Employment after MBA

Question

Here's my deal, practicing attorney who kind of got screwed over a little bit with the contraction in the market. Have a few years WE and want to go back to school for an MBA in finance. What kind of grants/scholarships can you get with a 650 ish GMAT?

And I know from law schools how horrific the employment picture was. For an MBA, how likely is someone at a full-time program ranked 40-100 or so likely to end up unemployed? I want to work in finance (don't care about Wall Street) but do not have industry specific experience. How easily can I make this career change?

JDMBAhopeful · Answer

Fellow person doing a similar route. I've done a lot of research and if you're gonna apply you've got to have a very clear goal that makes sense to your interests. For my applications I could have named off the 4-5 companies in 3 specific cities that I hope to work in. The big issue is making sure going back to school isn't going to hurt you. At some point, you're risking being overqualified for most jobs, but underqualified experience-wise for the jobs you're targeting. So I guess this comes back to making sure you have clear goals.

I'd also suggest pulling up the GMAT. I know it sucks, but if you can get through law school you should be able to get it at/near a 700. You'd be surprised how open business schools are for lawyers. If I were you, to make sure you aren't going to be caught between two job levels and then being unemployed, I'd suggest making sure you go to the best school you can relative to your goals (field, location, etc). I'd shoot for top 40 schools only.

NE12 · Answer

How much of financial aid/scholarship $ could I get from a top 50 though? I really don't want to pay full price for an MBA unless it's a top 15. I got 650 on first GMAT but cancelled because my practice tests were all 670-710 so I figure it may have been bad luck.

By that, are you saying that if your goal is to do corporate finance that you should be able to name like 3-4 of the employers in town that seem realistically attainable with the MBA?

Posted from my mobile device

JDMBAhopeful · Answer

I have no idea on scholarships yet. Unfortunately that's where you've got to decide whether adding debt will pay off with better job prospects. This is really why I said you should push for a better GMAT to hopefully get in better schools while also improving your scholarship chances. Especially if you're planning on applying next fall so that you get in earlier rounds when there's more scholarship money available.

Sorry, I just meant you need to have a clearly defined goal and I probably shouldn't have given my example since it's almost too specific. I plan to do strategy consulting in the southeast. I said I could name the companies because admissions knows that means (usually) the top 8-10 consulting firms in a select few cities. For you I mean you need to be able to say more than just "finance," since that's such a broad field. Be able to say maybe a general location area and maybe what size/type firms you want. Be able to say if you want to work in banking on wall street or if you're targeting an industry job with a F500.

Once you get outside of the top 15 schools or so, school location means a lot for the job search. So if you want to eventually work for Nike* for example, you need to attend a top school or look at schools they recruit from outside the top 15-20 schools. Usually they'll be recruiting from schools nearby to save costs. They aren't going to fly across the country to pick up an MBA from the southeast at a non-target school.

*I don't actually know who/what Nike targets - just the first company that popped in my head

99Colleges · Answer

JDMBAhopeful,

Companies doing regional hiring is quite common outside top 10-15 programs. If you eye a particular organization, then you may consider programs where that organization regularly recruits in sizable numbers. Case in point: Amazon at Ross. And if you take a step back, you'll find certain industries recruiting in large numbers at certain campuses, which gives you even more flexibility.

VeritasPrepDozie · Answer

most of the programs ranked where you are looking will be regional programs and these programs actually do a decent job of placing in regional companies so I would identify employers that match up in regions you are looking at. If you are looking for scholarship money then you may want to pull up your GMAT a bit more especially since you have only taken it once

Employment after MBA

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