Corp finance is such a wide range that you could get into it with just a B.S in finance from a random college.
I’m talking about real corp finance and strategy. capital budgeting, FPA, investment decisions, etc. not just an accounting clerk. Is that still true?
Well, they’re congruent modulo 9; what more do you need?
Even if you went to a top 10 MBA grad school you’re not going to walk into any firm and say, “hey I have an MBA, let me steer the boat of the firm!”. it will take you years of hard work and dedication to prove you know what’s best for the firm and its stakeholders. You’ll start at the bottom assuming you don’t have much work experience on hand already.
With that said, yes it’s possible to move up, and into, corporate finance and eventually make your way into corp finance / strat. I wouldn’t say an accounting clerk is the right path but something that supports a role that makes the horizontal transition much easier to achieve is ideal if not completly necessary.
I started off in operational finance for a consulting firm and moved to their corp dev team a couple of years ago fairly easily after networking with a few people. The first few years were pretty brutual (in operational finance) but i’m pretty happy now and have an ok resume that allows me to go to just about any consulting firm I want. Top 5 finance firm? Nah, but I don’t have family connections and wasn’t born with an IQ around 135.
Hope this helps…
Look, if you need the crutch of an MBA then that is basically hacksaw. So, in response to OP: successful without MBA or hacksaw, much cheaper than business school.
That’s what I always thought as well, but Itera says that in order to not be a paper pusher for life, you must have a top 2 or 3 MBA and that if you do not, many top firms wont even look at your resume
^ Even if that’s true, it’s your job to be the exception to the rule.
^true
or the official AF troll that argues against all logic no matter how unrealistic the chances are.
Look at employment reports and speak with alumni. Not everyone needs to go to HWS, M7, Top 10, Top 15, Top 20 etc. MBA and there is no arbitrary cut off line where the value of an MBA suddenly drops drastically.
There are many regionally strong MBAs that will get you a good job or allow you to switch careers if you are looking at jobs in a specific city and area.
The number of quality finance jobs are heavily outnumbered by MBA graduates.
How far down the top school list do you need to go before all positions get filled? A couple of steps at most.
Wendy is tearing it up. I think I’m in love.
Not like I am saying all MBAs are worth getting. But not everyone is trying to work in NYC IBD, in which case there are many MBA’s which will let you break into corporate finance, boutique/MM or even BB IB in a tier two city, asset management etc. I don’t agree with the idea of this thread that there are Top MBAs worth getting and everything else is just terrible.
And what would you define as “a couple of steps”?
not sure how other people feel about it, but I can’t remember a time in my many years where anyone ever said "back office whohooo! or yea! i’m working in operations!!
^lolz
University of Virginia Darden is undeniably the best business school if you want to work for Bank of America or Wachovia in Charlotte, NC.