dabots wrote:
there has been a trend in recent years for star analysts to make associate without an mba, and for bypassing the mba in general.
my comment is a little off topic but still related:
i work in finance (not banking) and am not so sure about this. i know a lot of younger people in finance like to trash the mba because they expect to become star analysts and rise to associates without an mba (why waste two years!), but this is pretty rare. only a handful make associate without an mba, and those who do frequently have a difficult time rising to VP and MD levels. the fact is that you might be able to skip up to a post-mba job without an mba if you are good, but that you often still need an mba to see career progress down the road. from my experience, there are plenty of people in finance who work 2 years in IB, and then ~2-3 more years in IB, PE or HF before returning because they know they can't move up much more without an MBA. for all the hype and talk, if you look at the websites of most top firms (blackstone and that ilk), almost everyone above associate has a top 2 or 3 mba (blackstone looooooooves HBS). anyway, i am not saying that someone HAS to have an mba, but i think it's still pretty much par for the course. perhaps your research shows something different -- i would be interested in hearing your findings / experience.