MBA Admissions Consultant
Joined: 26 Dec 2008
Posts: 2457
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Re: Chances?
[#permalink]
22 Feb 2009, 17:03
Apply in 2-3 years. Here's why.
First, you're young and have little experience. You may be a well rounded person which is good (you're not all finance, all the time), but that doesn't make up for the lack of experience.
Secondly, in this kind of environment your lack of experience will be an even bigger handicap when it comes to MBA recruiting - especially finance. You'll be competing against other MBA classmates who will have more finance experience than you -- and in this day and age experience trumps credentials (so your CFA, CPA, etc. won't really mean a whole lot compared to some guy who has 2-3 years of finance experience).
As you probably know, the financial services industry has seen the biggest sh*tstorm since the Great Depression. They are shedding more jobs than they are taking on. The financial industry won't go away, but it's going through a huge reorganization structurally, which will take a few years to play out. Some banks will fall (count on it). Others may get nationalized. Others will get sliced, diced, recombined and sold off to be then recombined with other smaller units. New institutions may even emerge.
As such, your best bet is to stick to your day job now and wait it out for a few years, especially since you're young.
In 2-3 years, you will be in a better position to transition into finance from where you're at right now. I normally don't recommend people to "wait" to make a career switch (i.e. if you've decided to do it, do it now! Why waste time?), but this is one of those exceptions.
If you want to get into finance but you can afford to wait, you are better off waiting.