Best Paying Jobs in Finance & the MBA

The MBA is an essential stepping stone to a finance career and is often seen as a gatekeeper to the best paying jobs in finance. Business school students look to the MBA experience to acquire and refine the skills to be able to handle the weighty financial and managerial responsibilities associated with finance deals.

Across our SBC client pool, we estimate about 30% of MBA candidates aspire to finance industry careers upon graduating from B-school.  The former MBA Admissions Officers on our SBC team have views on which MBA applicants should include finance in their application essays.

A former Wharton Admissions Officer on our team shared, “The investment banking career path is viable in an MBA application, if previous career trajectory makes placement realistic.”  A former Columbia (CBS) Admissions Officer on our team cautioned, “Make sure you are an interesting person outside of work – what makes you unique?”

Employment reports from the top MBA programs echo that finance is a dominant industry, as you can see from the snapshot below.

Placement into Finance Industry Roles*

*from MBA program Employment Reports

What do finance jobs pay?

An investment banking analyst is charged with navigating mergers and acquisitions, a niche that continues to thrive even during the pandemic-induced economic volatility. Analysts in investment banking actively participate in raising capital for and advising entrepreneurial clients across different sectors. 

“Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) is a general term used to describe the consolidation of companies or assets through various types of financial transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, consolidations, tender offers, purchase of assets, and management acquisitions,” shared Investopedia. We discussed the merits of the investment banking career path in a conversation with SBC consultant Puja, whose professional trajectory followed a similar route. 

Here are salary ranges for the investment banking path.

Investment banker salary* + bonus:

• Analyst – First Year: $70,000 – $150,000
• Analyst – Third Year: $120,000 – $350,000
• Associate – First Year: $150,000 – $350,000
• Associate – Third Year: $250,000 – $500,000
• Vice President: $350,000 – $1,500,000
• Managing Director/Partner: $500,000 – $20,000,000+

Typically an IB analyst bonus is between 30-100% of base salary. 

*Source: https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/salary/investment-banking-compensation

Post – MBA Associate position at an investment bank varies according to signing bonus, relocation bonus etc.: 

• Base salary:  $125,000-$150,000
• Bonus:  $80,000-$200,000
• Total: $200,000-$500,000 based on tenure and seniority

Request a free MBA candidacy analysis to understand your career profile for MBA admissions

Private equity* compensation

A recent client of ours shared about his private equity career aspirations, “It would offer me the excitement of structuring and negotiating transactions, the satisfaction of capital value creation, and the entrepreneurial zeal of ownership.”  The path is alluring to many.

“A private equity analyst does the behind the scenes work to attract big clients or companies that promise large financial returns by applying a few strategic changes to their current marketing strategy. This is where private equity analysts come into play. This junior entry level position focuses on executing deals, monitoring the portfolio of companies, and screening new deals. They also come up with better financial models for struggling companies to better compete in the industry through collecting data from similar competitors in the marketplace,” shares Ladders.com. Here are salary ranges for the private equity career path.

• Analyst/Associate – First Year: $100K – $250K
• Analyst/Associate – Second Year: $150K – $300K
• Analyst/Associate – Third Year +: $170K – $350K
• Vice President: $300K – $800K
• Managing Director/Partner: $500K – $10MM+

*Source: https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/salary/private-equity-compensation

Other high-paying roles that business school applicants consider include hedge fund analyst and sales and trading.

Request a free MBA candidacy analysis to understand your career profile for MBA admissions

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