Going from MBA to Asset Management

Hey everyone,

So I am looking to make a career switch into asset management, or more appropriately from back office into front office. I am beginning my MBA this fall and currently I am deciding between a full scholarship to Ohio State, Cornell (with no scholarship), or hoping to get off the waitlist at Northwestern, Michigan, or NYU.

If I choose to go to Ohio State, do I have any chance of landing a front office role in asset management? It doesn't have to be at any of the top companies, I know they don't recruit from OSU, but really any asset management company in Chicago would be fine. I'm just trying to gauge whether I am delusional in thinking I can go to OSU and still go into asset management or not. I currently work back office for one of the big banks in their mutual fund department, so I have some relevant experience I suppose if that matters.

 
 

Nothing is impossible, but it will be much more difficult. AMs (especially smaller ones) hire only when they need to. And when an AM shop in Chicago needs a person, Booth/Kellogg graduates will be lining up pretty quickly.

If you choose OSU for opportunity costs reason (which is fair), be ready to hit equity research or a smaller AM shop somewhere in the midwest before you can network/hustle up to the AMs in the major cities.

 

As someone who went to a non target MBA school for the money intending to get into equity research: don't. My career services department didn't help me at all and I had very few alumni in the network. I honestly got pretty lucky and just signed an offer for a great firm for my summer internship but had to change my value proposition drastically. Many, many shops have closed their MBA recruiting programs so you're facing a long, uphill battle if you go the way of OSU. Go to Cornell or NYU if you want to do anything in investment management. I participated in Cornell's MBA stock pitch challenge last November and was blown away with the resources and connections they had for their MBAs.

 

Anecdotally, I've never seen a single person on the buyside or sellside from OSU in a research capacity, but I have seen all of the other schools you listed represented. To be fair, I've never seen anyone from my shit ass school in those seats either but here I am. However, I would still recommend going with the better brand names despite the costs if you are truly set on getting your MBA. You will just have much better optionality coming out of the program and your alumni network will be much more valuable throughout your career.

 
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The only difference between Asset Management and Investment Research is assets. I generally see somebody I know on TV on Bloomberg/CNBC etc. once or twice a week. This sounds cool, until I remind myself that I see somebody I know on ESPN five days a week.

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