is investment banking good enough for top MBAs?

monydad
Thu, 03 Aug 2006 10:13:53 +0000

A couple observations, from my own experience:

1) "Trust me, once you get your MBA, you’re not going to want to go back to just being an engineer again. "

This will tend to be true, but not always for reasons prejudicial to the value of an engineering career.

For one thing, the engineers who choose to attend full-time MBA programs do so precisely because they want to change careers. Many engineering firms may tend to promote from within; leaving to pursue non-engineering endeavors may not be the best way to advance in such industries. Many engineering firms do not recruit at MBA schools for line managers, so graduating MBAs will see relatively few positions available at such companies. Even if they would want them.

At the engineering firm I worked at, a number of engineers pursued night MBAs at Northwestern and the University of Chicago. The person I reported to had an MBA from the University of Chicago. These people were still working as engineers. My boss was and engineering project manager both before and after receiving his MBA. The MBA was considered to be a useful adjunct to further advancement at this firm; however advancement was by merit earned on the job.

So while I agree that most of the full-timers, such as myself, do not return to engineering, I would suggest that this is at least in part a self-fulfilling prophecy for these self-selected individuals based on their own particular career situations. and does not necessarily suggest any blanket superiority of MBA jobs vs engineering jobs, for all individuals.

2) “Not people who have 2 years of experience at a bulge bracket firm or a classy IB shop who want an MBA so they can quickly get back at being an associate (which they couldn’t do in the first place since i-banks only selectively allow a few to move on and they weren’t in the pick).”

Of the former analysts that I know, many wanted to attend B-school for the same reason most others want to attend B-school: to change careers. THe majority, after their 2- year stint, decided that investment banking was not for them I know 2 individuals who were asked to stay on, but declined because they wanted to see what else life might offer for them.

Even those that liked the general field might want to leave in order to have a shot at a different aspect of I Banking. Typically if you were asked to stay on it would be for your same division.