I had this good essay draft for INSEAD about my career goals. Now, I still have it, but it’s no longer relevant. What the hell happened to finance? I had a chat with a current student in Fontainebleau and the news is all bad for banking internships. The rest of the financial sector does not look very bright either. In addition to all that, sector and location switching is getting close to impossible. This means that if the economy is still weak, after graduation I’d have to return to my country/ region and look for job similar to my current one. Urgh.
Right now I have absolutely no idea what to do with this essay or with my INSEAD application for that matter. There is a chance that things will be different by 2010 but it’s stupid to base my whole strategy on that assumption. On the other hand, I realise that my job is not secure at all, so I am not really losing a promising career by going to business school. If I’m going to fight for survival anyway, maybe it’s better to do it armed with a top MBA (and in debt?) than with bare fists.
I’d really like to hear from fellow applicants, especially international ones with financial background. Please leave a comment or use the contact form.
February 9, 2009 at 5:18 pm
Im an intl applicant and have been working in the financial industry for almost 3 years now. admitted, things are bad…really bad, but i dont see why that should stop you from proceeding with ur apps. there are really 2 possibilities: 1) by the time u graduate, the financial industry will still be slow. thats fine, BUT ur mba would have taught u hopefully how to make the most even from slow situations and think out of the box. thats not something ure gonna get if u continue with the current job, altho it may be somewhat secure.
2) by the time u graduate, the fin industry may have picked up..well obviously ur mba woud come in handy here n u can get a good job..
altho the fin industry may be going through tough times, there are still always opportunities at various stages..just my feedback, good luck! :)
February 10, 2009 at 8:51 am
You are right that I should not stop with the application. Still the goals essay leaves me scrathcing my head. Should I write “I wanna be an investment banker” and leave the impression that I have been living in a cave for the past year? Or do I write something more realistic and humble, appearing unambitious to the adcom?
February 11, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Well its a valid dilemma. You could probably try to sound pragmatic in your goals essay and say that “Despite the meltdown, I wanna be an IB”, and give your reasons why you feel its still a wise choice considering the present scenario. Or you can show flexibility by saying that I’m ready to consider an alternative post mba job in finance temporarily. These are just suggestions, but whatever u write should sound like a focused and well thought out goal! Good luck :-)
February 11, 2009 at 2:33 pm
hmm well if u want to be an i-banker (even in the current scenario), i think u should be clear on your reasons why..no one knows what the scenario is going to be 2 yrs down…who knows i-bankers may be the next hot commodities! as for ur second choice, of writing something realistic and humble….sure, but why r u saying it would be unambitious… u need to be clear on what you want to do post-mba, and show HOW ur mba is essential in taking you there… showing some flexibility in what u want to do afterwards could also reflect maturity!
good luck
February 13, 2009 at 12:16 pm
A very interesting blog post:
http://novalphasierra.blogspot.com/2009/02/dises-dings-zings-and-investment.html
So, it is possible, but it takes huge effort. Nice.
February 19, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Dear frnd, I am apply IMD as well, finance background (risk management, to be more precise), so basically, we have something in common.
well, I know a lot of investment bankers(both winners and losers) and I also have a lot of frnds who happen to follow the same path as you are doing now, “a major business school – IB – King of the Universe, Gordon Gekko or the same type”, but let’s face the fact, not everyone is made for that IB business, well, at least, according to what I observed. I’m not talking about knowledge but personality and I am not judging, what i am doing is to make a point so you can really evaluate your goal without being misled by the golden halo of IB.
Being a financial person sometimes means utilitarian (i don’t know if that’s the right word or not, i am not a native speaker), we invest and we expect steady cash flow, but the fact is that IB is not going to recover from this massacre in the foreseeable future, at least for the next 5 yrs. It’s true, things will come back to normal and IB can not stay within a commercial bank for eternity (look at HSBC), but will you be ready at that time? as a second-hand MBA or a 35 years old business school applicant?
if i may quote, I would say: it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.(I do a lot of reading recently, thanks to the crisis, I have so much to analyse that I decide not to.) But whatever you do, try to dig deeper and make sure you know what on earth are you looking for.
March 5, 2009 at 10:39 pm
I realize that my reply is a little late because you already submitted your INSEAD app and clearly answered the goals question, but over the last week I posted several replies that I received from admissions directors in response to related questions. The series starts with http://blog.accepted.com/acceptedcom_blog/2009/2/27/mba-in-finance-forget-it.html and does not include INSEAD and IMD, but you may still find it interesting.
Best,
Linda Abraham
June 29, 2009 at 9:14 pm
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