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<p>You could clearly switch over to banking coming out of MIT. Many MIT engineers do. In fact, banking happens to be one of the most popular career paths of MIT engineers (which puts the lie to the notion that all MIT engineering students are studying engineering because they actually like it - if they liked it, why would they choose to become bankers?). </p>
<p>However, it is extremely unlikely that they would be able to get an associate position without work experience. They woul probably start off as an analyst. Only an MBA (or to a lesser extent those with law degrees or PhD’s) and/or those with some work experience have a reasonable chance at starting off as an associate. </p>
<p>Besides, what’s so bad about becoming an analyst right after undergrad? You’re making good money. Not as good as an associate, but still pretty good - and obviously far far more money than you would make as a graduate student. More importantly, you get to see the industry. It is in the analyst years that a lot of people find out that they hate banking. So you do it for a year or 2, make good money, find out that you hate banking, so you quit. Well, at least you know that you don’t want to go back, your wallet is full, and you have some strong and prestigious work experience on your resume. So now you can go back to school and get whatever graduate degree you might feel you need, or, if not, switch careers to some other industry. Lots of former bankers do that. </p>
<p>The way I see it is, if you can get a banking analyst job right after undergrad, then unless you have something better to do or unless you already know that you will hate it, then you should probably take the job. What’s the worst that can happen? If you find out you hate it, you can always quit. In my post #14 above, I made the assumption that you were not able to get a banking offer right after undergrad. In that case, you should probably wait until you get your MBA, and then try to get in. Or at least get an MBA summer internship. Again, if you find out that you hate it, you can always quit. </p>
<p>However, let me be clear, all of this presumes that you just want money. As I’ve always said, if all you care about is money, then forget about getting a doctorate, forget about getting a master’s degree (except for the master’s in business administration), forget about all that stuff. Just get a job in banking. </p>
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<p>Uh, you seem unduly obsessed with starting off as an associate. What’s so bad about being an analyst?</p>