MIT Engineer looking for a Career Change
Hey guys, this is my first time stumbling across this site so please excuse if this is in the wrong forum or anything of that nature. I graduated from MIT last year with a BS in Computer Science and wasn't sure what I wanted to do, but all of my past internships have been in software engineering, so I took a job offer working for a successful telemedicine startup in SF on the backend engineering team where I've worked for the past year (110k+equity). I'm currently 22 years old.
I'm going back to MIT this Fall to pursue my Masters in Engineering in Artificial Intelligence and am thinking about a career change to finance (Investment banking, Venture Capital, Growth Equity, Private Equity) where I've never taken a finance class, but have been surrounded by friends in the field. I know for sure I'm interested in VC/GE but would like to get an investment banking winter analyst internship position for some general finance experience and to see how I like ibanking in particular and then also pursue either a ibanking or VC/growth equity summer internship while pursuing my Masters in Engineering.
The paths I'm roughly considering are:
Ibanking internship -> Ibanking analyst -> VC/GE/PE -> MBA
VC/GE Internship -> VC/GE analyst -> MBA/Startup
Software Internship -> Startup -> MBA -> VC/GE
I'd very much appreciate any advice on my situation, specifically, how doable you think each route is, whether investment banks will offer analyst internships to students pursuing their masters, or if I should focus exclusively on trying to get a VC/growth equity internship as the knowledge base for ibanking and VC/growth equity are quite different.
In order of feasibility, IMO, it goes; Path 1>Path2>Path 3 although for Path 1 you may be able to skip the internship and go straight for FT, depending on the bank. If I'm being honest, and slightly bias, your profile is also strong for MC - have you considered it?
Yup! I have some friends who have gone into MC, and although I would be interested in the work, the travel is a deal breaker for me. I can handle working tons of hours, but constant traveling stresses my body out too much personally.
maybe try LEK, they don't travel as much
The extensive travel is mainly done by MBBs, OW, RB and ATK. Others such as LEK, big name boutiques or MM firms don't as much and could still use a profile like yours.
Gotcha, do you think that MC would make more sense and be a better fit? With my current knowledge I think I find VC/Growth Equity to be the most interesting. I should've mentioned before I am more interested in the business side of the tech industry specifically.
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