I would accept the IB offer because in the current hiring market, it might be very difficult to find something else good in tech or finance unless you have a very specific skill set (i.e., something related to the AI hype).

Also, I don’t think you want to spend your entire 2nd year of business school recruiting yet again when you already did that the first year and won a good offer from it.

If you really hate IB or do not like your group, I think you can stay in the role for ~1 year (which is basically nothing over a ~30-year+ career) and then find something better, maybe in corporate development or product management at a tech company. Yes, it may not be a fun year, but it will set you up for some better opportunities afterward and make you a lot more competitive for both tech and finance roles.

I have a strong hunch that a career in Tech (specifically PM) would be much better aligned with my interests (I like the idea of helping to bring products to life and leaning into my interpersonal strengths around collaborating, building empathy, informal influence), and provide a work/life balance that is much more in line with what I’m looking for. However, this all just a hunch. At the end of the day I have no offer, would have to spend my 2nd year re-recruiting for tech, and may end up not actually liking the job once experiencing it for real.

What would you suggest? Take the IB offer and suck it up for 2 years with the hope that I could exit to something more aligned with where I think my interests are (plus have a much wider opportunity set of exits opps I think?!). Or decline the offer and spend the 2nd year of bschool going all in on the PM path?

Really appreciate any help as I’m extremely conflicted.

I’m not sure you actually need an MBA and then IB if you want to move from a sell-side HY trading role to a buy-side role, but it depends heavily on what you’re doing. If your goal is to be an investment analyst at the private debt fund, i.e., work on deals and do modeling/process/related work, then yes, you will probably need IB first. You might be able to get into IB without the MBA, but 4.5 years is pushing it in most cases, so your plan is probably reasonable if investment/deal analysis in private debt is your main goal.

It still matters to some extent, but is less important than your bank and group and deal experience.

I don’t think it matters much. It is a bit more difficult to answer questions about why you stayed in IB for so many years, but you can still win offers at smaller PE firms with enough networking.

What are your thoughts on IB associates that do not have an MBA degree? Do you think they have a good chance to place as a private equity associate in larger middle maket funds or are they considered too seasoned?

Thanks

Thanks Brian! My concern is that the experience I had was not entirely relevant in terms of size and complexity compared to larger shops/BB. But I will give it a go and will keep you posted.

I don’t know why you really need an MBA. With that much experience, you should be able to network and join a bigger bank and then recruit for PE roles. You should at least try to network at other banks first before spending time and money on an expensive MBA.