Hi, I am a Chemical engineering graduate working as a Drilling Supervisor for the second largest oil company in Pakistan. I have 5 years of upstream experience heading field operations. I have always been interested in studying Finance and Management.
I recently took my GMAT and scored a 650 and I hope to function in the Oil Gas practice (Upstream) in Investment banking after my MBA but I feel that it is very competitive especially considering that there would be candidates with prior IB experience, CFA etc.
I need advice on the following queries: 1) What roles do IB working in the oil gas sector have in particulars (In terms of the work that they do)? 2) Which investment banks generally have a solid/larger oil gas stream? And do they prefer people with prior technical experience? 3) Is it necessary to have some Finance experience to break into IB?
Hoping to hear back on this :)
1) Oil & gas bankers do the same things all bankers do - M&A/advisory, debt, equity, etc. Boutiques may do restructuring as well. One unique thing is A&D (which stands for acquisitions & divestitures). This is different from general M&A, as it focuses strictly on upstream asset sales. Corporate finance peeps will work alongside geologists, geophysicists, reservoir engineers, etc, as it's very technical work. Not all shops will do A&D and there are some A&D specialist shops, but it's very common in most O&G groups.
2) Basically all of your big names have O&G teams. Most of the mid-sized ones too. The vast majority of the groups are in Houston (in the US, at least). Prior technical experience preference will depend on the group, but most will consider a technical O&G background a major plus. There are a lot of former engineer associates in Houston
3) No, that is what the MBA is for
Regarding your comment about not being competitive against people with prior IB experience - that makes no sense because people don't go to business school from IB to just go back to IB. If they want to stay in IB, they stay on for the associate promotion and skip the MBA. So you're not competing against them. And don't worry about the CFA, it's not that helpful for IB and in my group we don't place much value on it.
If you want to do this in the US, you need to go to either Rice or Texas McCombs. The vast majority of associates in Houston recruit from those pools. A few do come from other schools (Cornell, Wharton, Booth, Darden come to mind, and I'm sure the occasional other school), but the core schools for Houston MBA recruitment are Rice and UT.
You'll have an uphill battle as an international student during recruitment. It's just the unfortunate truth that many banks will not sponsor internationals.
Hi Jeremy,
Thank you for writing back. Really helpful !!
1) I did a little research on M&A since it is one of the key areas that many oil companies focus on, including my current employer. Sounds like interesting work. I guess the future of oil industry relies heavily on asset deals to reduce financial risks due to volatility. I have also heard about Divestitures as my previous employer was British Petroleum which liquidated its Pakistan assets after the Gulf of Mexico incident.
2) This is good to know that IB's value technical experience. I have led cross-functional teams os I believe it should be helpful.
3) I have already applied at UT Austin and Rice. Sadly, received a rejection from UT Austin and awaiting decision from Rice. My safe school would be SMU but I am not sure how good its prospects are for international candidates, especially considering the visa hurdles.
Thanks for the insight :)
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SMU does indeed place into Houston, but the pipeline is not quite as strong. From there, you'd have to hustle a bit more, but it's certainly doable. Certain banks will have stronger SMU pipelines than others. Good luck with it all.
Just one small thing.
How much does the GMAT matter for IB? I know it does for Consulting role but does the GMAT matter for Mid-tier Investment Banks?
GMAT tends to matter as far as getting you into the school ... even someone with a subpar GMAT, if they end up at a target school and maintain good grades (3.5+), they shouldn't have any problems
You should take a look at Calgary, lots of O&G IB activity there. Canada has easier immigration policies and cheaper education than the US, after your MBA they will give you a 3-year work permit and you can apply for permanent resident status almost immediately (through their Express Entry program). Lower compensation than the US but it is still pretty good. Trudeau is receiving everyone with arms wide open.
Hi, I have just received an interview invite from Rice. I wrote about working in energy finance post MBA. I have no clue how to connect my short-term and long-term goals nor do I have much knowledge about Finance/IB. Would appreciate any advice from someone coming from the energy sector and currently working in IB for oil gas.
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