treydingo wrote:
Greetings,
I graduated from my undergrad with a major in Finance in only 3 years in 2010 and have been working for a fortune 500 defense company ever since. I am regarded as a top performer and also worked for them for a year during my undergrad as an intern. I took the GMAT once and scored a 660 and am scheduled to take it again in exactly 1 month in hopes of a 700+.
My dilemma is the more I study the less confident I am that I will break 700. I also can't stop thinking that even if I do break 700 it will be a hard sell to get into a top MBA program with only 2 years of work experience at matriculation.
The reason that I want to go back to school and get a top MBA is I want to work in the financial industry (preferably i-banking) because to be frank I completely hate my current job. I have applied to literally hundreds of financial jobs online but I feel like I'm just beating my head against a wall because it hasn't gotten me anywhere. I don't want to wait until 2013 to get more work experience and then apply to my MBA because the work experience that I am getting is completely irrelevant to what I want to do!
The MBA formula seems like a catch 22 for early career switchers because it requires years of work experience to go back so you are almost forced to stick it out with the job you have.
Do you have any advice for a person with my Dilemma? Should I stick it out and just wait for another year at my current hell i mean job, take one of those sketchy commision only financial planning jobs to get me somewhat closer to i-banking or just let bigons be bigons and go to work for my dads construction company?
Is it out of the question for me to get into a top program with only 2 years work experience and coming from a non-pedigree school? Also, is there a sense of leniancy when it comes to work experience if i apply to a 10-25 ranked program instead?
Thanks.
I think the only formula that you have stumbled upon is this: applying to online job ads yields little success.
Here are some of your options: Network. Find people you know or fellow alumni who are in the financial industry and see if they can help you get your foot in the door of the industry.
Pursue an MSc in Finance. These
pre-experience/short experience programs offer a year-long education in finance and great placement options in the industry.
It is not out of the question to be accepted to a top program with just 2 years of experience, but those 2 years need to be walk-on-water amazing. Yes, there is greater "leniency" about the quality of that work experience as you move down the rankings, but there is typically a drop in finance field placements as well in that descent.