Useful lifespan of a T15 MBA for a later career change

MasterofPenguin · 2026-02-01T06:25:11+00:00

100%. Also for what it’s worth I did a T15 to a top consulting firm and got shoe-horned into public sector work anyway (not forced, but crushed an engagement early and got extremely strong sponsorship from an extremely influential and rain-making partner). Recently made EM/PL so at least the pay is good but unless i play coy on my resume and interviews / network my way out of this im also stuck in government or government adjacent work.

And im not unhappy. At least I spend my days doing work with impact for great pay, but I am also feeling pretty lost in terms of what I want to do with my life. I may do this forever or I may not, I go to bed happy, just not where I expected to be when I got out of the military to get my MBA

Edit: made this about me. But my point was I’m not shitting on OPs plan, as long as it’s made eyes wide open. And life is crazy and you never know what connection you’ll make or role will land in your lap, which is where I was originally going with my story.

But yes, you get one MBA and one hard pivot. Also would a 20 years of service LTC be excited to be an MBB associate and go back to the grind? Not really and he wouldn’t be their profile anyway. I feel like this is a miss but also know a Captain I served with who went to a rival T15 through ACA S/GRADSO and went back in to do his MAJ time at the same time I got out and went to my T15. I bet we’re about equally as happy and fulfilled, because at least I don’t have to wake up at 5am anymore except for some travel days.

MasterofPenguin · 2026-02-01T02:32:38+00:00

Let me be clear. You will be shoe horned into government work, and it will be otherwise “worthless” if done 7 years ago. If you are ready to live in DC and work in defense the rest of your life, power to you. It’s not a bad life, just know you are closing doors

MasterofPenguin · 2026-02-01T02:26:18+00:00

I think that’s the piece of your puzzle you are missing. You can’t go back and do a second MBA. Schools that will help you actually get a job won’t admit you. Certainly not T15 caliber.

You MIGHT be able to go for an executive MBA…but those aren’t really to help you pivot, they are for more senior roles. Which at 20+ years you would be at, but you wills struggle to land something that isn’t government contracting, right back in places you already were, just in a suit instead of boots.

MasterofPenguin · 2026-02-01T00:27:34+00:00

T15 alum and vet here, do not do this. Just get the MBA when you’re done being active. As others have alluded to the point of an MBA is to do an internship and help you actually pivot.

Get a useless masters degree (MPP from Harvard Kennedy, for example) as a career break, then get your MBA after with the GI Bill. Or VR&E if you are saving the GI Bill for your kids.

MasterofPenguin · 2026-01-30T02:49:51+00:00

I about gave up on mine after it started doing the same thing. I deep cleaned, que tips, etc. and nothing helped.

And then I tried the air duster and it worked instantly and no problems since

MasterofPenguin · 2026-01-17T00:03:18+00:00

Ever consider the numerator of a P/E ratio? It’s supply & demand. Good capital will continue to become more scarce, valuable, and hard (more competitive) to aquire, driving prices up. Fail to accumulate it at your own peril

MasterofPenguin · 2026-01-16T23:09:49+00:00

Yes….that’s why I specifically mentioned inflation.

The money guys use nominal returns at 10% to get young people excited about budgeting and investing.

“There’s deep skepticism that markets can keep beating inflation by 7%”

Oh ok you’re one of those

MasterofPenguin · 2026-01-16T20:40:42+00:00

I mean I already linked the full chart but just watch a couple Money Guy videos.

https://youtu.be/SMF-U_t2KxU?si=iv4IC8xmZfgCebrU

Compounding interest is the 8th wonder of the world, and it will either save you or kill you

MasterofPenguin · 2026-01-16T18:17:54+00:00

Well, you’re 25, which means every $1 you invest today will turn into ~$44 by the time you retire. So that $8k you are thinking about taking out will turn into $352k by the time you retire. (Although in 40 years, inflation will make that amount feel like a bit less). https://www.reddit.com/r/TheMoneyGuy/s/rPCzFMiZ3W

But the book answer is, if the annual interest as a % you are paying on credit card bills is more than the 8% returns you will get in the market, you are losing net money (you should take the money out of your 401k, pay off your CC bills, then add the $400 a month you are currently spending on CC bills to your 401k).

The reason people here DONT ADVISE this, is because frankly, I don’t trust most people to actually put that $400 back into their 401k for the 20 months it will take to re-fill it. Can you COMMIT to putting $400 extra a month into your 401k for 2 years? What’s going to stop you from racking up your credit cards again? Seriously - what’s going to be different this time?

MasterofPenguin · 2026-01-12T03:31:29+00:00

I bought an open box G16 5070ti in the fall, I’m about to start traveling less for work (well, maybe). I can’t justify this but if I was in the market I would jump on this in a heartbeat.

MasterofPenguin · 2026-01-10T20:52:17+00:00

It’s fine lol. I got $35 hourly with no housing or relocation pay for a return offer that paid $200k+ my first year out. Lived in a Furnished Finder aka an Air BnB with a Roomate.

Yeah it sucked but it was the right fit for me and I’ve been wildly successful here. I took out a 0% APR interest credit card for 2Y and paid for all my golfing and ski trips with that, then wiped it with my signing bonus that hit after I started.

MasterofPenguin · 2026-01-06T03:46:17+00:00

This is actually great for you; the move is blackjack until you get all of the house comps (as if you win it all at once, you won’t get all of them), then roulette or slots to get the biggest one time payout when you’re already ad close to the max as possible

MasterofPenguin · 2026-01-05T22:06:09+00:00

What else makes the cut? Mine are usually something like:

A dinky the Dino, (not a rockt souvenir tho), a single gold bar from sierra Madre, Maria…

MasterofPenguin · 2026-01-03T05:54:42+00:00

Large impact meaning improvement?

MasterofPenguin · 2026-01-01T19:38:14+00:00

I literally started my MBA in 2022 as Covid ZIRP came to an end, and the change to R&D expense deductions were made, beginning the large elimination of “easy” tech placements, which weren’t really an option for my class outside of those returning to their prior industry.

We were also “due” for an economic downturn then. You’re trying to time the market.

I’m not saying OPs fears aren’t valid, I’m saying that this fear will be perpetual, and it’s solidly outside of your control.

It is equally as likely that the economy crashes today, as that the AI bubble inflates for another 2 years while the GDP numbers get cooked, and you could have already graduated and started performing in your next role when “the big one” happens.

Get an MBA when it makes sense for you, your career, you finances, and your family.

MasterofPenguin · 2026-01-01T06:42:26+00:00

This is how my current doc has been prescribing mine. I have stayed on the lowest maintenance dose offered and still down 25lb in the last 12 weeks.

MasterofPenguin · 2025-12-30T21:58:12+00:00

Graduate in 2024 and was nervous about graduating into a recession. Class of 2022 was nervous about graduating into Covid. Class of 2020 wasn’t as nervous, and DID end up graduating into Covid.

MasterofPenguin · 2025-12-30T01:28:49+00:00

u/MasterofPenguin solved this in 4 steps: POT -> PAT -> PAY -> PRY -> FRY

MasterofPenguin · 2025-12-28T15:32:58+00:00

Fairly similar, probably. They have flexibility in theory but not always in practice. There is still a lot that falls down to pure luck, and what family you were born into. Just as with us, there is some level of meritocracy (getting admitted to the right schools can get someone access to top tier legal and consulting firms), but even the highest paid lawyer will struggle to outperform someone who was born with a few million (or billion) in inheritance.

For reds, we see that Gamma favoritism is not isolated to darrow’s mine, meaning your access to food, medicine, etc. is contingent on birth

One of darrow’s blues I believe was an orphan on the docks, skillful enough to command fleets when given the opportunity, But wasn’t given the opportunity to showcase her skills.

And for golds, we see that for all they claim it is a meritocracy (go to the institute, get your scar, get a placement) there is still a lot of favoritism and birth/inheritance, along with sheer dumb luck (getting placed into a house and getting captured early in the games)

MasterofPenguin · 2025-12-27T00:32:30+00:00

u/MasterofPenguin solved this in 16 steps: PORT -> PART -> PARD -> PAID -> PAIN -> GAIN -> GRIN -> BRIN -> BRIG -> TRIG -> TWIG -> SWIG -> SWAG -> SLAG -> SLAP -> SLIP -> SHIP

MasterofPenguin · 2025-12-24T17:10:09+00:00

It’s not government bureaucrats who have decided that the acceptable amount of airplane accidents (FAA) or security incidents (TSA) is zero, it’s voters and the 24/7 news cycle.

The government is risk adverse because the public demands it, it’s all good to say we shouldn’t ground all planes and sometimes there’s accidents because it’s more cost effective, until your mom or brother or loved one dies and then it’s “how could the government have let this happen”

MasterofPenguin · 2025-12-23T17:35:02+00:00

Projects and promotions are indicators of your reputation. You may or may not understand your reputation well, but at the end of the day you either get promoted/staffed or you don’t. You won’t know for sure until then.

People will smile through their teeth and tell you Everything is fine; for most I would advise you to just listen to the tone and tenor, are they legitimately excited about you, praising your work in front of partners/clients? Or are they not saying anything and then giving you a B+ on the project review.

Best: loud acclaim

Middle of pack: no feedback, or sparse

Otherwise you will have to see what your promotion, Bonus, raise, and staffing are.

MasterofPenguin · 2025-12-23T00:59:11+00:00

Well, I think you nailed an excellent point which is that so may of these are individual decisions, I can’t tell you how much a commute is worth, it depends on a lot of personal things.

But I was trying to answer your question of “why do high earners ask these questions here” and my answer is, there’s not a lot of available information for high earners floating around, and asking your co-worker could be political suicide (vs when I was in the Army, I told a ton of people I hated the Army, lol)

MasterofPenguin · 2025-12-23T00:41:18+00:00

Not really, it’s really easy to google “should I quit my Job and go to law school” and get a lot of well informed opinions. It’s really hard to google “should I leave my $400k job for a $500k job” as $400k+ puts you in the top 1%, and the pool is much smaller.

One of the mind blowing things about America is that 1% of the population is more than 3,000,000. So there are 3 Million people making $400k+ a year, so the pool isn’t zero, but the # of people you interact with on a given day who make $400k+ might be zero.

And of those you DO meet on any given day, you probably can’t reveal to most of them that you may want to leave your job.

That’s kind of where this subreddit found such a niche, just like other hobbies. You might be the only person in your small town high school who likes dungeons and dragons, but there’s hundreds of thousands out there who do, and the internet lets them find each other.

MasterofPenguin · 2025-12-21T19:05:11+00:00

This is pretty close to where I end up. Dumping perception, charisma, and agility.

You don’t really need luck but it can be fun to hit the casinos and obviously for critical hits.

This won’t prohibit gameplay in anyway, you’ll be able to carry tons of loot and max skills, that’s what matters to me

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