The weak post-MBA finance job market
What's going on here? I'm a 2nd year at a MBA business schools<br /> ">M7 b-school graduating soon, and aside from banking, finance job market has been horrendous. On-campus recruiting was mostly banks and some long-only mutual funds. The people who wanted banking got it, but aside from that there are very few job postings and opportunities getting posted. A ton of my classmates gunning for IM, PE, HF, AM, are still looking.
It's disturbing since 2013 and 2014 were much better for finance MBAs. Although the U.S. economy is doing OK, finance has been getting slaughtered. My theory is that since banks and funds had a bad 2014, they are severely limiting hiring for 2015 (the opposite of 2010-2011 when they overhired).
What I'm hearing is different. It may well be the case that they aren't hiring much for positions that focus on portfolio management at your school, but I've also talked to a couple of people at tier 2 1/2 and tier 3 (strong regional schools ranked from 15 to 30) and they've had the opposite problem. One acquaintance at Stern said that the hiring in AM/PWM jobs was great. I've also got another friend who just nabbed a PWM internship with a well known firm from an unranked MBA program. While there aren't a huge number of jobs out there the ones they have available outnumber the students who want to go into those jobs....granted that a lot of these are PWM jobs.
If I had to guess I'd say that given the decline of PWM at most top tier business schools, recruiters have started to focus their attention at lower ranked institutions where they have more interest.
You know that comparing PWM internships to full-time recruiting in hedge funds, PE and top mutual funds isn't even close to a valid comparison right? A large part of getting those jobs at lower tier schools is because they aren't considered desirable jobs at top schools. I think I know 1 or 2 people at my school who wanted PWM and are going there full time.
I think I warned you this would happen. Spending $160K on an M7 MBA does not guarantee you will land some elite job and live happily ever after.
Nor does landing some elite job guarantee you will live happily ever after and your next employer won't be the Rockefeller Center McDonald's.
Your life and your career is not a product of prestige, but rather what you make of it. (Though some luck may be involved) So go out there, be humble, be practical, find a job, and then work hard to deliver a good value on your services.
I think this hit the nail on the head. So you have an MBA...so what? What are you going to do to make your bosses life easier? What's your value add to the company?
I've said this before on here, although i dont know your age, im going to assume your in your mid 20's. This "holier than thou" mentality is poison. I apologies in advance if this is genuinely not your intention, but it sure seems that way.
I think what illiniprogrammer said about being humble is whats neccisary. this reminds me of the 16 year old me, Draft year into major junior hockey. I thought i was the hottest shit since sliced bread but i got very rude wake up call come draft day. I was lucky i had good counsel around me (mentor/parents/friends) who looked at my situation from an objective perspective and told me how it was. I was butt hurt for a few weeks after that but it was probably the greatest advice i've ever received and probably one of the best business lessons in my life.
What you have on your business card, means about as much as what i had for lunch 3 weeks ago.
Many MBA's i feel have some sort of "entitlement" to higher pay due to their education. Hell, i bet you guys are miles smarter than the non-mba (maybe not). but guess what, you're a revenue consumer. You are a cost to that particular business. Think about that for a minute.
Be MBA Grad 2015 Goes to M7 Interacts with futures best business leaders Gets a job that will probably turn into 7 - 8 figure a year compensation plan in the next few years. Will end up driving BMW 6 series If Single will have models and bottles. If Marries Still might have models and bottles. Vacation ski home in Vail/ Aspen, and summer vacation pad in spain/ greece
Still gets on WSO and complains about the lack of opportunity .....
Very few of any people will ever see 7 figure incomes but it seems to be the consensus amongst undergrads on WSO that because they went to a top school they'll be making 7 figures by their early 30's if they "decide" to be a schlub and stay in IB to become an MD at the Goldman (as if that's easy or guaranteed) or accept a job in PE/HF and work 80 hour weeks, of course after they go to HBS or Stanford. Or they'll settle for mid 6 figures by their early to mid 30's at a comfy 40 hour/wk job with no travel. Or they'll found/join a startup and cash a big paycheck in a couple of years. Because it's really easy to make millions, that's why everyone does it.
Congrats on the job.
Actually... judging by how many mid market companies I've seen.... its kinda shocking how easy a 10-30 million dollar payout can be lol (not to say the effort they put in isn't a lot)
If you mean $10-30MM payouts from starting a company and selling it, very, very few people will get to that point no matter how much work they put into it. Especially at a young age.
In the startup/VC/tech world, how many seed level companies actually succeed to any degree? Very few. Very few series A co's even make it. And if you're not on the founding team the chances of getting any meaningful equity to cash an 8 figure check is very rare unless you're brought in as a pre-IPO CFO for a company that sells for a billion. Or you have the incredible mix of talent and luck (primarily luck) to get in at an early stage of the next planet wrecker like MSFT or Apple in the mid 70's, Compaq in the 80's, a Yahoo, AOL, eBay or Amazon in the mid 90's (and sold out at the right time), Google in the late 90's or FB in the early '00s. The verdict is still out on the over inflated Uber's of today, but for every one of these companies (or the Whatsapps that somehow sold at those valuation) there are thousands of tech companies that didn't make it. Can you make $10-30MM off of these types of co's? Yes. But it's very far and few between and involves an incredible amount of luck no matter how hard you work.
In simpler industries, the ones that I typically deal with, I'd say most of the sellers who cash decent checks are from family businesses that they inherit and grow (or don't grow), or from guys who start a business and grow it over decades, so when they cash and 8 or 9 figure check they're in their 50's, 60's or beyond. Yes there are exceptions, but they're just that, the exception.
I'm about 40, most of the people in my social circle have top notch undergrads, half of them seem to have gone to Wharton or HBS and have all the great names on their resumes-McKinsey, Bain, GS, MS, different HF's and PE's, F500's and some have started businesses-and out of probably 50-100, maybe 5 or 10 could be considered wealthy (and I live in non-NYC but one of the wealthier burbs in the country, so this doesn't include any real "normal" people). And a few of those are more like 50+. It's just way outside the norm even with top notch credentials to sell a company and make $10-30MM or be making 7 figures a year.
Sorry to hijack the thread.
I'm only a few years out of a top school (undergrad) and for all the consulting and banking tunnel vision, people seem to be all over the place even a couple of years later. It's hard to know what you want to do at 22, even harder at 18.
By WSO standards I'm at a very non-sexy job (hah) but my company has a good number of former bankers and lawyers who gave up the grind because they had kids or whatever. The more senior people are all gone by 6:30, almost no weekends, infrequent travel, clearing enough to live a comfortable upper middle class lifestyle in an expensive non-NY city...but on this forum that is apparently the nightmare.
It's inflation Dick. $1M is the new $100k. Who doesn't make $10MM a few years out of grad school? You're a fucking piker if you're not at least bringing down 5 large a year by 33...
And a 6 Series at that type of money? Come on, if you're dreaming big, at least go for a Bentley instead of a BMW...
Welcome back Brady
Sensing some buyer's remorse on the 300k dropped...I guess in the debate of mba vs mfin a clear winner has emerged
Deleted. Clearly wasn't constructive
For starters, you boasted about your high salary three times in one post on an anonymous internet forum.
Obviously I'm only one data point but I have never received more calls/emails from headhunters for HF & PE jobs. The market is absolutely hot right now and my friends who graduated recently are heading to good buyside firms.
Perhaps the issue is you, Brady? I'm not that surprised that a prestige-oriented psychopath with dozens of alts across multiple message boards and without an impressive finance resume is finding it difficult to land a decent gig.