I'm approaching the end of my four year commissioning commitment to the Air Force. I've always mentally wanted to go back to one of the bulge bracket firms in Investment Banking/Private Equity preferably in New York or London... My educational background is a 3.7ish GPA double major in logistics and economics from a decent Big Ten school. I also have minors in political science and international business. I studied abroad in an economics exchange at a top UK school my junior year of college. I was in ROTC and also played club lacrosse in undergrad. I have some ties to the street from old frat buddies but most of them are in private client and operations groups which I'm not particularly interested in. I have yet to actually take the GMAT, but my background is math intensive so the quant section should be a breeze. With some studying I should be able to swing around a 700.
My officer specialty was in finance/cost analysis, though I know the remarkably different sort than that which financial firms look for. Basically I was analyzing the cost effectiveness of major air force acquisition projects and helping to determine a decision whether or not to buy/continue/not buy/cancel contracts with major companies. I have also worked in the (similar to) 'corporate finance' side in which I analyze budgets for a large section of bases at a time, and my input gets directly tied into Base Realignment and Closure Decisions, Recruiting Goals, Pay Table Increases, etc. I have management experience ... Finally, I'm conversational (by no means fluent) in Arabic as well as Spanish.
Is there anyway I could bypass B-School and go right to a position in a BB firm? I'd appreciate any other advice.
I don't know how i-banks will look at you, but I know for sure that the topmost bschools would love to get someone like you on-board. You could make it to HBS with your experience (and a 700+ GMAT), and then do anything you wanted afterwards....
Do you want to get into ibanking as an analyst or an associate?
But if I could skip going to B-School, I'd work in the trenches as an analyst if I could rapidly advance relative to my peers.
I pulled the 100 hour weeks in undergrad already, its no big deal for me so if that's what I have to do to get in the door...
you can't really advance that fast, its usually work 2 years as an analyst, then if you are good enough they invite you for the 3rd year, and then if you are the messiah of banking they might promote you to associate.
But 99% of Ibankers end up going back to Business school after 2 years. So for you I think it'll be best to get that MBA now, and come in as an associate.
Think of it this way: -If you go to MBA now, you'll be associate in 2 years. -If you go as an analyst now: you'll be an associate in 3 years, and only if you are the greatest. -If you go as an analyst now: but aren't that great(end after 2 years), you'll become an associate in 4 years. -If you go as an analyst now, and are good enough to get invited to 3rd year analyst, but not good enough to get offered the associate position, you'll become an Associate after MBA, so 5 years total.
So what I'm trying to say:P, is that going to MBA is the quickest way for you to get what you want
Do you have a recommendation of MBA school I would want to go to if I definitely want to work for Goldman?
Or would I have roughly an equal shot from Harvard, Stanford, Penn, Columbia, and NYU?
I'm sure any of those schools would be fine
Bumping for the sole purpose of fostering more discussion. Same idea in mind.
This topic is 32 weeks old, haven't you decided on business school by now?
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