Post MBA Career Choices?
Thinking about making a career switch from engineering to finance and from what it sounds like MBA is my best bet at that (in-terms of upward mobility, pay increase etc). I think I could use a bit of advice from the experts here on choosing a career path for after I get my MBA. From what I've learned financial advisory and management consulting are some of the paths that I can take. What are some of the other career choices that are available to MBA career-changers, particularly for those with no finance background but trying to make a switch to finance?
What type of financial services career path or "concentration" have job security/ stability with good pay and good hours? Which career tracks provide the best earnings? Which paths are better for work/ life balance? Is there any website that I can use as good resource?
Post MBA plan (Originally Posted: 08/18/2009)
Hi,
On many threads I've come across people talk about the exit ops of different careers and getting an MBA is very popular among them. I'm wondering what the post MBA plans are for some folks here.
An MBA is quite an experience from what I know ( Don't have one myself yet ) but is it really an exit op ? I'm talking about a worldwide top 20 and not just a H/W/S.
Would appreciate any thoughts .
Thanks
Some people want to setup their own business post MBA. I'm curious about which sectors this would be in ?
Any ideas ?
Anyone ?
To be honest, many people don't really have a clear cut path. They have a few different ideas, and they know they don't want to be doing what they currently are.
For me, I'm most probably interested in Investment Banking for a few years and then transitioning to PE/VC (either 2 years and exit to associate at PE, or 5-6 years and exit to principal/VP at PE). My top choice would be IBD at a Bulge Bracket in San Francisco Tech group, but I'd keep an open mind to New York.
Hey ! I'm a bit surprised. I thought you're much older based on your profile. Your path seems solid. All the best.
Do most Stanford and Harvard MBAs stay away from IB or is it just my perception ?
This is correct. Chicago, Wharton, NYU and Columbia are the top IB feeder schools.
I would like to go into politics after about 10 years of work experience and business school. But that's probably atypical.
Post-B-school job (Originally Posted: 10/30/2007)
After I recieve my MBA from Wharton, what job should I apply at a BB? Would an Associate or vP be too unlikely?
btw i have no ibd experiance. i got into the mba program in wharton through the submat program.
With your MBA you should be applying to associate positions. VP is laughable.
is this a serious question?
You'd apply for an Associate position. If you submatriculated, I'd look into jumping into private equity/VC/a HF too.
Post-MBA banking/finance advice (Originally Posted: 06/13/2011)
Does anybody know of a site like WSO that focuses on post-MBA banking/finance? I've found that while people are helpful if I ask a question, the forums are 99% focused on analyst or intern positions, exit opportunities for analysts, etc. The behavioral interview guide was so exclusively focused on analyst positions that I'm seriously thinking about asking for my money back (side question: would that be a douche-y request?).
I realize that I was supposed to learn all this in business school, but I was one of the few that only got interested in banking as a career after business school was over.
I think if you were to ask detailed questions on WSO you will more than likely get some pretty good advice. You'd be surprised at the level of expertise some people on WSO have...
I do get good advice from asking questions - didn't mean to imply otherwise - but what I'm lacking is a source for reading or searching for info the way you can do on WSO.
Agreed, 90% of material (free and paid) on here is very analyst heavy. Part of me thinks it is because at the analyst level things are very organized and follow a general process that is more or less the same on a broad level.
Associate recruiting is a lot more bespoke based on your experience, potential fit, bank's specific need at that level etc. So it is harder to give advice and not economically favorable to crate a 'guide'.
Although there is that 10% of material that you would find relevant and interesting just need to learn how to look (following people who consistently post well thought out remarks is best way imho). Also can pay-up to speak with one of the mentors here, lots of good profiles.
MBA - Opens lots of doors (Originally Posted: 07/17/2006)
Ok i know this is an IBanking site but obviously there are lots of knowledgable people here who know much more then just Investment banking SOOOO. Heres my question, ok so and MBA opens up alot of doors but the main ones (that i've found) are 1. Investment Banking (REALLY?) 2. Consulting 3. Industry.
I am just wondering does anyone know the salary/compensation/bounus breakdown for the first 5 years in Consulting AND Industry. And an example of what position you would start off at if you were to go into Industry. ex. financial mananger?
Thank you all.
Terrible advice. Someone is trying to make a life-changing decision and you are sending him to a for-profit internship placement website?
And seriously, you are commenting on a post from 7 YEARS ago? Is your company that desperate to rid off some college kids?
post-noname mba - ideas? (Originally Posted: 01/21/2012)
worked for a trader for about 5 years, then got laid off. I graduated about a year ago from a no-name city university with an MBA in general management (did everything at night and the company paid for it). My dad has said if I go back to school and get a degree with brand name recognition he would pay for it nomatter the cost. It seems stupid to do an MBA all over again, so I was thinking either another MBA at a top 20~ or a finance/economics ms? any ideas?
MIT has an MS in Management for people who have an MBA already. They also have an MSF. UT Austin has an MSF which would give you a solid B school name. Dukes MMS might let you in also.
If you have quants, go for an MSc at a good school.
choice between another MBA or Masters in management?
Most MBA programs won't allow you in with a second MBA , nevermind the fact that employers will ask why the fuck you're getting a second MBA
Wharton allows second MBA. Princeton has a Master in Finance. Financial-related degree from top-tier would be good.
There was a thread a few days ago about Yale offering an MA in Management for graduates of European schools if that's applicable.
US only or would you consider the UK? Maybe LBS's Master in Finance.
Yeah uk is fine. So I take it a ms in finance or management makes more sense then another MBA.....
Post MBA Career Choices (Originally Posted: 07/25/2015)
Thinking about making a career switch from engineering to finance and from what it sounds like MBA is my best bet at that (in-terms of upward mobility, pay increase etc). And I think I could use a bit of advice on choosing a career path for after I get my MBA. From what I've learned financial advisory and management consulting are some of the paths that I can take. What are some of the other career choices that are available to MBA career-changers, particularly for those with no finance background but trying to make a switch to finance?
What type of financial services career path or "concentration" have job security/ stability with good pay and good hours? Which career tracks provide the best earnings? Which paths are better for work/ life balance? Is there any website that I can use as good resource?
Bump. Any thoughts?
You're asking too basic of questions so I doubt you'll get a response. But at a high level, there are no unicorn jobs - the more lucrative, the worse the stress and hours will be.
The highest paying is banking, but it's also the worst hours. A few buy side jobs pay a ton and are better hours, but you won't have access to them (only go to the best of the best who wasted their first 25 years of life working non stop at school and their first jobs).
I chose consulting. It pays a bit less than banking, but still a ton, and you get weekends free. Travel is tough though.
Post MBA career (Originally Posted: 02/07/2011)
I've spent the last 6 years trying to figure out where I want to go to get my MBA, all of college and 2+ years of work. I've decided based on a technical accounting background, CPA with 2 years public, 2 industry internships and now reporting at private equity firm, that an accelerated 1 year international MBA is what I need to broaden my skill set and cultural exposure. Looking at ESADE, IE, IESE and IMD. Can someone please give me some feedback on this plan and what potential jobs out of one of these programs would be realistic. Maybe consulting, banking, corporate cannot really decide?
It is impossible to provide anything constructive given the fact that you sound like you are all over the place. Consulting, banking or corporate? Congratulations you just covered 85% of post-MBA career options. Personally, I think you would benefit from another year or two of work experience so that you can gain a better understanding of what it is that you would like to get out of your MBA experience because right now it sound s like you are looking for a 1 year vacation with a bunch of Euro people and an additional credential.
Im NOT looking for a vacation, but certainly something to enhance personal growth not just more business classes. I think your missing the point that I'm well aware of the options, consulting, banking and corporate and have had some degree of varied exposure with almost all of them. The point would be to get feedback about which area would compliment my skillset and allow me to grow as a "businessman" and not specifically a banker or consultant or corporate manager. Im looking to build more on management and international language skills as opposed to more technical finance and accounting skills, the actual tag related to the MBA is irrelevant otherwise I would just be applying to Northwestern or Chicago and stay here. The blend between all of these areas is not what Im targeting but the point being that consulting firms can offer corp fin and restructuring advice while banks can offer strategy advice so the answer of what I am looking for is not so clear cut. That being said like you mentioned I am all over the place to a degree, but its within reason to gain as much varied industry and sector exposure as possible. But I suppose its difficult to guage intentions or character from a thread so thank you for the response.
Thread for post-mba jobs (Originally Posted: 06/12/2012)
Patrick,
I have noticed that it is hard to find threads about post-mba jobs.
for example, when i go to the investment banking threads, it is 99% focused on internship and analyst positions. When we post something about associate roles we get replies regarding analyst roles. This happens in consulting, Asset Management, etc.
I think at the end, once you get into an MBA there is no useful info in this site. Can't you create a sort of post-mba thread so that more "seasoned" users still find an excuse to hang in this website? Or maybe you create a sort of "mba Certified User"? Or maybe we can filter the threads and put a "sign" saying"MBA" next to each thread to make sure we draw the attention to our "peers".
Anyone else shares my opinion?
That's because most post MBA people are competent & experienced enough to make decisions on their own.
Ouch, no useful info? Out of the 100,000+ discussions you sure about that? Out of the thousands of compensation data points (hundreds from Associates), in our Company Database, you sure there is no useful info here? :-) just busting your balls...
Clearly, there is more content geared to analysts and interns, but if you ask properly and make sure to specifiy. "I am looking for guidance from post MBAs", I am sure you will get some guidance...the volume won't be as high (plain #s), but we do exist on here.
Are you using Search or just browsing the Forum topics in the Investment Banking forum?
There are some post MBA level people on WSO, whether they actually have their MBAs or not. Start a thread asking your question and see if you get responses.
Career following MBA question (Originally Posted: 02/02/2012)
Hey people,
I'm a new user here, usually lurk around, but now i'm applying to MBA and i need some help.
I work in financial advisory firm, analyzing pre-revenue ventures seeking capital and figuring out their future potential. my role would be similar to that of a VC, but without actually committing our money to the firm. I also have a CFA, and applying to top ranked MBA this year.
My question is what are my career options following graduation? im mainly focusing on Asset Management or investment banking M&A.
i would love to use my CFA and work in asset management after graduation but from what i read here its harder for those with no previous experience in the field to join.
as for IB, not sure how i can leverage my experience or CFA to work for me.
Anyone has any thoughts about options i might be missing? any advice would be greatly appreciated
A CFA is not going to help at all with banking.
You have good work experience. If you get into MBA business schools">M7 b-schools, make sure to join the investment management club and work your ass off on stock pitches. At those schools the on-campus recruiting for buyside is sick, so you will have easy access to all the big investment management firms. Once you have your pitches down you can do well in the interviews and get offers. It will be tough, but if you work hard for it, your chances of getting an IM offer is pretty good. This only holds true for M7+tuck, however.
slightly off topic, but I'm curious. Why not go into VC, etc... given your background?
To be honest I've thought about it, but since in a VC i wouldnt be using the CFA, i was trying to see if i could benefit from my CFA and MBA together somehow for a career choice, which would make my application look better.
Considering a career change and an MBA. Would appreciate any input. (Originally Posted: 02/09/2014)
Hi guys,
I've recently been considering doing a career shift because I feel as if the goals and what I wanted to learn are shifting because I'm in the accounting field. I was at a Big 4 firm as an auditor for 1.5 years and recently resigned. However, I resigned and joined another Big 4 firm to become part of their accounting advisory services group in transactions and restructuring. So far, I've appreciated the projects I've been assigned in advisory and hope it's a worthwhile.
Overall though, I'm thinking accounting is not for me. I graduated college with a business admin degree and only took accounting courses to learn about business essentially. I'm figuring out now that this path is much different than I realized: I'd much rather transition into a finance role (which is why I chose to do advisory, since it's more transaction and buy-side/sell-side based).
In this case, although I attempted the CPA, I'm not seeing much benefit if I don't plan on using it. I'm actually studying very hard for the GMAT, as getting an MBA has been a big goal for me, and am even looking into a CFA afterwards, albeit that itself is an arduous journey. I understand the CPA is important for an accountant, but for someone transitioning out, I would like any input on the matter. Is this even feasible, to transition out slowly? Would MBAs even consider me? Thank you.
Yes, MBAs will consider you. Few of my acquaintances landed top 10 schools in the last few years (each in the 4-6 years experience range). You can easily go on the school's website and look at the profiles of admitted students. There are a few b4 alums in most schools.
The ones I knew all had their cpa's (not sure if the schools cared). Perhaps if your business line does not care about cpa license then you could be fine w/o it. Purely speculation on my end though. I'd focus on performing well at work so you can get promoted quickly and get strong rec letters from your partners/directors. If everyone who does well in your group has their cpa, then I'd take that as a sign that you should have it too. Also be involved and take leadership positions outside of work.
Are you looking at high finance or corporate finance at a F500? If the latter, you can lateral directly from your big 4 experience, as that is pretty common. High finance, a bigger hurdle but an MBA would definitely be the right step, considering its Top 15~ish.
Thanks for the responses. I'm considering either high finance or corporate finance. but high finance I'm thinking won't be an option without an MBA from a top school. I don't think I would do an MBA if it wasn't a top school. I feel like an MBA is valuable and doing it now would be better than later on.
Post MBA opportunities (Originally Posted: 05/29/2010)
I was looking to get some advice on post MBA opportunities in the US. Would really appreciate any insights from those who have been through B-School or those who plan to do so in the future.
Just a bit on my profile:
I wanted to know the odds of being accepted into an IM / HF role. Appreciate this is quite a general question and really it will depend on the quality of interviews and the stock pitch. However, my main concern is that I might not have enough experience (also additionally its outside the US) compared to those I'll be competing with, the typical Wharton MBA graduate having ~4-5 years pre-MBA experience. Just wanted to understand how the big names in IM and HF profile candidates ie. are they looking for people with more pre-MBA experience or less? Are they looking for IB+PE backgrounds or is it a broad mixture? Do they also get people from non-finance backgrounds or do they focus on those with some combination of IB/PE/Equities backgrounds?
While I've heard of a few cases of people with only 2yrs IB experience plus a good MBA getting into the likes of Fidelity, Capital Group etc, I wanted to understand whether these people were the exception (as the majority getting in were IB+PE) OR that the big names do like to get people with a very diverse background, and that the level and type of experience holds lesser importance than the quality of the stock pitch and interviews.
Is it worth waiting another 1-1.5 yrs in IB and then consider re-applying so that I can leverage the number of years of experience or is the additional experience only marginal? Wanted to understand whether IM roles seeked candidates with a little bit more professional maturity or is their preference for younger people?
Also, wanted to get some insights on how easy it would be to secure an Equity Research or S&T role post-Wharton? Doesn't seem like they place a lot of people into these roles but that might also be a function of the students who choose not to go into those functions?
you don't need an mba to pursue those just apply now and see what you get into... but you did say you're from outside the US. where exactly are you situated?
shouldn't be a problem to break into those fields with an mba.
If you got into Wharton, take it. Its something that will benefit you your entire lifetime.
Based in Australia - so no additional language skills or detailed knowledge of Asian markets unfortunately
Would be hard to pursue those roles from here as the big names (Fidelity, Capital, BlackRock etc) dont have huge operations here and generally hire at reasonably senior levels from Equities Research. And if I apply directly to the US / UK offices, I'm likely to get dinged as they generally look for locals (who have minimal visa requirements and costs, and also have local experience).
From what I've heard from people who were applying last year and this year into IM / HF from Harvard / Wharton, is that it was quite hard for them to get into those roles - even with substantially more experience than myself (generally 2yr IB followed by some PE). I wonder whether this is the norm or just a function of the markets last year?
Does it make sense to get some additional exp before pursuing an MBA?
I guess you hate IB THAT much, otherwise, I'd love to hear why you are looking into IM after being in investment banking.
What's there to explain? A big-fund IM gig is way better IB.
The masterplan was to always go to one of the big name fund managers. Find IM a lot more intuitively appealing and always wanted to be closer to the financial markets from a buyside perspective. Also from the experience of others who have done IB + PE and then went into IM, they liked the autonomy, the flat structure and the transparency of performance as well as the innate satisfaction of watching your 'calls' / investments perform well.
But admittedly there is also a distaste for being a banker built somewhere into that - the subordination, the hierarchy, the constant sycophancy, the unnecessary hours are all any junior can empathise with, and it doesn't seem to get too much better as you hit the associate ranks either, albeit the pay is good (but not a lot better than IM from what I've heard)
This is not true. Banking recruiting and interviewing takes a little bit before recruiting and interviewing for investment management jobs, and months before that for most private equity and hedge funds jobs. You generally cannot try to secure a job in one of these areas before interviewing for banking jobs. The population of students that pursue investment banking in business school is almost entirely made up of career changers, and most of those students don't have the pre-MBA background to land a job in private equity or at a hedge fund.
What is the typical pre-MBA background for PE, HF outside the 2 yr IB + 2 yr PE track?
Post MBA Opportunities (Originally Posted: 10/17/2012)
I know that the general rule is no Pre MBA PE experience = no post MBA opportunities, especially at megafunds. However, I'm wondering if someone with buyside experience at a BB has a shot at post MBA recruiting? Assuming someone did 2 years in a buyside role at a BB (think GS REPIA or SSG), then two years at HSW, is it unreasonable for them to aim for TPG, Carlyle, Warburg, etc. post MBA?
Interested as well, specifically about later options from Morgan Stanley Private Equity (Real Estate)
Yes, GS SSG to a mega-fund is realistic. I know one person who went from SSG to TPG, and I don't think they even have a MBA.
I think I know who you are talking about and if we are talking about the same person than 1) they're pretty legit and more importantly 2) they were poached into a public markets investing role at TPG not PE. And I'm not by any means saying TPG PE is better than TPG opportunities or anything like that at all.
I guess to use SSG and TPG as an example, I'm just more interested in if 2 years SSG > HSW > TPG PE is possible? Especially given a lot of candidates will probably have Pre-MBA PE experience.
You are likely talking about the same person. From my understanding TPG Opportunities is somewhat harder to get than TPG PE so I think the comparison holds up as to whether or not you are viewed as high caliber enough to get on mega-fund radars. SSG does small cap PE deals (among other things) so it's not like you wouldn't have PE experience.
Right but then the whole definition of megafund goes out the window.
Can you go from SSG to any large public markets role including HFs and HF arms of PE firms?? Yes definitely. But to traditional PE the answer is probably no.
The point about whether public vs private investing is harder to get into is a moot point. It's very hard to get a gig at Rentech but that's far away from what private equity is about.
Why does the definition of mega fund go out the window? As I said, GS SSG does PE deals. If that is the prerequisite and SSG is clearly high profile, then why would it hinder you from a mega fund job post-MBA?
I think the better question is why one would want a post-MBA role at a mega fund? Seems like a high floor/low ceiling opportunity for someone with that strong of a background. It's really hard to make a name for yourself sitting behind that much carry.
Because you're using an example of someone going from SSG to basically a HF to justify SSG to megafund PE which is simply not true. This should be easy to understand.
No need to speculate with me, I agree the skillset is likely there, but you're competing against hundreds of kids with actual PE experience for these jobs. It will be harder. Just the nature of the business.
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