Engineering to Finance (iBanking) - Profile Evaluation

Hi Conrad,

Yes, that was very helpful. I appreciate your quick feedback.

The story behind my CPA is that, I was an engineering major, with little to no knowledge in finance or accounting, but I've always had an interest for both technology and business. After working in IT Auditing for a while I realized that it wasn’t a challenging / intriguing enough career path for me. I decided that I wanted to pursue a career in finance with a focus in the technology sector, but I knew it wasn’t going to be as easy. It was obvious I had gaps to fill, so I decided to go the accounting route because in my mind it was the “stepping stone” towards finance. I managed to network my way into a Corporate Accounting job and realized that getting a CPA would prove to investment banks that I would be an ideal candidate with both an analytical engineering background and a CPA. I also wanted to prove that I was a quick learner, because I got my CPA in less than 10 months.

Long story short, I obtained my CPA to break into iBanking and now I’d like to take it to the next level by getting my MBA.

I consider myself “unique” in the sense that it is close to impossible to break into iBanking unless you it's directly out of undergrad, MBA, or you've had a related finance background such as restructuring. Not sure if you agree or if you’ve experienced any story similar to mine, but would love to hear about it if you have.

I guess I haven’t really answered your question about “Why business School”? In all honesty, I think I’m still trying to figure this out… In my mind, I kind of feel like I’m a jack of all trades master of none because I’ve hopped around so many different jobs. I feel like going to business school will help solidify all I’ve learned over the years and hopefully provide me some inspiration as to what I want to do for the rest of my life. I know this sounds weird because most people think you should go into bschool knowing what you want to get out of it, but I kind of feel like I need to go to bschool to figure out what I want to do for the rest life. Sorry if it’s a little too philosophical, but like I said, I’m still trying to pin-point the exact reason of “Why business school?” And I think over the years I’ve gotten closer and closer to an exact reason, but I’m probably not quite there yet… I think I will know for certain as my tenure here at this investment bank gets closer to maturity... Hopefully this all makes sense…