Ross PT to Investment Banking
Curious if anyone has been able to pull off a move from Ross or Booth PT into Investment Banking? I am currently in Fixed Income sales and considering going to get an MBA to break into Investment Banking but PT is really the only option at this point.
To go from a Ross “Protection Team” (PT) to investment banking, you really need to have a presence in several different store locations. Not only do you need to do your job and protect against theft, but you’ve also got to network hard with everyone who comes in the store and hope you run into a banker. You are more likely to find them at the shoe section.
When it comes to Booth PT, you have a significant leg up because you’ll be working at a kiosk in a mall which is considered more prestigious. This is because you are around the cool young kids all day, and you get a more broad range of products that you cover. Working here you may come out with less transaction experience to talk about though.
Hope that helps.
Part of a full-time MBA now, but personally know and met quite a number of people who made it to IB from either Kellogg or Booth PT programs. PT success is based on strength of the FT program so I would not expect Ross to place well since its FT is not IB focused at all. It's funny you put Ross and Booth together. Sure, they both have 80%+ acceptance rate, but Booth is still a much stronger brand especially when it comes to IB.
Here's more about PT IB recruiting at Kellogg and Booth.
Booth part-timers are restricted from participating in investment banking internship recruiting. Their options are usually limited to several Chicago shops that are willing to accept PT students. So most PT people I know go to reputable local shops (BB, MM, EB), exceptions exist, but rare. It's really unfair if you think about it, that Booth is basically discriminating their PT people, even though they pay the same tuition and get the same degree. Booth FT people would argue that PT MBAs don't have an average GMAT of 730, but why would that matter? If FT people are so much better, why is the school afraid of a little bit of competition from PT people then?
Kellogg part-timers can participate in regular internship recruiting with the full-time people because Kellogg has a smaller IB class and there are more space to accommodate for the additional candidates. I have heard a few who made it all the way to the top NY EB and BB in recent years.
Bottom line is you need to network your ass off. Successful candidates basically gave up on their FT job and focused on recruiting for an internship, and once they get the internship, they usually quit their day job and focus on classes.
Thank you for the insight! The primary reason for including Ross is that they tout the part time program as having full unrestricted access to on campus recruiting. It sounds like Booth is the better option but will require some extracurricular hustle to get a foot in the door.
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Do not do part-time if you are serious about the career change. It will hurt your chances of being successful no matter how many stories you are told of it working out.
Would also encourage you to look at Kellogg or Booth. I listened to Kellogg’s online webinars giving an overview of their evening and weekend program and it was surprising to know how much access you get to recruiting and to my surprise the percentage of people who end up changing careers after the MBA. Two highlights I took away from the program:
part time students get to participate in on campus recruiting> full-time.
Global immersion classes (3 weeks) at a time versus a normal 10 week class but the 3 week counts as full credit yet to get to travel though out the world for a specific subject
Ability to finish in less than 2 years if you adopt for their accelerated program(15 months start to finish)
With that being said I would network internally to try to move into IB first before spending the money on school and if that doesn’t leverage the MBA to make the move externally... I’m in a similar position as you so I’m looking to follow the advice I received above
This is very bad advice. The 15 month program at Kellogg doesn’t provide someone with the time to actually do OCR recruiting for an internship. No internship means you probably aren’t going into banking at a good firm. There are exceptions, but in general this is the case.
Part-timers may get to participate in recruiting, but they are second class citizens at most places. They have to work harder, have a tougher time actually making all of the corporate presentations and recruiting events that are held on campus, have a hard time doing to all of the on site office visits, and more. It isn’t impossible, but it is hard as hell and definitely not something to just hop into if you have alternative options. There was only 1 person at the EB I went to that was from any part-time program nationwide, all offices.
It seems like CBd was offering an alternative to doing the full two years that most students normally. Also why not offer advice than criticize someone’s comment, regardless One thing I would agree with is trying to move internally first before thinking about the MBA. That’s probably more common than doing the current role> PT MBA> IB
In a Full-time program but would say you are quite wrong in your reasoning.
First, 15 month Kellogg program is called the One-Year MBA, and it's a full-time program.
Second, re: "there was only 1 person at the EB you went to was from PT" nationwide. This is not because part-time people can't make it to banking, but because there aren't many who try to do this. Sure, there are more MBA associates from Wharton than from HBS, would you argue that Wharton is definitely a better school than HBS? That's absolutely not the case.
Your program doesn't matter as much as your personal drive. If you want to go part-time and transition to banking. Do it. Most people who want to give up their life for banking do not go the part-time route. The very few who do changes their mind last minute and decide to pursue banking but they are tied up with work/family which gives them a disadvantage. For those part-timer who absolutely have the drive to want to do banking and are willing to give up work/family to recruit for banking, their result is great. I personally know many at both Kellogg and Booth who are at top EB/BB/MM in Chicago/NY. Obviously know many more who are at full-time, but that doens't mean full-timer have a better yield. Not at all. Like I said earlier, Kellogg PT is so much more banking friendly than Booth though.
You made a bunch of points I never argued against. I never said anything is impossible.I also never said the 1 year Kellogg program is a part-time program. I said you can’t do an internship in that program, which you can’t. Given about 90% of the post-MBA associate roles are filled through summer associate internships and the rest are typically filled by those who get offers and trade up or don’t get offers but at least did the internship, how do suppose a one year program can possibly be competitive with a typical full-time program?
Full-timers absolutely do have a better yield. On top of better yield, they typically place into better shops, PJT isn’t hiring guys out of J-Term at CBS and MS isn’t hiring guys out of the Kellogg one year program. Please stop providing disinformation that could lead to somebody making a career altering decision for the wrong reasons.
Just FYI - the original post was never asking about 1Y full-time MBA or J-term. It was asking about part-time MBA. It's not a one-year program. I agree 1Y MBA is absolutely not the way to go. I am saying transition to IB with a part-time program (evening/weekend) is possible and it's a personal choice.
That is correct. Not remotely interested in a truncated program as I understand how much more difficult it would be to breakthrough. However, as I understand you could go into a part time program and even do an internship assuming you left work to do so. Am I missing something or does that make sense?
sounds right to me
What is the purpose of doing a PT program if you are going to do that? You won’t have a job your third year of bschool and, without some sort of deal with your current manager, will struggle to do all of the networking required for success during your second year to land an internship. That means you’ll be using all of your PTO to do coffee chats and the like. And on top of all that, you’re taking a full year longer to complete your MBA.
The economics of it barely change at that point and you are putting yourself behind your peers during recruiting. Your recruiting will either be limited to Chicago only or you’ll need to use all of your vacation to fly to NY/SF/etc. regularly to do coffee chats while you’re working.
Listen, if your question is whether or not it can be done, the answer is of course yes, but that doesn’t mean it is optimal or the suggested route. You will have a harder time and will be limited in your options compared to an equally good peer in a traditional full-time program.
I did a part time program at a T15 school and have since then done plenty of recruiting with both FT and PT candidates.
1) yes you can break into IB from a PT program, my class had about ~80% success rate of the relatively few who recruited. (EB and BB, not all New York but that was on purpose)
2) My reason to do PT was not giving up 2 years of salary and not having to move (which in my case made networking easier)
3) the quality of the top 10%-15% of the PT candidates I have seen are no different to the top 10%-15% of FT candidates, they just had other reasons (multiple from my class also had FT offers)
4) I see the biggest problem with PT as not being able to do an internship, if you are willing to do that and not have a job for the 2nd year then it is very doable (but makes the case slightly less attractive)
5) my class placed people at: EB, BB, MBB and FAANG and even a few on the buy side - I agree that it is harder and requires more individual work than at FT, but at least from my experience it is very possible.
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