should I do a MBA?? Tough decision

it seems like you are already very successful. I would not go to business school if I were you.

re cphbravo96: Thank you so much for your advice. Internal transfer is often very difficult and it gets very political, so i am definitely not banking on the chances of internal transfer to either London or NY.

I agree with you that MBA for me a risky move, given i dont actually want to change career path. I am happy with HF or PE and HF is not a job that a MBA can add too much value to.

Here is my problem, i am 26 next year, lets say if i do go to MBA in 2013 then i will only have a max of 1.5 years of buyside experience in Asia (vs ppl who might have 2 years) and as you know in Asia most deals are minority investments and in fact apart from my banking experience where i have looked at LBOs, i have never actually done a LBO in a buyside environment. Having told you all of these honest facts, what do you think about my post mba chances at mega funds or HF?

Lets say if i search for jobs this year and next year directly in the US and London and I dont find anything say in 2013. Then i will probably have to go into the 2014 MBA program and by then i will be 27 years old, would that be too old for a MBA?

thank you.

Keep in mind I am not an expert of any kind...just wanted to offer some advice and food for thought. Having said that, I do think you are at a slight disadvantage if you go to b-school because you don't have that LBO buyout experience. Granted, the point is that you know and understand the process...which you probably do...but you will be competing with people that have that direct experience and thus will be viewed as more qualified because they are less risky as a new employee. That's why I suggested the transfer option, though I realize the likelihood is very small.

Not that it will be a breeze, but maybe looking a little further downstream at larger MM PE firms would be an option. It doesn't carry the megafund title, but you could still make great money and learn a lot. I'm not suggesting you should set your sights on a MM PE firm, but maybe consider that as an option or 'back-up' plan if things are working out the way you'd hoped.

I don't have much to say about HFs. I just don't know that much, but it seems to me that the folks that tend to be in that field are often very quant focused and generally have been in it since the beginning. Now, that could be a huge generalization on my part, so maybe if someone else has some better insight they could post it.

I absolutely wouldn't worry about going to b-school at 27. I'm currently 29 and will likely be applying to schools later this year. Assuming I get accepted, I won't be done until I'm 32...which seems a bit old initially, but there will be other people in the class that age as well.

Also keep in mind that business school is like the last great 'reset button' in your career. If you use it now for a geographical advantage, it won't be there later on should you have a change of heart and decide that finance isn't the industry you want to work in.

Regards

re cphbravo96: thanks for your reply. As you probably know internal transfer rarely works out well, i am going to give it my best shot, but i am not banking on it.

Do you think i stand a good chance for to enter a solid MM fund as a post MBA associate? What exactly do you mean when you say solid MM fund, can you give me some examples? Advent? Sun Capital etc??

Also just to point out another fact, in Asia private equity deal is typically minority investment with very few control deals. therefore although i know how LBO etc works from my European investment banking experience (where i had a lot of LBO modelling experiences), but i have never done nor looked at a buyside LBO case in Asia. I am about to close a cornerstone deal for an upcoming IPO and the equity check is about $100m and it is already consider pretty big in Asia by even mega fund standard. After considering what I have just said, what is your honest view of me landing a post MBA MM PE offer in the US?

Understand the MBA is the last reset button i have....so i will definitely try to apply for things directly first. thank you for such helpful insights.

I don't have any particular examples of what I was referring, but generically, I'm talking about funds that have $500mm+ AUM that has solid deal flow...as opposed to a 'PE firm' that has 2 buddies that do a deal every couple of years. I would think you would have a decent chance, but it's too hard to put a number on it because there are so many variables like how well the economy is doing, where funds are at in their fund life, how many funds are raising capital, what your competition looks like and, of course, luck.

Aren't the skills sets very similar, even if you are focused on minority investments? Aren't you basically running through the same process as far as modeling, etc?

It seems to me that your background wouldn't be peculiar for a MM PE position, but if the market is really tight, then you might be out of luck. Just be prepared with backup plans if you go to b-school (IB or smaller PE shops).

I still think you best bet is to find a new job (if possible) before going back to business school...something more traditional as far as PE is concerned, that way you can lay to rest your questions about how competitive you would be.

Ultimately I don't know that you gain any real additional skills by going back to school, so the biggest benefit there is, in my mind, is the access to job recruiting. Whether those jobs are available is going to be a function of things you don't control and things you don't have oversight on...especially not 2 years down the road.

Regards