After graduating from a law school (worst mistake of my life), I now work in data analytics team at a F500 making low six fig. 4 week vacation, 45-50 hr weeks with minimal overtime here and there, no weekends worked so far. Minimal bonus. Not too bad of a lifestyle.

To describe the work I do briefly... my typical work involves data extraction / manipulation, and running analytics reports to the firm's partners for brainstorming business strategy or validating their business decisions, regarding sales strategy, product management, marketing, etc. The work I do is pretty technical - involving very heavy use of SQL and Excel, yet not engineer-level technical.

I like my job in the sense that it gives me an opportunity to work on both technical and soft -type of projects, such as meeting with "business side" people, doing presentations, running reports, etc but I am very aware of the fact that in this career, there is a very HARSH salary ceiling.

After 6-7 years into this career track, if I play my cards right, I MIGHT make anywhere from 160k to 200k provided that I get promoted and keep building strong reputation / skills at my firm. But, after that, it would be very flat raise each year...unless by some divine miracle I make a partner somewhere. (highly unlikely... especially from my department)

Given this, do you guys think that I should go for a top 10 MBA and go for a front-office finance role? Or maybe MBB consulting? Or equity research at an IB or a small hedge fund? These are 'true' elite jobs where - provided I have what it takes - I can potentially end up making way more dough compared to my current career path. Not to mention, arguably the work you'd do in a front office finance job could be way more interesting than what I do now. The only major concerns I have with doing an MBA are: 1. financial & opportunity costs are way too high, 2. there is no guarantee that I will become more successful career-wise or financially after doing an MBA compared to before.

I would welcome any of your thoughts, feedbacks, or insults.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2857734&forum_id=2#27710633)

You have a pretty unique skill-set. How risk averse are you? I went the start up route. My background is in mgmt consulting.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2857734&forum_id=2#27730850)

Getting a job in the first place without any relevant technical experience will be tough.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2857734&forum_id=2#27727602)

Typical progression is as follows:

graduate undergrad, become an associate (2 years), get an MBA (2 years), work as a consultant (2 years), become project leader (1-2 years), then go client side.

For the OP, he'd likely spend 2 years in an MBA and then 3 years to make project leader before jumping ship

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2857734&forum_id=2#27715395)

The best bet is to go to somewhere like google as a director, but competition is fierce. More and more of these companies are looking towards organic growth.

At present, the exit opportunities are to get into a 9 to 5 making slightly less than MBB in client side. The upside is you likely would get paid more than if you had started with the client side company post MBA

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2857734&forum_id=2#27715416)

idk about the value of that MS&E degree. seems to be mostly people with 0-2 yrs experience.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2857734&forum_id=2#27715492)

you get into a lower ranked school but get a full ride (and still really love the law/know what the risks are). or maybe you have strong family connections in a smaller market and can break into the legal scene there, your dad runs a successful firm, etc.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2857734&forum_id=2#27715572)

you can leapfrog your way up to $100k pretty easily without an advanced degree, even if you're a glorified administrative assistant

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2857734&forum_id=2#27715610)

then decide whether you are more of a business/operations person or a salesperson. the latter is more lucrative (you could make hundreds of thousands of dollars if you're successful), but the operations track is more stable.

if you're good at sales you should just stay in sales. if you're an ops person, you should use your experience as an "operations associate" or whatever at one of these vendors to move to a second-tier consulting firm in their vendor-management practice.

then, move to procurement at a megacorp or to ops at a better-funded startup, where, if you are in nyc or sf, you can make $110k working 9-5 or 10-6 with a 401k match.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2857734&forum_id=2#27715861)

OH THE PRESTIGE.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2857734&forum_id=2#27715523)

most of the short-term value of b-school is OCR access to companies that otherwise wouldn't even look at your resume. the long-term effect is much more debatable and harder to quantify.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2857734&forum_id=2#27715741)

The elite undergrad dumbasses who now want to completely switch industries for $200k which they likely had access to during undergrad deserve the debt.

I know many who have switched into McKinsey, Bain etc. from simply calling friends from Princeton, Stanford etc. An MBA is not always necessary in many cases - but some will strive to add another line to their CV. This is what makes me question the value proposition.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2857734&forum_id=2#27715775)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2857734&forum_id=2#27715787)

so many other ways to make money that don't involve going into a ton of debt and then impaling yourself with 80-hour workweeks.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2857734&forum_id=2#27715875)

paying for an mba only makes sense if you've done private equity pre-mba but are getting pushed out, and need to use the mba to get back into private equity and continue to collect $400k/year for 2-3 more years.

it does not make sense for f500 wage slaves that are not sponsored.

op is already in an incredibly privileged position despite having made serious errors early in life and should not fuck it up so he can say he works at mbb for a few years. instead, he should cut expenses drastically, save money, and invest.

don't buy into the prestige-whore scam.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2857734&forum_id=2#27715514)

fuck that

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2857734&forum_id=2#27715614)

1. although i agree that it's super expensive, if one hates their job and trajectory and badly wants banking or consulting, an MBA is pretty much the only way to get there.

2. MBB consulting gets a lot of bashing on xo, but it's one of the best jobs you can get starting out. i never looked into it since i would hate consulting, but it pays well, awesome name brand, transferable skillset, great network, and tons of exit opportunities.

3. Fanatic is right on most things, but his placement numbers are off. Most people from M7 going into MBB are NOT sponsored. Not sure where he gets that info from.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2857734&forum_id=2#27715617)

sponsorship at u.s. b-schools has gone down significantly since the financial crisis. before, there were a good chunk of people who were being 100% subsidized by their employers. i know VERY few at my school who are in that boat. most are not sponsored in any shape or fashion.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2857734&forum_id=2#27715778)

It just sucks to be working hard yet to see a very harsh salary potential in this career track.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2857734&forum_id=2#27727592)

thanks for your inputs so far. Do you enjoy your work at BCG? Do you feel challenged, feel like you are learning valuable skills, etc?

What are typical salary range for post MBA MBB associates who do MBB for 3-4 years and go industry? Do you happen to know the career trajectory / comp potential for post-MBA MBB consultants who go in-house after several years in consulting?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2857734&forum_id=2#27727643)

Sometimes we do boring as shit cost optimization projects in which we review sales compensations and operating cost statements for inputs into cost reduction models.

Sometimes we do Mergers and Acquisitions strategy in which we see if there are redundancies after merger, another boring as shit area. But other times, I do analysis on market share capture and strategic pricing initiatives based on consumer trend inferences and product offerings which is cool.

People from MBB who go in-house typically become product managers in good tech companies like facebook/google or directors/senior strategy directors at more average clients (HP, Ross, Levis, Nike, random shit). They might also do shit like Venture Capitalism or another industry.

From my friends at MBB who have stayed for 3-4 years post MBA and have made it to the project leader/ case lead/ engagement manager levels, they usually take a paycut for a more stable job for around $200k to $250k + bonus (around $80k to $100k) or $150k for companies with stock options. They definitely have more of a straight forward shot to the C suite however.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2857734&forum_id=2#27727902)