Except that plenty of people have used an elite MBA to transition into IM. I know quite a few who have done it. The barrier to entry for top finance jobs has gotten steeper over the years; if you don’t have a kickass work experience you need a top degree to establish credibility and gain access to the firms you want to work at. That’s what an MBA provides.
Sure, you can invest your own money and build a track record. That never hurts. But you really think a guy just investing his personal savings is going to get interviews with PIMCO, Fidelity, Wellington, MFS, State Street, etc.?
Finally, I disagree with your last point. Although an MBA by itself cannot teach you to become a better investor, the stuff you learn is very applicable to equity research (much less so for fixed income, FX, commodities, alternatives). Numi has addressed this very well in his posts, so I’m not going to delve further into it here.
I come from a family where my father always say “don’t take money to work”.
It is very risky to put so much investment in yourself before even getting a job in the related field. Imagine you get a MBA and get a job in finance (let’s suppose that MBA lands you a job) but you realize it’s not what you want to do, then what now???
I think people need to be realistic, if you can’t get into finance, try to do somethign else! a life is too short to chase after something you don’t even know if you like. work is work, you find something that makes you money and do something fun and enjoyable on the weekends.
ps* I know we all like to think we learn something out of everything we study, yes, MBA programs would cover SOME principles of equity research, but i am extremely unconvinced that MBA is VERY applicable to what equity research analysts do.
Certainly, if you can get the job you want WITHOUT an MBA, that’s the ideal path. But for many people, including myself, we were unable to do that. Before starting my program I spent about 5 years trying to break in, but the overwhelming consensus I got was “look you are a trader; if you want to have a shot at IM, go to a top b-school.” I also wanted to explore other areas I had not previously considered, such as consulting. So for me it made sense to go back to school despite the huge loans. For others it may not. It depends on the person.
Good debate. I’ve shunned the idea of going to B-School for so long because of the loans I’d have to take. As I grow older I realize sometimes you have to spend money to make money, and going to a top school isn’t the worst place to make a bet if you haven’t had the ideal career.
You also cannot buy a network. It’s easy to laugh at MBA candidates when you’re already where you want to be.
This is right. As someone in his early 30’s with little savings, I did not make this decision lightly. I’m taking out enormous loans to finance the cost and thought long and hard about the decision to do an MBA. The core questions I asked myself were the following. Am I likely to achieve my goals without an MBA after having spent the past 5 years trying to do without one? Will b-school at the very least give me access to companies and a network that I otherwise simply would not have access to? The answers to these questions respectively were No and Yes. Whether or not it’s worth $200K in loans is something that’s debatable, but for me I realized that it’s now or never, and I had to bite the bullet.
My friends who ridiculed my decision were those who did NOT do an MBA and already had their ideal jobs. In contrast, my friends who did b-school supported my decision and thought it was the correct move given my circumstances.
Someone who graduates Stanford with an art history degree is not going to be taken seriously in finance. I have degrees from 2 top 10 schools, but they were in humanities and social sciences, which hurt me tremendously in terms of professional opportunities.
Yes, an MBA is more saturated than it was 10-15 years ago, but the same can be said for the CFA or almost any other degree or designation for that matter.
All i can say is, if you are sponsored to get a MBA, DO IT! i think it certainly helps!
If i have to pay so much money on a masters degree just to HOPE i can perhaps break into an industry that I HAVE NO EXPERIENCE FOR and one that is already very concentrated and competitive to get an entry level job.
I don’t know how things are in Japan, but in North 'Murcia, we make magic happen.
In all seriousness, some people are okay trying to be thrifty and hoping they make it to their dream job through hard work. Others know that they wont’ succeed following the herd and need to make an investment to get where they want to be. Which one would the employer choose to bring on?
It’s easy to slam people and their career decisions from whereever you are, but why are you judging people on how they spend their money, or if they’re commiting themselves to bettering themselves? I respect the person who is willing to put everything on the line and eat pasta for 2 years to make a change more than the guy who’s sneering at someone elses capital expenditures from their grim cubicle.