Will sales keep me out of top MBA?

I am a senior finance student who was unable to get an Asset Management analyst job. I have received multiple sales offers as internals for top AM firms and want to know if a couple years in AM sales would hurt my chance at a top 25 MBA? My ultimate end goal is Asset Management after school. Plan to get my CFA while in sales. Appreciate any help.

 

You haven't graduated or worked and you're already worrying about an MBA? Jesus Christ.

How about you either hustle and get a better gig or accept the option you have and do the best job you can at it. A sales gig in AM is both awesome and extremely lucrative if you don't suck. If you're not the person to realize this, you're probably not going to do well in sales anyway.

 

CFA + Asset Management sales is a good background for a top 25 MBA. I'd be selective about where you enroll; your background should get a foot in the door from the right schools, but at a program where only a few people go to the buy side every year you will likely not be the standout they're looking for. For the big finance programs, it's much more about your performance in stock pitch competitions, ability to network and the CFA certainly won't hurt.

 

TFW op doesn't realize that investment banking really is just a sales job on a bigger level. Learn to pitch well, learn to network, learn to be a leader, move up into sales management, start working on the GMAT, and never look back. Personally you should be looking at tech sales though. Every CEO i've spoken with originally has some sort of sales background... front office of regular industry

 

why not get the MBA and stay in sales. That's where the most money will be made. There are so many different sales desk at AM's. I know someone that started in a licensed call center for a major bank advising lower network clients. He did that for 4 years then became a mutual fund internal wholesaler and was making close to 100k. Now he is a hybrid wholesaler where he travels once a month to his territory but makes close to 300k. He is only 27

 

ya if i get in there and like it I could end up staying in sales or moving up into management. Do you think i could get into a decent MBA without the CFA? or should i do CFA first? problem is my gpa is about 3.3 with 3.7 major gpa from non target. worked full time while in school

 
Best Response

The CFA will do nothing but help you in all things. It will help you learn a lot, quickly, about not only your funds strategy but the investing world in general which will help boost your early career. When applying to b-school from Asset Management, it will put you in the chunk of AM applicants that have the CFA rather than those that don't. When recruiting during your MBA, it will be a big boost if you're applying to research roles but it certainly isn't going to hurt for sales roles either. If you lateral later in your career it's the same. Getting promoted to management - at some point it's going to be really difficult to move into roles where you might have some sort of dotted line that puts you over anyone research oriented, the CFA is a validater there, though certainly not the be all and end all.

Long story short, it's a lot of work, but if you're in the industry I see no reason not to check the box. And, you'll learn a lot along the way.

 

To add something to the conversation here, if you're going into Asset Management sales, consider becoming aware/knowledgeable about advances in quantitative strategies, machine learning, AI, etc. At my firm, we are aggressively looking for sales people that have the ability to 1) be normal, friendly, and communicative with clients and 2) Have the ability to answer questions about our algorithms from sophisticated institutional clients. I don't know what exactly our sales people make $ wise, but I do know that the market is very competitive for people like this. This might not be your interest but I think this could be a great career for people who have an interest in quant strategies but don't necessarily want to be a practitioner.

 

It's difficult to go from any investment sales role to a good MBA program. MBA programs love to see promotions and solid work experience. Investment sales (with any company) will not offer that. If you're set on a top MBA, I suggest you work at M&M, learn the business, improve your modeling skills on the side, network, and land a job at buyside shop. Your chances will drastically will improve (assuming your GMAT is above 700, you went to good UG, your GPA is high, etc.)

 

Please don't' do this. Any job with attrition like IS, where you are working on your own as a 1099, if you are 22-25 nobody is going to give you any business unless you have serious connections. If I were you I would work as an associate or analyst at M&M or similar and gain experience underwriting deals and learning the market. You are too young to steak it out on your own, and where we are in the cycle will hurt you tremendously.

 

Do you have any other offers? Usually people in sales roles don't get MBAs - not that selling isn't useful. It just doesn't require schooling necessarily and is a very "learn as you go" role. An MBA doesn't relaly have value add here. I would try to find something else if you can - even if its a F500 Financial analyst role. Top schools take plenty of those as well as people in rotational programs. Or maybe you can see if you can get a job in investment research or equity research right now. If it's all you have and you have other obligations (debt) I'd take it - but I'd try to leave after the year or year and a half mark.

"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there" - Will Rogers
 

I didn't mean you. I meant the kid considering M&M. Great sarcasm on your skills btw.

Of course initially he will do better with a salary. He can afford to live on his own and etc. But I've been around when things were slow. Of course the relationships help in a down market. But that is why you join a team that already has these. He needs to find out what team he is going for. If the goal is the MBA then go analyst route. If the goal is to invest on your own, or be a syndicate, I'd go the IS route.

Is there something specific you want to accomplish that you feel an MBA is necessary for?

 

Take it from a young broker - Investment Sales is not a good path towards a top MBA.

It's not a "sexy" profession and your ability to be hired isn't quantifiable. What I mean by that: MBA business schools">M7 schools want a candidate that has played the game in the way they want it to be played. For example, the ultimate safe candidate is someone at GS or another top bank/consultancy/tech firm that has put in 3-4 years, has a good salary but nothing crazy, and, upon graduation, will immediately be hired by a top company at a higher salary than they had before graduate school. This is very important to schools since it plays into their marketability. It's a business.

Everyone assumes IS professionals are dumb (most are). You'll also be stereotyped by adcoms in the sense that they'll assume you weren't considered desirable by institutional shops and therefore ended up at M&M.

If you want to be in brokerage and end up at Wharton or somewhere comparable then your best shot is at an institutional shop in a major market. You need a top brand on your resume and M&M is the "Boiler Room" of publicly traded brokerages.

The flip-side is that if you're very smart and personable you can make more money at a younger age in IS than almost any profession out there. The only problem with that is you're probably not getting into an MBA business schools">M7 program.

 

Thanks for all the advice. I do have one job offer but its really out there in left field and not really finance related. It is supposed to be a way to enter finance in the company, but it takes a while to get there. So i'm trying to look at other options at this point.

 

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