I'm 26 and married (important point for later). My undergrad is in Organizational Leadership with an average GPA from non-target private school. My past work experience is being a legal assistant while in undergrad, working as a mid-level director at a large but local non-profit, and most recently working in residential real estate.
I live in Florida and was fortunate enough to get into University of Miami's MBA program through a certification-to-admissions program (I performed well in the certification and am now able to get my MBA there), but am enrolled as an online student because I need to continue working (because I'm married and have financial goals). My long term goal is to work in something like M&A or consulting. Anything project-oriented with big financials and strategy like that is incredibly interesting to me...
I believe I have a lot of great skills for these types of jobs but they're a bit raw and intangible. I also don't have the luxury of taking summer internships and going back to school. I need to take care of my family. I'm willing to move to Miami where my university has more pull and where there's lots more opportunity.
So what's my play? Am I relegated to cold-emailing every firm I can find and hoping for the best? Is there more I can do?
Thanks for your input -
Can you give some more color on "I need to take care of my family"? You say wife, but don't mention any kids. If your wife can get a job in Miami and you can take out loans, it is probably worth it to reverse your current situation and do school full time to do "M&A or consulting".
For what my opinion is worth... M&A and consulting aren't really long term goals. I don't blame you for thinking sell side M&A advising, or management consulting, would be things that people move over to after having built a long successful career with deep industry knowledge. In reality, the top of those professions are career bankers or career consultants and the standard (overwhelming majority) career path is to get a foot in the door immediately following undergrad, typically with an internship. Those who didn't immediately following undergrad do so immediately upon MBA, also typically with an internship. As always, anything is possible, but I wouldn't count on being an outlier.
You should have seen UM statistics on placement before accepting, so you know better than most where the MBAs are getting hired. Often several large, local F500s use MBAs at Miami's level as feeders. If your goal is something with "financials and strategy", financial analyst roles at one of those is probably the safe bet.
Thanks for your input.
By taking care of my family - I mean I don't want to leave my wife hanging with just one income. I've done pretty well in real estate and it would be a lot of stress to lose that and just rely on her income. I get what you're saying about M&A and I recognize I'm at a disadvantage because of the unconventional route I've taken up until this point.
I have seen quite a few financial analyst roles hiring in Miami - what does my exit strategy down the road look like from a position like that? Thanks again for your thoughts.
I'm currently an IB analyst in Miami and can tell you there are not a lot of M&A/consulting roles here. A decent amount of PWM/AM type roles and some financial analyst positions but overall not a ton of industry here or room for upward growth IMO.
you should absolutely go for a summer associate internship (most likely in NYC)...its only 8-10 weeks....your wife will be fine (and if she can't be alone for 8-10 weeks...then WTF?). You get paid well for the summer, so you'll still be able to help financially.
This will be critical for recruiting if you want to go into banking. Very little chance you'll get hired into full time if you don't do an internship. You got to follow the money.
This would be for next summer, I assume? And they would consider a 2nd-year MBA for an internship? Everything I've ever seen is looking for juniors in undergrad.
summer associates intern in-between year 1 and year 2
Frankly given your background, I think you have a much more practical and higher likelihood to rebrand in a different direction, namely, go into HR at a large corporate. There's a relatively lucrative path there for what you actually do, especially when you become the CHRO of a large publicly traded company. Your undergrad degree / non-target and online MBA will have a much more relevant story in that particular path than in finance. This is assuming you're actually a personable and empathetic (at least in comfortable pretense) guy and would actually enjoy dealing directly with people in large organization.
I appreciate your candor. HR is an interesting suggestion - I’ve put some thought in it and my plan B is to look at some private banking divisions here in South Florida. My MBA has a Finance focus and I really do love markets and the finance world - I figure I can probably get into a BB PWM division in Miami/Ft. Lauderdale/West Palm or Tampa.
What makes you think you have "a lot of great skills for these types of jobs" ?
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