POST-MBA CAREER OPTIONS
A very important consideration when applying to an MBA program is to have a base level understanding about the different sort of career options that are available to MBA’s. You do not need to be an expert, you just need to be familiar. Some key points
Check out these in depth articles on Investment Banking, Corporate Finance, Asset Management. I will post more on Consulting, Marketing etc soon.
Read the below slides. Consulting, Finance, Marketing and Operations are the broad business categories that MBA’s will be hired into. These business categories are different than the type of industry you would work in (except Consulting) and can often overlap. For example, Finance contains both investment banking and corporate finance. These are two very different roles. Investment banking is its own industry and has a multitude of different roles within. Including…Corporate Finance. Confused yet? Read the below slides to enhance your understanding. Note that this list is not all inclusive though. One could argue that Technology is its own separate category
Investment Banking and Consulting are two of the most high paying jobs on this list. They are professional services that primarily sell smart minds and do not actually produce a gadget, gizmo or software. Because of this, they have incredibly high margins and pay out large salaries and bonuses. There is no free lunch however. Because the only thing they sell is professional services, the standards are very high and the demands can be very intense. Investment banking in particular is infamous for the long hours and extraordinary pay. Consulting is as well, though there are many different permutations of consulting
The #1 role by the numbers that MBAs go into is Consulting. I myself am a consultant and can speak first hand knowledge about the industry. Consulting is popular because it is very often a clear path to high level corporate leadership and strategy roles after doing 2-4 years as a consultant. You work with a lot of different clients and get a lot of exposure with executives and strategic projects. Consulting firms have never been busier with a 10 year economic expansion and technology rapidly changing the business landscape. Even though it is the #1 role that MBA’s go into, it is still a hard job to get hired into and requires networking, case studies and a certain kind of professional attitude
It is very hard to get these kinds of jobs without an MBA, in particular Investment Banking and Consulting. Companies forecast hiring requirements over a year and try to fill roles that far out through internship conversions and full time 2nd year hiring. For example, a company will forecast that they have turnover of x percentage and will look to extend full time offers to summer interns in between their first and second year. So some interns will have job offers a full year before they graduate. This isn’t your typical just in time hiring or 90 days out hiring, it is much different. Companies will also hire for full time jobs the fall semester of the 2nd year. Many people will continue to “recruit” even after being given an offer from an internship. I myself had three different full time offers and got to pick the one that appealed to me the most
You can expect these jobs to offer base salaries from $100,000 all the way up to $170,000. Add in signing bonuses, year end bonuses, restricted stock units, benefits etc and your “comp” can creep upward pretty quickly. Be warned though, a lot of these jobs are in major cities, and a good portion of your salary can be eaten up by living expenses, health insurance and student loans. What you are really “buying” into is the career upside. While your $130,000 salary will get eaten into quickly when you start out, that $250,000+ salary five to seven years later (along with significant more responsibility) will really start to generate some free cash flow. Does all this seem like a giant pain in the ass? You would be right. That’s why it’s called being a soldier in the corporate world and/or climbing the corporate ladder
These are not your typical white collar jobs. They are in fact highly paid corporate roles that offer incredible career options and growth potential. When you look at business leaders across industries, a large portion of them will have started out their serious professional careers in one of the below roles
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