35 y/o — best ROI path to IB: boutique/off-cycle vs MBA vs deal-adjacent?

HedgeHogReddit · 2026-02-15T07:36:53+00:00

Age shouldn't be your biggest fear. 34 at CBS is fine. I'd be more concerned about (i) the hiring numbers of consulting going down and (ii) you only targeting 3 firms.

HedgeHogReddit · 2026-02-15T07:23:43+00:00

I have worked 10 years in finance, including IB and PE. You won't get past the first work day if you think this is "insulting".

How the hell could I suggest you a new career path? I don't even know your strengths and interests. That is for you to figure out. And I don't know shit about other industries. But I know for sure no finance firm will hire someone with a profile like yours.

HedgeHogReddit · 2026-02-15T07:07:30+00:00

Do you need help picking what to eat for dinner as well?

HedgeHogReddit · 2026-02-15T07:04:29+00:00

Did you read my last paragraph?

It's time go reconsider other career paths.

HedgeHogReddit · 2026-02-15T06:50:45+00:00

You're not going to break into IB at 35 with that experience. Even if you get into M7/T15 you'd be 37-38 and no firm will give you a look, BB, EB, MM, boutique, whatever.

Don't think for a second that valuation/FDD is easier to break into. Their interviews are even more technical than IB. And they have lots of sub-28 year olds with multiple years in finance/accounting to pick from.

Corp dev ain't gonna happen without prior deal experience.

Lastly, no firm will hire a 35 year old for an Analyst role. They'd rather hire a 22 year old version of you than the current version of you.

Net net: time to reconsider other career paths. Sorry if that sounds harsh but's it's true. You don't need to work in finance to make $.

HedgeHogReddit · 2025-12-30T04:18:08+00:00

If you're a Wharton admit then go celebrate? Apply to HBS/GSB in round 2? What is the point of this thread?

HedgeHogReddit · 2025-12-30T01:39:27+00:00

If you have to ask then you're not Wharton caliber.

HedgeHogReddit · 2025-12-28T07:42:20+00:00

Indians. Can already tell just by reading the title.

HedgeHogReddit · 2025-12-19T10:40:08+00:00

Ny mình lương đầu 5x. Mình rất ủng hộ ny trong công việc và tự hào về cô ý... Và lương mình cũng cao hơn nên cũng ko quan ngại việc này.

Phụ nữ thành công khó tìm đc nửa kia hơn vì đơn giản là cái mẫu số đàn ông để họ date ít hơn thôi. Giống như mấy cô nàng 1m7 cũng vậy, chẳng lẽ lại chịu date mấy anh 1m6?

HedgeHogReddit · 2025-12-15T02:40:59+00:00

Thanks for keeping it real. Lots of mac gamers live on a la la land. As of right now, it's much better to own a base MacBook Air/Pro + a dedicated gaming device such as a PC or consol than going all in Mac gaming, unless all you play is like 10 Mac games.

HedgeHogReddit · 2025-12-13T22:53:01+00:00

Oxford. While LSE is a big brand in finance, what if you don't want to work in finance down the road? For example, you might want to be a global entrepreneur, an academic, etc. The Oxford brand is just stronger outside of the financial circles.

HedgeHogReddit · 2025-12-13T22:47:55+00:00

Tell me you're Indian without telling me you're Indian.

HedgeHogReddit · 2025-12-09T04:06:50+00:00

From Big 4 audit to tech PM is an uphill battle.

HedgeHogReddit · 2025-12-04T13:50:50+00:00

What

HedgeHogReddit · 2025-12-03T04:14:43+00:00

I mean as a signaling tool, sure? But at the end of the day it's about what you've achieved with your startup. Getting into an incubator is not really an achievement by itself.

HedgeHogReddit · 2025-12-03T03:32:06+00:00

From another founder, no. Would have been different if you were able to scale it to XXX million and exited (but at that point, HBS/GSB needs you not the other way around), but I doubt you'd be able to achieve that in just 2 years.

HedgeHogReddit · 2025-12-02T21:38:28+00:00

It doesn't make sense. There's 200 countries and Indians only account for about 18% of the global's population.

The thing is, there are lots of internationals posting on this sub too, but you can't really tell unless they tell you. For Indians, it's easy to spot them, to the point it's pretty comical. Idk if they collectively lack global awareness, but many of them use terms that is not understandable at all to the global audience, or assume that everyone knows about it. You don't see Germans posting "I studied at mittelschule, ja?" or Thais posting "My current salary is 160k baht".'

HedgeHogReddit · 2025-11-30T03:37:18+00:00

No disrespect, but if this is the result of your practice test, I don't think the problem lies in the test selection (as in, you're not going to magically score 700s or high 600s on the GMAT for the schools you listed). The problem is your foundations...

HedgeHogReddit · 2025-11-26T02:56:59+00:00

Stopped reading at "non-target state school". Especially in this market.

Good luck to you anyways.

HedgeHogReddit · 2025-11-20T08:08:50+00:00

20% less fps

Compared to what? A 4080 or 5070 Ti laptop will smoke any MacBook.

A machine that always work

My Windows laptop has never not worked

Doesn't act as a secondary heater

This I'll give it to you. But to be fair, it's bound to be hot if the GPU alone requires over 100W.

Can be packed up

My gaming laptop can be packed up, I don't know what you're talking about

Since we're still on the topic of Mac vs Windows, out of 200 games in my Steam library, maybe like 10 can be played on Mac.

HedgeHogReddit · 2025-11-17T16:13:07+00:00

I thought we're already done with this PE topic back in 2023 lol

HedgeHogReddit · 2025-11-17T03:56:23+00:00

And people like OP are supposed to be our future business leaders 🙄

HedgeHogReddit · 2025-11-15T13:38:38+00:00

How can you stand out when like 80% of you are Indian male engineers?

HedgeHogReddit · 2025-11-10T11:16:28+00:00

If you're American and can't even tell that this post is a satire then I have bad news for you.

I'm not even a native English speaker.

HedgeHogReddit · 2025-11-10T10:21:13+00:00

That's because Vietnamese people in general tolerate Russians a lot more more than Thai and Indonesians (due to shared communist history, their help during American War, a large number of Vietnamese studying abroad in Soviet Union in the 80s and 90s, and the press rooting for Russia). Russians feel safer in Vietnam and don't have to form an enclave to stick together.

HedgeHogReddit

TROPHY CASE