MBA - Finance vs MS Finance breaking into IB
Hi guys, hope all of you guys are doing well. I graduated May 2019 with a bachelor degree in Accounting with a minor in Finance, I went to a CUNY school, I found interest in IB and wanted to know the best way to break in. Since my first semester in college I've been working in banking as a personal banker (6 year experience) I made a mistake not looking for internships and am stuck looking for a job in Corporate Finance or IB. I need some advice, I am not sure if I should go for my MBA - Finance track or go for MS Finance at Hofstra University. I will network as much as I can. I know this university is not a target school but this is really one of the only good options I have right now as my undergrad GPA was a 2.9 and they accepted me in on temporary basis. I need advice as to what I should do, i really am chasing the money but i'm not sure if the MBA - Finance track would be a good option as i do not really have any experience in Finance. Any advice would be helpful. Thank You!
MS Finance isn't a solid path to IB. A better path would be CFA alongside your job. Once, you have CFA level 2 I would say you should look for boutique IB firms (the sweatshops basically - top heavy) and get a internship / analyst job there. They should be more open to hiring someone like your background as they would get a candidate like yourself for below market value (and that should be okay with you / you can think of that as your MS finance course with the exception that you will get paid instead of paying for grad school)
Once you work at any IB shop and familiarize yourself with what happens there you can move to a larger shop. Hope this helps. Feel free to DM me if you have any specific questions.
Thank you for your input! would you think MBA - Finance track would be good a better option? where i work currently they give me $5,000.00 a year towards the program.
Never heard of CFA as being a path to IB. I would not advise anyone to take the CFA. Not even for AM.
CFA is becoming increasingly popular as it is a quick and easy way to judge a candidates technical skill set. Especially for those candidates who haven't had IB internships during undergrad. Analysts are pre-MBA's and there isn't any tool to filter out the quality candidates. CFA level 2, to me, would show that the candidate gets basic accounting as well as that the candidate does what it takes to get in IB. Otherwise, there isn't anything else differentiating chad from brad applying for the same analyst position.
That’s a good question. I would say it depends on your test scoring skills. If you want to be in IB then you want to look at MBA schools that are target school because other wise it’ll be very hard to break in right after graduation (not to say it’ll be impossible - I went to non target MBA school and finally did make it at a middle market reputable investment bank but it took me some time to get here).
So, if you can get a stellar GMAT score then apply to the target school and go for a full time regular MBA (recruiters know who the part time / executive MBA candidates are and tend to have a preference for “core” MBA candidates at target school during campus visits).
If you don’t think you are a good test taker then study for the CFA and take route. But if you do want to do an MBA then look at the top business schools’ online MBA programs which are relatively easier to get in.
You’d still need to start from a boutique IB and they would hire you as in their pitch decks it’ll look nice to show that their analyst / associate (at their no name sweatshop) went to a top business school.
BrownChad Thank you! I am trying to send you a private message but it is not letting me. My last question would be how would the CFA transition into a mid size firm? what would be the best route to take once i passed the CFA I?
Your welcome. To answer your question, you should play your CFA card strategically. You will be asked about your lower than IB industry average GPA. To that you should talk about whatever the circumstances were for you not being able to get a decent GPA (and please feel free to be honest to the interviewer as they might have been through similar experiences - such as learning about IB later in life / medical conditions you might have had / financial issues - multiple jobs / or whatever happened to you) and then say that you wanted to break in IB and to prove your technical skills you took the CFA to showcase your strengths. The CFA would be cheaper than a MS finance program and can be done alongside work. I'll try and see if I can DM you.
@faizan-akhtar I tried to see if I could DM you myself. I’m using the mobile app and maybe the DM feature is only available through the webpage from a computer. I’m also a registered WSO mentor so they might have restricted DM’s for my account. I’m not sure, but either way feel free to post your question(s) on this thread / tag me for a question for me and I’d be happy to answer it for you.
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