MBA long term timelines
Waddup monkeys,
I’m currently working in corporate finance and looking to get back into IB. I come from a non-target, but I’m keeping my hopes high that I can still break in. Assuming that plan fails, I plan to get my MBA. I actually think I have a decent resume, and would need to study my ass off for the GMAT, but i’m confident a T15 MBA is definitely attainable.
Any insight on what I should be doing now (3-4 years out from applications) to prepare? What do MBA application timelines look like? How many schools do people generally apply for, and how do you navigate asking people to submit multiple letters of recommendation?
Any insight is super appreciated. Thanks everyone!
Can provide advice with more context. Could you andwer the following?
-23
-financial analyst at fortune 100
-one year—ish
-studied finance, graduated with a 3.5
-president of finance club in undergrad, starting a nonprofit
-worked for school’s student endowment fund
Ok so you still got a lot of time. Similar to the position i was in actually. Over the next four years you should focus on the below.
Given your major and decent gpa, you probably dont need to build an alternative transcript unless you had something glaring (i.e. multiple f's in core math/econ classes).
Happy to answer more specific questions - I just threw out above the 80% of what youd need to give you a shot at an M7 or good T15.
One of the important topics to address early is choosing meaningful extracurriculars. Sometimes, taking the right steps years in advance allows you to have a much larger impact than if you started those activities closer to the application deadlines.
For example, I worked with one PE Associate starting around two years ahead of his MBA deadlines. At that point, he was providing 1:1 career mentorship to around five students per year at his alma mater. This was an OK but not extraordinary extracurricular for MBA purposes.
After discussions, I convinced him to turn this into a structured online course that could be scaled up to a much larger number of students. He created materials based on what he was already doing in 1:1 settings:
1. Examples of good and bad resumes and cover letters
2. Explanations of which firms and roles were most likely to hire students with particular profiles
3. Lists of common interview questions and how to answer them
4. Etc.
He then pitched this course to be deployed (for free) to hundreds of students at his alma mater. University budgets are always tight, so they accepted this offer. Once he did this, we then had him use his alma mater as a reference customer when pitching several other universities, and he recruited a few of his finance colleagues (who were also looking for suitable pre-MBA ECs) to help run the organization.
By the time he applied, he was then able to truthfully claim that he was not just helping 5 students per year, but hundreds of students.
I'm not saying this exact activity is the right one for every MBA applicant, of course. But if you have 3-4 years to plan ahead, you could probably find great ways to have a big impact in your ECs, which is one of the hardest points to do effectively if you wait until only 3-6 months before the deadlines.
I appreciate the comment! Super insightful.
If you don’t mind me asking, how should I approach tailoring my ECs? Obviously they should fit my overall narrative as a candidate, but are there other considerations to take into account? Is there a target number of extracurricular pursuits I should be balancing with work?
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