prakasharun01 wrote:
Thanks for the reply,I t was really helpful.
Well, You pretty summed everything up ,But could you please help with couple of follow up questions?
1. What is your work exp?
2.Does not having background in finance pose a bit of hindrance?
3.
a) I am kind of attached with Kellogg and Tuck for close knit culture. So thats good.
b)For someone who is thinking of a career in finance,given emphasis on consulting ;will it be a problem?
4. I do intend to work in America. How difficult for international candidate would be to pursue a career in finance post mba from Kellogg?Could you share some experiences of your class or alumini? Does career development club/cell help in this regard?
1. 5 years in finance. Without going into specifics, I'd say it "silver platted" not "gold platted" experience.
2. No. But lack of any business background could be. People who haven't had much corporate experience have been struggling in practice cases, not sure how things will turn out for them. If you did consulting, finance, corp 500, tech, etc you should be fine. If you've only did TFA or non-profits, the learning curve can be rougher.
3. 88% of people who applied for IB last year got an offer, and a vast majority of them had no finance experience. Banking is one of the easier industries to get into nowadays.
4. The trend at Kellogg is, the internationals who really want to stay in the USA, but didn't have super strong social skills, is they quickly changed from consulting to investment banking during recruiting season. The general belief (and I think it'll be accurate) is its much easier for an international to get into US based banking than US based consulting.
4a. I can only speak to consulting recruiting, but both the career management center and consulting clubs have been extremely helpful. I've used mostly club resources and 2nd year students since I was pretty far ahead knowledge wise, but the career management center has been very useful for my international friends and my friends not sure what they want to do.
Overall, for finance, I think Kellogg is a great school to attend. You have less competition, and all banks want a diverse class, so almost everyone finds an offer (with what seems like slightly less work than at schools like Booth). Last year, we even sent twice as many people to VC/PE than Columbia, a traditional finance school. Plus, you'll have a lot more fun and have a better experience at Kellogg than the traditional finance oriented schools (I went to a finance based undergrad business school, and it was filled with a lot of borderline sociopaths and backstabbers, Kellogg is the exact opposite and a very supportive environment).