Australian IBD, how do engineers with an MBA make the transition into IB?

I'm an engineer that hasn't had much luck breaking into Finance post MBA. I've networked with Directors and senior management that are strongly considering previous transactional experience over a lateral higher. Is there any hope for an Engineer wanting to move into finance?

Now for the typical question, is it for the money? No, I was comfortable with the money in engineering and progressed at a steady pace but even though I was busy I didn't find the work exciting enough. The MBA helped me find an interest in economics, finance and international business.

Really appreciate any advice any of you could share.

 
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If you are not able to manage to get a front-office position, then there are two options:

  1. You can try to get a role in the back or middle office, and then leverage that and network to get an FO role later on.

  2. You can get a job at a small-to-mid size shop, and then use that experience to help you get a role at a larger firm.

One thing that I will say is that you shouldn't limit yourself to just IB. If I were you, I would look at multiple areas in finance, and then see which one aligns best with your interests. If it is still investment banking, then no harm done. If you find out that there is another field that interests you more than IB, then you will not have wasted time searching for a job that you might not have liked. One of the best pieces of advice that I ever received from someone who works on Wall Street is that when searching for a job, don't ever limit yourself to just one area. Make sure that you do your research and find out (to the best of your ability), what you really would like to do for work for the next 30-40 years.

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AMInPhase1:
If I were you, I would look at multiple areas in finance, and then see which one aligns best with your interests. If it is still investment banking, then no harm done.

Because of my varied engineering background in infrastructure, I was looking at infrastructure pe fund and finding stepping stones towards that end goal. Since I don't have much transactional experience, I was looking for IBD as prior step.

Would that be along the right lines?

 

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