Is I-banking the only way to go??

sakky
Fri, 18 May 2007 22:07:58 +0000

I don’t know much about what kinds of jobs you can get after getting an MBA, but all I seem to see on this board is talk of being an investment banker. Is that the only thing you can do with an MBA??



Hardly so. Even at the top MBA programs, only about 20-40% will go into investment banking. Heck, in some of the most elite circles, Ibanking is considered somewhat passe. For example, at HBS, the sentiment of much of the student body is that you only go into Ibanking if you’re just not good enough to get a job in VC/PE or a hedge fund.



What else is out there?



Arguably the #1 most common destination of students at the top programs is management consulting.



I had wanted to go and get my masters in public administration because I had always been interested in public sector and government mangement. My girlfriend and father however are giving me crap about it, saying I should get an MBA instead because an MPA would limit me to only the public sector. My know it all father thinks that an MBA would afford me more opportunities



Well, that would depend far more on the name-brand of the school and the recruiting opportunities involved, rather than just a simple MBA/MPA dichotomy. For example, getting an MPA at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government will almost certainly give you greater access to more opportunities (including in the private sector) than getting an MBA from some no-name school.



Is there any trend of MBA graduates working for government related agencies?



Sure, that happens too. Not that often (probably because of the pay), but there are some people with MBA’s who go to government. The government employs plenty of MBA’s. For example, George Bush is an HBS graduate, as is Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao and Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson. Donald Evans, former Sec of Commerce, has an MBA from Texas. Former Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, has an MS (equivalent to an MBA) from the MIT Sloan School. New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine has an MBA from Chicago.

Now of course, you can’t obviously “get” any of these jobs right out of school. But it just shows you that people who have MBA’s do sometimes enter government work.