I don't know what I want to do.....

I dont know... one of the guys I met was going to some firm to be Director of something .... sounded hella impressive to me.

LOL. You said "hella." You from Norcal?

I'm from there and I haven't heard that word in so long. That's hella cool.

For me it would be:

Not interested:
IB
Sales

Interested:
Consulting
Marketing
Corporate Finance (perhaps not very fun but good $$ and hours)

Add me to the list of those interested in rotational programs. The company I work for has a "Management Development Program" for fresh MBA grads, where after 2 years, you are put in a managerial role in the business unit that suits you best. Appearantly it's considered the "fast-tracK" to executive status. I've done some research on this, and lot of companies do have this type of program, especially for corp finance grads. Only one thing, I do believe the pay is not spectacular while your actually doing the rotations. Anyone else have info on rotationals??

Can you tell us a bit more about your firm? What kind of industry is it? Manufacturing? Services? Finance? etc?

What kind of pay are you talking about?

nope, aint from norcal but you right the first the time I heard hella was from some norcal cat.

What is NORCAL? North California?

I guy I know in GSB joined a rotational program wit BP and is optimistic about it. He also mentioned that Cargill has a good rotational program for MBAs.

Great thread. Sounds like a lot of us are on the same page.

I used to think consulting was hard to break into, but then realized it's just the McKinseys and Bains that are hard to break into, there are like ten million other consulting companies, although I think the pay drops off once you get outside the big brand names.

The health thing is the one thing that makes the consulting sound unappealing, I really like eating good food and exercising a lot etc. and flying on planes all the time would suck.

But one perk that my consultant friends all seem to enjoy is a ridiculous amount of frequent flyer miles and hotel points. One of my friends flew to Malaysia for sixty dollars (just had to pay taxes), and on another trip to the Carribean stayed at a resort hotel and paid like fifty bucks a night, and flew for free.

Another friend told me that she once sat down and calculated all the stuff that she expenses that she would otherwise have paid for (food, gas) and she came up with ten thousand dollars in one year. So in other words, that's ten thousand dollars of her own money that she didn't have to spend on food and gas, which is like 13 or 14K tacked onto your salary (pre-tax).

So definitely pros and cons w/ consulting, guess I'll have to figure it out when i get to school.

Rotational programs are cool..

I joined a commercial bank not too long out of college as a management associate. You rotated in wealth management, operations, consumer banking, and corporate banking...the awesome thing that you had the chance to decide on a functional area..assuming there was an opening.. We recruit MBAs too..There was one McCombs MBA in my class... he's now doing equity research in the asset management group..

The downside is that there were certain areas of the bank that people absolutely did not want to touch..i.e...consumer banking. I actually was one of the few interested in Operations.. but you had the opportunity to understand how all the functions the bank work..which is pretty unique

We had 36 associates in the program..most were pretty young..the bank gave us free corporate housing..we all got pretty close...and um...some of us got even closer..(we used to call the complex melrose place)...=)

Ok i think I'm rambling too much now..

I want pictures.

If you dont mind being a total road warrior, its even more than that. You dont have to fly back to your home city every weekend, you can fly somewhere else, so I've known people who have gone to colorado for free - not on miles - just instead of going home for the weekend - and gone skiing.

There are perks. Thats for sure, but they do come at a cost.

I once had the chance to go work for united. I'm kinda glad I didn't, and I kinda regret that I didnt. ... people do crazy stuff like fly to Bangkok for the weekend just for fun.

I heard the same from the people who worked for the Big Four auditors.

I think location is a big factor in quality of life for many jobs. Ibankers in NY work 80+ hours all the time, and it is just completely normal. Regardless of what they say, face time is extremely important, and you will be looked down upon if you are not in the office enough, even if you are efficient enough to finish faster. The expectations are different on the West Coast, and I wouldn't be surprised if many of the bankers in LA and SF work 15-20 hours week less than their NY counterparts. There is much more of a culture of getting your work done, and getting out while the sun is still shining.

Location can be a big factor in consulting as well, even though you are on the road all the time. I knew a lot of people that became consultants after undergrad. I had several friends around LA who were able to afford apartments on the beach, and seemed to enjoy a pretty reasonable quality of life on an analyst's (is that what they are called?) salary. I also knew a girl in NY who paid $1500 per month to share a 300 sq ft. (not joking) apartment with her twin sister ($3000 per month total). They were paid essentially the same as my friend in LA, which meant that they couldn't afford anything at all in NY.

I also had a friend in Michigan - and the untold secret for consulting is that you pretty much make the same no matter where you are based. He was living high off the hog making more or less the same money as people in LA and NY.

Now, I don't want anyone to think that I'm saying NY sucks, I actually love it there. They thing is, there a tons of people making lots and lots of money, so unless you are making lots of money you'll feel like you are missing out. The other thing is that the work culture in NY is really intense and you'll be wondering why you're working 80+ hours a week just to go back and forth from your **** apt. If you have one of those jobs where you make enough money to be happy in NY, you probably work too hard to enjoy it.

So, I guess what I'm saying is that you probably need to look beyond the job description when deciding what career to pursue. The exact same job in a different location might make all the difference.

It would fall into the Insurance/Financial Services Industry.

Where's the love for IB??

Okay, I know I've writing IB in my apps all along but I really don't either. I know I need to make a lot of money and I'm good with analyzing stuff and math. I've been living in 3 yrs of chillax IT life so 80hour weeks seem like exciting to me. But I can see how that might get tough after a year or two. Is there something else I should consider instead of MC?

I'd also like to work in Hong Kong/China after grad, so some kinda banking/investing sounds good to me.

Things that are out for me:
Brand Management
NPO
Sales
HR