<p>You've mentioned before that top MBA's can make huge money at Wall Street IB and PE firms. Can you make 300k to start with just an MBA in finance, or do you need to do your undergrad work in finance/accounting as well?</p>
<p>Uh, wouldn't this question be better handled through private PM/email?</p>
<p>But to answer your question, sure, you can absolutely make huge money at Wall Street IB and PE firms. And it's not me saying it. It's the mainstream business press that's saying it.</p>
<p>*
"As always, MBAs chase the money. And nowhere are the pay packages more regal than in the land of private equity. First-year compensation of $300,000 for top-tier talent at a Wall Street investment bank doesn't seem too shabby--until you consider that thoroughbred MBAs joining the largest private equity shops command base salaries and bonuses as high as $450,000. Add to that, of course, the real payoff: the equity. "More equity is flowing downtream to these new hires," says Brian Korb, a partner at New York executive search firm Glocap Search, co-publisher of the 2007 Private Equity Compensation Report. "Especially for the all-stars. It's just like in sports."" *</p>
<p>Keep in mind that that article was published in January. It's June now. I've heard that some of the later PE packages can total over $500k in the first year. </p>
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Can you make 300k to start with just an MBA in finance, or do you need to do your undergrad work in finance/accounting as well?
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<p>You don't * need * to do your undergrad work in finance/accounting. But it obviously does help to have pre-MBA experience in high finance, and such jobs are very difficult to get if you don't go to an elite undergrad program. Yet, keep in mind that most elite undergrad programs offer very limited undergrad coursework in finance/accounting. For example, HYPS offer very limited finance and accounting coursework for undergrads. And plenty of those students never take any such coursework at all but nevertheless get top finance jobs. For example, I know a girl who studied English at Harvard and got a top Wall Street job right out of undergrad. </p>
<p>Now, having said all that, I should probably tell you the downside. For IB, you really will be working like a dog. An 80-hour workweek would be considered a light week for an investment banker who is just starting out. It's not just that the hours are long, but also that the hours are so * unpredictable *. You just never know when some senior employee is going to dump a mountain of work on you on Friday night with no warning, forcing you to cancel all of your weekend plans. </p>
<p>The top PE jobs tends to offer a higher quality of life. The problem is that it is quite difficult to get a top PE job, even for the very best candidates. {Granted, there are plenty of mediocre PE firms out there and it's not that difficult to land a job with one of them, but the pay tends to be much lower and the experience and contacts they would give you are far less valuable}. Moreover, the top PE firms do relatively little traditional recruiting. You almost always have to find your way to them, which means spending a lot of time doing the legwork in building the necessary network. </p>
<p>But let me put it to you this way. I personally know 2 guys who had never taken an undergrad accounting or finance course in their whole lives. Furthermore, they had never had any prior work experience in finance of any sort, not even a summer internship. Yet they landed jobs in investment banking right after getting their MBA's, and will both almost certainly make $300k+ to start. </p>
<p>Now, to be fair, in case you are wondering how this story could be possible, and specifically why these gentlemen never decided to get any prior finance coursework or experience, let me fill in a few more details. Both of these men did their engineering undergrad at West Point, and both (obviously) served as Army officers after graduation, including deployments to Iraq. Both rose to the rank of captain. After leaving active service, they both entered a particular MBA program that required that they served a required operations-related internship, thus preventing them from getting an internship in banking/finance. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, these guys are living proof that you can get a lucrative banking job despite never having any undergrad coursework or prior experience in finance/accounting. It's rather hard to get that kind of experience when you're busy fighting a war.</p>
<p>Wow, thanks so much for the comprehensive response. You seem to really know your stuff about the business world, and I enjoy reading your posts. You're right, I probably should have PM'd you, but I was thinking that maybe this post would help out others who had the same question as I did.</p>
<p>Thanks again bro. It helped so much.</p>
<p>@sakky: I PM'ed you with a question and got no response :( !!</p>
<p>Hey I never promised to answer my PM quickly. I answer it when I get around to answering it.</p>
<p>"thanks again bro" hmm. lol?</p>