each opportunity below:
Move into IB now on the Technical side pros:
- Money now (50% pay bump); also no MBA payment/deferred income
- Exposure to deals across my current industry
- Very similar process and workflow to MBA+IB path (limited to current industry)
MBA and pivot to finance IB:
- Most likely see pay bump from IB technical role (~20%)
- Potentially more prestigious bank on resume (better exit ops)
- Wider range of opportunities outside of current industry
MBA to finance gives you better optionality. At the end of the mba program, the technical role will still be an option. You already have the technical A&D background from your corp development role so the step to the technical team at a bank doesn’t get you that much more incremental experience besides for being on the other side of the table. Main issue that I have with joining the technical teams at banks is that you are moving into being an expense side of the business and not the primary driver of the business/industry whereas as an engineer (at I assume an o&g company), you are more fundamental to the company, which gives you more runway for future career growth in the o&g company vs a bank. But if you go normal IB associate path, then you get to double dip on the experience and potentially accelerate your career at either the bank, investing or jumping back to corporate once your experiences start to compound on each other.
Thank you for your thoughtful response. I think my only push back on the “technical team” being an expense. I’d argue that the engineers are a part of the rev gen in this specific scenario since the engineers model and fully execute the pure “asset” A&Ds.
I really appreciate your prospective on the MBA IB path though. That’s honestly what I’m weighing. I feel like my long-term prospects would be better with an MBA.
Is the technical role like part of the upstream energy team on the tech side?
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