<p>Are top law schools recruited heavily by financial services and consulting companies, or do they still prefer to hire from MBAs? The reason I ask is because I have this family member who plans on working in Investment banking but rather than getting a top MBA, he plans to go to a law school. His reasoning is that after he finishes his undergrad at 22, he'l finish his law degree at 25 and go work for a company like Goldman as an Investment banker. As opposed to getting his undergrad, working a couple years than getting a MBA and starting as an Ibanker at the age of 26+. I understand his reasoning but would just like to hear some comments on this career path.</p>
<p>Penn Law and Wharton have a joint degree so he can do both at once.</p>
<p>I think if you go in without an MBA you start as an analyst, but if you go in after the MBA you'll probably start as an associate.</p>
<p>Naw with a law degree you get recruited as an associate, but be careful, they only recruit from the top top schools.</p>
<p>If wanting to get to the highest level of ibanking the quickest way possible, and given the choice of a top school mba without work experience and a top school jd without work experience, what would be the best route? Thx in advance for any info =]</p>
<p>You'd get an associate position either way, MBA I think would have the edge though since it's recruited more. Besides, an MBA takes only 2 years and most top schools wont disclose your grades. This is not the case for most law schools.</p>
<p>I think it's a really bad strategy. He won't have any business experience and thats what the banks demand. They have their choice of lawyers because ibankers make so much more. It's a joke at the bank I worked for that every lawyer wants to switch sides. Why on earth would they want a 25 year old newly minted lawyer with no business background?</p>
<p>Naw, I know for certain they hire at least a few from Harvard Law and some other top schools. It's just a matter of getting someone with that name brand degree behind them.</p>
<p>And yeah, I wouldn't be surprised that lawyers want to become bankers, later in the game it can work out well, see Bruce Wasserstein.</p>
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Are top law schools recruited heavily by financial services and consulting companies, or do they still prefer to hire from MBAs? The reason I ask is because I have this family member who plans on working in Investment banking but rather than getting a top MBA, he plans to go to a law school. His reasoning is that after he finishes his undergrad at 22, he'l finish his law degree at 25 and go work for a company like Goldman as an Investment banker. As opposed to getting his undergrad, working a couple years than getting a MBA and starting as an Ibanker at the age of 26+. I understand his reasoning but would just like to hear some comments on this career path.
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<p>It's possible, but it's riskier. The top banks still prefer to hire MBA's. </p>
<p>Moreover, the path is more difficult. B-schools are more geared towards getting into paths like banking. They will have many social events and networking events that will teach you how to get into banking. There will be many resources available for you to do practice interviews. There will be lots of other people interesting in banking around you, which will allow you to do better networking. I know plenty of MBA's who got into banking who never went through the normal recruiting process at all, but rather got their interview because of people they met at B-school. You will have fewer opportunities to exploit these 'intangible resources' at law school, as the law school will host far fewer banking receptions, there will be fewer fellow students who are interested in banking (or have a banking background) with whom you can use as a connection, and so forth. </p>
<p>However, the biggest risk of all that I see is that this all presumes that you will actually like banking. The fact is, plenty of people try out banking and then find out that they don't like it. Many people feel that it isn't "real work", but rather just a game of numbers. Many people just don't like the lifestyle. </p>
<p>Hence, I think a far safer strategy is to work as an analyst right after undergrad. That's when you can find out whether you really like it or not. If you like it, good, then you can later get your MBA or law degree, or if you're really skilled, you can be promoted to associate level directly. If you find out that you don't like it, then you quit, and now you know that you don't like it. So now you can find something that you do like. What if you go to law school with the express purpose of going to banking, then you get the banking associate job, and only then do you find out that you don't like it? Now you have a problem on your hands, because it basically means that you went to law school for nothing. </p>
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I think it's a really bad strategy. He won't have any business experience and thats what the banks demand. They have their choice of lawyers because ibankers make so much more. It's a joke at the bank I worked for that every lawyer wants to switch sides. Why on earth would they want a 25 year old newly minted lawyer with no business background?
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<p>Well, no, I think that's too strong. Keep in mind that banks already hire plenty of analysts right after undergrad who have no work experience. Furthermore, of those rare people who get elite MBA's without any work experience, I have seen some of them get hired by the banks. This extends to other degrees too. I've heard of a wunderkind who graduated with his PhD in Economcis at MIT when he was 24 and got offered numerous associate positions at the major banks. </p>
<p>I would also point out that there are plenty of bankers who want to become lawyers. This is particularly so of those young bankers who find out that they hate banking. For example, I know a guy who worked as an analyst at Goldman Sachs for 2 years. But he didn't like the world of banking. So now he's getting a law degree. Specifically, he's getting a JD/MBA at Harvard. But he's not going back to banking. Basically, he characterizes his banking experience as a useful learning experience, and something that looks really on his resume, but he doesn't want to go back to it.</p>
<p>Hmm...what does it take to get into a top notch MBA program immediately after undergrad? And after the MBA, are such candidates on an equal footing with other MBA students for jobs?</p>
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Hmm...what does it take to get into a top notch MBA program immediately after undergrad?
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<p>Basically, you have to have done absolutely amazing things while you were an undergrad, particularly things that demonstrate your business or leadership ability. For example, starting and running your own successful business while you were a student, taking extremely strong leadership positions in college EC's, or things like that. I know a guy who, while a full-time college student, was also the de-facto boss of his family's restaurant. His father was nominally in charge, but he was getting ready to pass the reins to him.</p>
<p>Of course that presumes that you don't have any prior work experience. Not everybody attends college right after high school, and even of those that do, not everybody completes college in one straight stint. Some people start working immediately after high school and then go to college later in their lives as re-entry students. Others try out college, but have problems so drop out and get real jobs, and then finish college later. I know a guy who was completely immature when he went to college, and as a result was forced to leave college. He then joined the military, eventually becoming a member of the Special Forces and rising to the officer ranks (through OCS), and completing numerous missions in Afghanistan and Iraq. When he was discharged, he completed his degree through the GI Bill and then immediately went to HBS. So technically, he got into a top-notch MBA program right after undergrad, in the sense that he got in right after he got his bachelor's degree. But obviously this guy has unimpeachable leadership qualities. </p>
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And after the MBA, are such candidates on an equal footing with other MBA students for jobs?
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<p>Generally not, because the lack of work experience does hurt you. For example, if you want to get into Ibanking as an associate, it helps a lot to have prior work experience as a banker, either as an analyst or a summer intern. So obviously if you have analyst experience, you don't need to get summer experience. You can spend the summer trying something else like consulting. However, if you don't have analyst experience, then you really ought to get yourself a summer internship. If you don't even have that, then while it's not impossible to get hired, it's quite difficult. So the guy coming in with no work experience of any sort really needs to get that summer internship.</p>
<p>The point is, I think it is highly risky for somebody to try to use law school for the express purpose of getting into banking. It is a far safer move to just get a banking analyst job right after undergrad to see if you like it. Plenty of people find out that they don't like banking. If that is you, then you need to find that out as quickly as possible. If it turns out that you don't like banking, then fine, you can quit and go to law school or MBA school or get a a regular job or whatever it is you want to do. But at least now you know. It's quite sad to see people going through long grad school to get one particular job, only to then find out that they don't like that job.</p>
<p>There are also plenty of lawyers who work at law firms for several years before making the leap to the business side -- investment banking, private equity, venture capital, hedge funds, etc. Only lawyers at the very top law firms, usually in NYC, are typically able to make this transition.</p>