I'm trying to decide which path to take in my career and advice would be appreciated.
I work as an equities analyst on the sell side and have my own generalist coverage at 24. Up until recently, I have had my heart set on going to a top 10 MBA school, but I am starting to have serious doubts about that plan because I am not sure if the payoff will justify a total cost (tuition + opp cost) of ~$400K and two years.
The reason for my hesitance is that I recently found out how much most of the people I work with make (someone made an oops) and have been surprised and somewhat discouraged. Harvard MBAs with CFAs make less than some (if not all) of our retail brokers who have degrees from no name universities and no real paper qualifications to speak of. Most of the brokers are pulling in about 300K, some 500K and a few 1mm. These figures make an analyst salary look like a joke, even at the more senior levels.
It's not that easy to build your own book, but I do have connections with a lot of sales people and think I have a reasonable chance of getting a job in a year or two in either institutional sales or retail sales with starting support at a large bank to help me out in the tough early years. So I'm starting to wonder if sales would be a better route.
Then again, the really phenomenal money is on the buy side, so maybe I should go to business school to network and have a chance to get into either HFs or PE. But from what I've read, it's brutally competitive to get into HFs and PE, and while I think I have a competitive background, I doubt I'm in the top 5-10% of candidates, which is probably where most of the good shops are pulling fresh hires from. Compared to sales, it would be a waste to go to B-school and end up a mediocre buy sider.
So why the angst if I'm young and have a good job? Besides trying to figure out where the biggest bang for the buck lies, I find the sell side easy and boring, mainly because it seems very far removed from the "action"--actually managing money and pulling the trigger on investment ideas. Also, I have no interest in becoming a specialist in one industry or working brutal hours (I start work before 5 am--woot!) for the rest of my career. So what should I do? Should I apply to MBA schools in a year or two or just throw in the towel and go for sales? And yes, it really is all about the money.
Someone please smack me upside the head with some good advice and/or a reality check.
I work as an equities analyst on the sell side and have my own generalist coverage at 24. Up until recently, I have had my heart set on going to a top 10 MBA school, but I am starting to have serious doubts about that plan because I am not sure if the payoff will justify a total cost (tuition + opp cost) of ~$400K and two years.
The reason for my hesitance is that I recently found out how much most of the people I work with make (someone made an oops) and have been surprised and somewhat discouraged. Harvard MBAs with CFAs make less than some (if not all) of our retail brokers who have degrees from no name universities and no real paper qualifications to speak of. Most of the brokers are pulling in about 300K, some 500K and a few 1mm. These figures make an analyst salary look like a joke, even at the more senior levels.
It's not that easy to build your own book, but I do have connections with a lot of sales people and think I have a reasonable chance of getting a job in a year or two in either institutional sales or retail sales with starting support at a large bank to help me out in the tough early years. So I'm starting to wonder if sales would be a better route.
Then again, the really phenomenal money is on the buy side, so maybe I should go to business school to network and have a chance to get into either HFs or PE. But from what I've read, it's brutally competitive to get into HFs and PE, and while I think I have a competitive background, I doubt I'm in the top 5-10% of candidates, which is probably where most of the good shops are pulling fresh hires from. Compared to sales, it would be a waste to go to B-school and end up a mediocre buy sider.
So why the angst if I'm young and have a good job? Besides trying to figure out where the biggest bang for the buck lies, I find the sell side easy and boring, mainly because it seems very far removed from the "action"--actually managing money and pulling the trigger on investment ideas. Also, I have no interest in becoming a specialist in one industry or working brutal hours (I start work before 5 am--woot!) for the rest of my career. So what should I do? Should I apply to MBA schools in a year or two or just throw in the towel and go for sales? And yes, it really is all about the money.
Someone please smack me upside the head with some good advice and/or a reality check.