Is MBB or IB more prestigious after an MBA?
I have a somewhat untraditional background, although I went to a top undergrad. After graduating, I've been doing this research fellowship for a couple years abroad, and am now about to start applying to MBAs.
One thing I noticed on LinkedIn is that a lot of schmucks who went to non-target schools end up getting an M7 MBA and then become IB Associates. No offense to people who went to non-target schools. I know not everyone has their life together at age 17. However, when I look at consultants in MBB at the post-MBA level, I see a lot fewer non-targets. So is the more prestigious path to do MBB rather than IBD? I know there could be some selection bias, as MBB may just favor recruiting more candidates from top schools.
On one hand, I want to prioritize earnings. I know that I would make more in investment banking, although with longer hours and fewer exit opportunities at the associate level. In consulting, I would make less, but have a lot more exit opportunities. I know people do all sorts of things from consulting, but it seems like a pretty common route is to work at a client as a manager or director, and cap out at low six-figures, with getting rich from joining an early-stage startup being a potential, unlikely moonshot. This makes me more inclined to do investment banking, where you make more money and work slightly longer hours that get better as you become more senior.
If you see that someone is an "Investment Banking Associate at Goldman Sachs" or "Investment Banking Associate at Lazard," what is your immediate impression of them compared to "Consultant at McKinsey & Company"? Do you think of the investment banking associate as a schmuck that couldn't make it to the buy-side, and the guy who works in consulting as a smarter person? Or on the flip-side, does the prestige of investment banking just eclipse that of consulting altogether?
Both jobs suck ass
Are you really making this pivotal career decision based off what anonymous members of WSO perceive as “more prestigious”? And your fear is that too many “non target” undergraduate students bring down the prestige of IB associates?
No offense, but it sounds like you’re just dreaming about the day you get to update your LinkedIn status to receive the admiration of others.
At a certain point in your life you need to break out of the prestige trap and instead focus on which career you will find fulfilling. Choosing between post MBA roles is a good time to do that.
If you had to get an MBA first, neither. Don’t get me wrong, theyre good, well paying jobs, but it’s just not very prestigious at that point lol. After an MBA you should go into what you personally find interesting
Jesus you sound autistic... stay in research....
This is an absurd post and exemplifies the worst aspects of this forum.
The smartest guy in my MBA section went to a random NAIA school on a sports scholarship. Two of my case teammates went to ivies (then post-MBA consulting lol) and I wouldn't trust them with any job or future business.
The fact that you put weight on such things to guide your career reveals your immaturity.
This has to be one of the most shit posts I've seen on WSO. Time for a reality check:
1. You don't have offers from Goldman Sachs, Lazard, and McKinsey and the chances of you getting an offer from all three are close to 0. More power to you if these are your goals, but don't worry about hypotheticals that won't happen...at least until they do.
2. You haven't even gotten into an MBA program yet, but you're calling those that went to M7 and IB "schmucks"? You're overestimating your value.
3. While I hate to give weight to prestige, your untraditional background in research is the least prestigious out of everything you mentioned (M7, IB, MBB). All of these guys are people who have "made it", while you are still trying to "make it".
Focus on getting into business school first, then securing internships, and then securing full-time offers. Most post-MBAs are looking for a long-term career in their role after business school. IB vs MBB are two different things, even if you're lucky to pick between the two, go with the one you want to do. Or come back on WSO and let a college freshman make your life decisions.
1. I agree you shouldn't worry about hypotheticals that may not happen, which I suppose I did to a degree. I guess I should have been more clear that I don't expect to get an offer from those firms necessarily, but I'm just interested in the perceived prestige of those at the top of their field. This is the determining factor for which I would like to recruit for. I don't know if I'll be successful in recruiting or not.
2. Prestige is a matter of who you ask. I don't want to give too many details about myself, but I have a pretty respected academic fellowship with affiliations with a top school and, on top of that, I graduated from a top school for undergrad. Academia is pretty competitive, with a lot of people vying for selective fellowships. It's like comparing apples and oranges.
If prestige is the determining factor for you and you don't have any preferences for IB vs consulting, then you should recruit for both and pick the most prestigious offer you can get. The most prestigious offer also depends on your career goals and interests (i.e. aim for IB for PE/HF exits).
My point on your lack of prestige was in terms of the business world. I'm sure you're very impressive academically and have a well respected background. However, since you're going from academia to finance/consulting, the value of your background is not as prestigious. You are right in saying "prestige is a matter of who you ask", which is why there is no definitive answer without bias. When you're trying to break into finance, every single BB/EB/MM is more prestigious than that Harvard PhD in Women Studies.
The entire idea of prestige itself is subjective, so I'm curious to know...what does prestige mean to you?
Come on man
Hate to tell ya, but you aren't getting into an M7 with that work experience.
I can already tell that you have the perfect attitude to be an MBA associate at an i-bank.
People are hating, and you worded it horribly, but yeah, generally, MBB consulting post-MBA is more prestigious. Generally, you see a lot of non-target type people fixate on IB, when at that level, you should be living your life and looking for WLB, which IB doesn't provide. At that point, people from targets already know what they want and generally don't want IB (which is why IB is so much easier to get post-MBA than MBB consulting.
Thanks man, here is an honest answer. It's easy to hate on my post, and it's true I could have worded it better, but we all know what I'm getting at.
have the complete opposite opinion tbh. at a non-HS M7 now and imo the smarter, more driven people in the class are all going into varying subsets of finance (IB/PE/HF/VC) or starting their own companies, and a huge portion of both of these populations went to top undergrads. many of us worked in consulting before school and any WLB you think you are getting is greatly exaggerated by how soul-crushing travel can be. Constant timezone shifts and 5 am wakeups on a Monday morning to fly to the middle of nowhere for 4 days are very tough on family life or sustaining relationships in your home city. making a decision based on "prestige" is not a path any sensible person should recommend - these are very different lifestyles with very different work and that should be how you think about them
couple more things too - my impression is that MBB MBA recruiting is more of a coin toss than people realize because they basically don't value anything you did before school and there is no background that really helps (case practice is very indirect studying.) Banking recruiting rewards effort and work experience pretty directly and I'd be willing to wager the ones that got through still put in a ton of direct prep to win an offer if it's a top group.
That being said, there are more good banks than good consulting firms, there are a ton of MBB cities that people aren't seriously targeting so competition for NY/Bay Area is very fierce, and literally anyone can go out for consulting with a fighting chance so imo that is why it appears more competitive
The OP was poorly worded but not an uninteresting question. Simply put, there are a larger number of people interested in top tier consulting than top tier banks at the MBA level. This creates a lower hit rate in consulting so creates some aura of prestige I suppose. If you are trying to maximize earnings at the lowest risk, and care little about the content of your job or exit options, banking does win out.
Im 5 years out of b school by now. I’d estimate 50% of bankers are still in banking and 33% of consultants are still in consulting. Exit options were abundant from both, but start to compress in banking at higher levels whereas they expand in consulting.
Don’t fall down the prestige path at the MBA level, find other ways to feed your ego: hobbies, relationships, etc.
Back at it again with the prestige nonsense for someone who hasn't even made it like those he's criticizing.
I think you would change your tune if you finished the IB recruiting process with an offer in hand knowing that plenty of your competitors didn't; that's right, just b/c you go to an M7 doesn't mean you can beat out your classmates for a spot. Stop asking on this forum and do your own research. It's as easy as looking on LinkedIn and searching for C-level people who've had either IB or MBB work experience and decide for yourself.
OP, most people (rank of their ugrad notwithstanding) try to get work experience before MBA that can set them up well for MBA recruiting for the most interesting jobs in HF/AM/PE/tech product management/etc. MBB and IB don’t require any particular work experience before MBA and so recruit people looking to reset after squandering a few years doing something largely useless to their career (ie. you). You seem to think the real world values prestige more than skills and experience but thankfully for capitalism that is largely not the case.
This is a silly question, but here some answers based on my experience. 1. I don’t see any correlation between consulting/banking and undergrad schools once you control for pre-MBA experience. What do I mean by this? There are a lot of kids that went to a target school, got into MBB, and now are at an M7 sponsored. So they’ll come back to their pre-MBA employer. Similarly, there are lots of kids that went to target schools, did 2 years of IB, then 2 years of PE, and then off to M7 (or with that background, more likely H/S), and that are definitively not looking to move to IB (they have already done that), and very unlikely they want MBB (rare, but not unheard of). This setup of sponsored MBB vs non-sponsored IB and the fact that all these kids come mostly from target schools results in some of the “correlations” you see on LinkedIn searches. 2. The better question is what do people that is non-sponsored and that didn’t have prior MBB/IB experience choose. There’s is a little bit of everything there, and honestly I haven’t seen any correlation between undergrad school, strength of candidate, etc. Personal factors matter way more there. For IB you will want to be in only a handful of cities in the world (NY, SF, LA, Houston, Chicago, London). For consulting you have more flexibility, which matters a lot for some people. Connected with the below, MBB tends to be preferred by internationals due to Visa issues, flexibility to move to offices in your home country, work with clients in your region, etc. 3. Work/life balance: I personally don’t think it’s true that banking is that much worse than consulting. You may work longer hours during the week and have occasional weekend work, but you have less travel and the option of seeing friends during the week if things are slow. 4. Think everybody already mentioned this, but if your career choices are based on what has more prestige, you’ll be very unhappy and very unsuccessful. Both MBB/IB are great in terms of prestige. Pick one that you think you’d like more and don’t put much weight to “prestige” in that decision. 5. Your proxy for prestige being undergrad attendance at target school is outright retarded. // Edit: 6. People usually get two shots at MBB (there’s internship but also full-time recruiting in the 2nd year). IB doesn’t do 2nd year recruiting. So that also explains why more people get into consulting than banking (after adjusting for available spots).
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