IB or... (Bust is not an option)

I'm 27 years old at this moment in time. The first 3 years of my adult life (18-21) I spent by flunking out of engineering school. Upon my departure from the program, I found myself hanging with the wrong group of people and quickly began venturing down a path of pure chaos.

A series of events occurred which changed my life and led me to relocate to a new city in hopes of starting fresh. I managed to really turn things around when I restarted my engineering program at a community college and managed to complete my civil engineer degree from a well known Canadian university.

I've been working stateside since graduation at a big engineering company but have confirmed that this path is not for me. I am really set on breaking into investment banking because of all the reasons why so many of us on here want to: a passion for finance, the prestige, the fast lifestyle, the opportunities, the skillset and the knowledge that makes bankers renowned masters of the universe, and last but not least because I am so hungry for making the seemingly impossible possible.

I want to do whatever it takes to break in either as an analyst or associate. I'm totally game for contributing in a middle market setting, elite boutique, or BB. I do not discriminate what group I could potentially work with and have a proven ability to find success in any team setting (through professional and academic experience).

So right now, this is all I have on my profile:

  • CFA Level 1 Candidate (Sitting for Dec 2 exam, wish me luck!)
  • Bachelors in civil engineering, 3.4 GPA
  • 2 years of engineering experience in project management, estimating, and infrastructure development
  • 2 summer jobs in real estate sales

I have considered leveraging a top-tier MBA program but feel like my profile is not at the level of competitiveness I need to be a successful applicant. I also lack notable ECs, although I recently applied for a UN volunteering position to hopefully change that. Also, haven't written the GMAT or GRE yet.

Alternatively, I've thought about doing a top-tier MSF program but I'm less sure of this route than an MBA because of my profile and that fact that most are only 1-year long which means no chance for a finance internship.

Again, I am set on being the absolute best investment banker that I can possibly be and I'm willing to work anywhere in the entire world. I understand positioning myself strategically in a university located in the city where I would want to work would be ideal.

Fellow Monkeys, is there anyone out there willing to lend some insightful advice? Is it the MBA or MSF? Or just mustering up enough grit to network like crazy until I finally land that one pivotal interview? At the very least, thank you for reading my longwinded post.

tl;dr second chance at life, engineer wants to be a banker now, MBA/MSF/networking/or other to break in?

 
Best Response

I think folks can offer more perspective than I can but my immediate reaction is that it would be a bit difficult for you to break into an analyst role given you are a few years out from undergraduate studies and have a few years of work experience. The path of least resistance would most likely be a top 20 MBA to rebrand and go into MM/BB IB as an associate. Depending on the strength of the rest of your profile, I think you should be able to have a competitive position for the back half of the top 20. You won't get into GS/MS, but you will probably have a fairly representative list of banks recruiting on campus.

With respect to the networking strategy, I think it's certainly an avenue to be explored, though I certainly would temper expectation on both success of this route and the eventual role you would be able to land if successful. You may encounter more success with regional boutique firms with a networking straetgy, but again the success here is a bit limited.

The MBA decision should be a thoughtful one for sure. It's a very good reset that will get you to where you need to be, but it's important to have clearly defined goals from your standpoint. Is there a specific objective for wanting to break into banking now? Do you envisage this being a longer term path for you? From your profile it seems this is where you are treading, which should make a decision in either the networking/MBA direction an easy one. Go full force forward, and hopefully you reach your goal :)

There's a closer meaning to my user name. Try reading it quickly. Perhaps you will then understand ;P
 

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