<p>I was wondering about a couple of things:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Can you break into WM/PWM/IM or whatever they call it from a non-target school as an undergrad? Typically how difficult is it if you don't go to a really prestigious school?</p></li>
<li><p>If you do get a WM/PWM/IM job, and get your CFA, how do MBA schools view that type of work experience vs i-banking and all that?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>Bump Bump 10</p>
<p>A few years ago, the Dean of a certain business school, that many would argue is #1, told me that working for a highly regarded AM firm for a few years and doing well would be good preparatory work. He didn’t say it would be any better or worse than banking, consulting, etc, The basic principle is that if you are a banker they are only looking for so many of that type and you will be compared to others in that category, if you are a consultant the same applies. For example, they accept a ton of people from McKinsey - for good reason - and he said that he “got so many of those McKinsey types” that it was nice to see interesting applicants from other fields. FYI “Mcksinsey types” are a certain type of extreme overachiever that are overrepresented at H/S.</p>
<p>Even more interestingly, he said that going into sales and establishing an outstanding record was the best thing that I could do (I sure wasn’t expecting him to say that).</p>