Jobs other than I- Banking for Same Salary

<p>People keep saying on this board that I- Banking isn't the only field that can give you 100k+ first year out of college. However, what are the other fields of business that give you this? Do they all work the hours/ have the stress of I- Banking? Do they all have the same earning potential as I-Banking?</p>

<p>You can make that much in sales. However, either you are a salesman or you aren't. If you aren't, don't waste your time.</p>

<p>So, pretty much IB and sales? I heard HF also get the big bucks, don't know about their hours or how competative it is though. </p>

<p>Another question about IB is, how long after you get an MBA do your hours settle down? Something like 60 hrs/ week?</p>

<p>Are you serious? If you're asking that, choose something else. Work will own you until you retire, which can be before 40 in IB.</p>

<p>Though you can make big bucks in anything, the average salesperson or anything else makes nothing near the average banker. </p>

<p>Though face it, most of us will never get IB jobs. They hire top kids from top schools and the connected so it's not a comparison most people ever have to make.</p>

<p>No, I am actually not interested in IB, even if I was qualified. I was just curious.</p>

<p>But again out of curiousity, what if you didn't go to a good undergrad school, but get 3 years of good work experience, and lets say go to HBS. Will I-Banking firms care about your bad undergrad school, or will they take you because they see Harvard on your resume?</p>

<p>I don't think I'm qualified to answer this, but I would think that they would look more at where you did your MBA.</p>

<p>collegefreak12 - Experience really depends on who you worked for and your position title. Unfortunately those go to the already well connected. I believe it is very possible to make that type of money and luck has a lot to do with it. </p>

<p>After a few years on the job an MBA (especially if your employer is willing to pay for graduate school) is definitely worth its weight in gold. And this is where the big firms comes in recruiting only from top tier (top 20) schools.</p>

<p>To answer the original question:</p>

<p>If you want to make that kind of money hold two 40-hr a week jobs. Thats the only reason it pays so much.</p>

<p>You could make the same doing that AND work less hours.</p>

<p>You could get an ibanking job if you did well at HBS and have the persona they're looking for. 2 things though. Take a look at where people at HBS went to college. The majority went to elite colleges. Also take a look at who works on Wall Street, most went to both elite undergrad and b schools. Guys hire people from their own schools over and over. Guys they meet at the Harvard club.</p>

<p>There are a bunch of really smart guys who break the mold on WS, i.e. they weren't born rich, didn't go to prep school and an ivy. Most, however, follow the mold.</p>

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After a few years on the job an MBA (especially if your employer is willing to pay for graduate school) is definitely worth its weight in gold.

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<p>I should hope it's worth a bit more than that, considering that even the fanciest piece of paper doesn't weigh very much. :P</p>

<p>In IB/ HF, how quickly can you make 500k after MBA in a top 10 firm?</p>

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After a few years on the job an MBA (especially if your employer is willing to pay for graduate school) is definitely worth its weight in gold. And this is where the big firms comes in recruiting only from top tier (top 20) schools.

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<p>Well, I don't know about the qualifier "especially if your employer is willing to pay for graduate school". For a sponsorship like that, you, with very rare exception, have to agree to work for your sponsoring employer upon graduation, and that vitiates much of the reason for getting the MBA in the first place. After all, much of the value of the MBA is in the recruiting and in the opportunity to change employers, or at least consider the possibility of changing. MBA graduation is one of the few times, and could be perhaps one of the last times in your life in which you may have 3+ job offers in hand that you can weigh and attempt to leverage one against the other (as opposed to later in your career, where your career choice tends to boil down to a dyad: either staying in your current job or taking a competing offer from another employer, but rarely will you have 3 or more offers on the table). If you've lost those opportunities because of your sponsorship, then you've lost much of the value of the degree.</p>

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For a sponsorship like that, you, with very rare exception, have to agree to work for your sponsoring employer upon graduation, and that vitiates much of the reason for getting the MBA in the first place.

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<p>Agreed. When being recruited by a business school in my area, I met with many alumni who had all had their part-time MBA paid for by a major employer in the area. They all seemed to be in the same crappy job they were in prior to getting the MBA and they all looked miserable IMO.</p>

<p>But back to my question...how long after your MBA can you start getting 500k in the top firms of the top paying jobs like consulting/ IB/ HF?</p>

<p>Sakky - I don't see why that has to be the case. There are folks who are happy with their job and can not afford to finance graduate school on their own therefore relying on employers to do so. Personally, I have met quite a met folks whose companies are shelling out the big bux for employees to attend graduate programs in order to push them up in the rankings of the company, due to their performance over the few years they have been employed. Americans are surpruisingly greedy - I would be perfectly fine having an employer pay for an MBA or any graduate degree and would devote a ton of time and effort into that company for doing that much for me. It may be a bit overwhelming to be doing graduate level work and being expected to work full-time, however it is a bit ackward to me to sit and complain about 80k a year job offers when there are plenty of people in america who can not find means for bare necessities such as food and water </p>

<p>Collegefreak12 - It's more than likely you will not make 500k a year ever. Obviously you don't realize that as competitive as any top program in any college may be Corporate America is that much worse. Obviously you don't have a realistic understanding of how much money 500k a year is.`</p>

<p>UriA702, don't get me wrong, I have worked before for minimum wage, and I know exactly how much money that is :-). Its insane, I know. BUT...if you guys are casually mentioning that these guys START with 130k (at 22 years old!), then logically I would imagine eventually 500k would be possible for these guys. Especially since you guys say 200k is possible as 3rd year analyst. Am I missing something?</p>

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There are folks who are happy with their job

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<p>I would question their need to get an MBA then.</p>

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and can not afford to finance graduate school on their own

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<p>That's what loans are for. People who "can not afford" to pay for their business school are generally just scared to take the leap.</p>

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it is a bit ackward to me to sit and complain about 80k a year job offers

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<p>That's your own issue. If I can earn 200k why would I accept making 80k? </p>

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would be perfectly fine having an employer pay for an MBA or any graduate degree and would devote a ton of time and effort into that company for doing that much for me.

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<p>You should look at it like an investment though, and not just be blindly loyal. If you are better off leaving the company and paying for your own MBA then you should do what is best for you.</p>

<p>Yes, but my point is that not everyone leaves the company they are working for to get an MBA. There are students that are still employed and an MBA would guarantee them a good spot in the company. Or they work for family or friends and plan on the MBA securing their spot on the board of directors. young entrepreneurship as well. Sure you might get 120k a year out of a top MBA program such as Columbia, Whatron, Harvard, Etc. Etc. But if I was employed enjoyed my job and the folks I work with, and if it just so happens to be various people in management decide to put you in an MBA program to get you into management for that company the company obviously has faith in you and that can go a long way.</p>

<p>As far as loans go, what if you don't get approved for 40k in loans? What if you are still in heavy debt from undergrad? not being able to take 80k in loans to pay for grad school doesn't directly equate to not willing to work hard. </p>

<p>I can only imagine the credit issues some students may have and a big heavy loan is unpractical. For some who are strapped for cash, If the company decides to pay for it and you can not afford to quit due to no other source of income how is there another way? Are the loans going to cover 15,000 a year in rent as well?</p>

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Sakky - I don't see why that has to be the case

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<p>I never said that it HAS to be the case. I am saying that it is LIKELY to be the case. You can't get something for nothing. A company that sponsors you will reasonably expect you to return to them, and will almost certainly not pay you a commensurate salary that you would have gotten if you were an outsider MBA coming in (the rationale being that they already "paid" you by paying for the MBA). </p>

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There are folks who are happy with their job and can not afford to finance graduate school on their own therefore relying on employers to do so. Personally, I have met quite a met folks whose companies are shelling out the big bux for employees to attend graduate programs in order to push them up in the rankings of the company, due to their performance over the few years they have been employed. Americans are surpruisingly greedy - I would be perfectly fine having an employer pay for an MBA or any graduate degree and would devote a ton of time and effort into that company for doing that much for me. It may be a bit overwhelming to be doing graduate level work and being expected to work full-time, however it is a bit ackward to me to sit and complain about 80k a year job offers when there are plenty of people in america who can not find means for bare necessities such as food and water

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<p>Look, if you are truly happy working for your employer, then obviously there is no reason not to get your degree through them. </p>

<p>But the truth is, most people are not like that. Most people are indeed looking at the MBA as a way to explore other employers. Recruiting is where much (probably most) of the value of a top MBA lies.</p>

<p>Furthermore, even if you think you are happy with your current employer, your mindset may change dramatically once you start your MBA program. After all, many people who think they are happy with their employer are so only because they never had any other appealing options before. Sometimes ignorance really is bliss. I personally know one girl who was sponsored to get her elite MBA by a very famous large engineering firm (which shall remain unnamed, but we all know it). The school experience made her sad because every day, she was immersed in an environment filled with recruiting opportunities from top consulting and banking firms, hip and sexy companies like Google and Genentech, and she began to regret her choice to be sponsored. When she was an undergrad, she had never been wined and dined by these kinds of firms. She never thought she was good enough to get into firms like McKinsey or Goldman Sachs. But now here they were, wanting to talk to her and her classmates offering internship interviews...and she couldn't participate in any of that because she was committed to returning to her sponsor. </p>

<p>What makes the situation more corrosive from a psychological standpoint is then watching the friends you made in the MBA program take highly glamorous and sexy offers in consulting/banking/hedge-funds/private-equity/etc., and knowing that you're stuck returning to your old sponsor. Later on when y'all get together for social events, the McKinsey associates will talk about all of the high-end consulting projects they have been completing, getting facetime with CEO's and other high exec's, the bankers and financiers will talk about the deals they have participated in (bought all these firms, sold this division, merged X and Y together, etc.), and this girl ends up talking about how she optimized a dolly-cart her factory. True story. This actually happened. </p>

<p>Look, the truth is, we tend to judge ourselves relative to our peers, so from a psychological standpoint, it matters greatly who we consider to be our peers. If you go to a top MBA program, you will inevitably consider your classmates to be your peers. If you see your peers heading off to what you perceive to be better jobs with more power and more responsibility, then you will inevitably feel bad for yourself and your career. Now of course if you are psychologically strong, then you may be able to resist, but not everybody is psychologically strong.</p>