Defining career goals is harder than it looked half a year ago. The storm in the financial world rages on; anyone predicting when it will ends is an ‘empty suit’ – as the black swan dude would say. On the bright side, being in the financial sector at this time also has its advantages. Last month alone produced at least two essay-worthy moments. Not exactly pleasant ones, however full of lessons and me displaying leadership qualities. Nice.
The job market is tight for bankers, so let’s look at what else is there. I could pose as a consultant wannabe, but that’s not really my dream job so it would be a weak performance. There are already legions of people from McK, BCG etc., who just pass through INSEAD. Add to this number the equally great number of crazy people who go to B-school with the sole intention of starting a consulting career. The idea of competing with fanatics for something I don’t really want is absurd. Moving on, we have prospects like entrepreneurship, VC, PE – yeah, keep dreaming. A realistic options is to shoot for the CFO position, or similar, somewhere in what is broadly named ‘industry’ Ouch. I am not investing this much money and effort only to become a glorified accountant.
With the above stuff out of the way, we go back to where we started. My experience is in banking, therefore from a top school it would be natural to go for investment banking, from a not-so-top school, to dive into ‘Other Finance’. And pray that by the time of graduation things will have calmed down. This has two immediate consequences: I have to go talk with someone who knows about i-banking and re-include LBS into the dream school list. Alright, back to integer n and why it refuses to be divided by 7.
August 3, 2008 at 5:54 pm
followed your blog from gmatclub.com
interesting. i can see some reflection of my profile :)
atleast GMATprep 1 score and Myers-Briggs test result is common.
keep writing and have fun
PS : are you considering ISB
August 4, 2008 at 7:33 am
Only European schools are in the list so far. The good US programs are two years and most importantly, I am looking for a career in Europe.
About ISB, is it an international school and to what extent? Hint: I am not from India.
August 4, 2008 at 7:39 am
aaah .. ok…
go through this if you have time… i’ll let you decide how “international” it is ;)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_School_of_Business
August 4, 2008 at 7:42 am
ok…
if you have time, go thpough this… I’ll let you decide how international it is .. ;)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_School_of_Business
August 5, 2008 at 2:37 am
You pose a great question. Are there really a plethora of career options coming out of school or is it 90% herd mentality vs. 10% outliers?
There is so much talk of “changing careers” at B school yet if you look at the stats the majority of top school grads go into Banking, Consulting, PE. “Industry” is such a broad term that it’s ridiculous to classify it under one title. The 10% outliers include non-profit, startups, etc… very rare based on anecdotal evidence from the 150-200 B school grads I know.
Will be interesting to see how this mix shifts in the next 2 years as the US slips into a recession.
August 5, 2008 at 6:25 am
I believe the mix is already changing, with the banking sector absorbing a smaller proportion of new MBAs. It will be also interesting to see what happens when/if the crisis hits the rest of the economy with full force. You can argue that it has already, but I am not sure. Reading Taleb’s book made me unsure of everything ;)
September 18, 2008 at 2:03 pm
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