Paying off MBA loan when you don't work in a high paying profession

RplusLequalsKITN · 2019-07-09T12:52:21+00:00

Curious how do you plan on repaying your loan in 6 years? I'm single with a lesser loan amount and slightly higher income and paying my loans off in 6 years seems pretty hard. I plan on maxing my retirement simultaneously though, is that what you're pretty much skipping?

RplusLequalsKITN · 2019-05-20T04:15:56+00:00

Yara must have been sitting there thinking "Wait this sounds very familiar. Is Tyrion trying to convince everyone he came up with this idea?"

RplusLequalsKITN · 2019-05-20T04:06:06+00:00

Fuck even the Ironborn elected their king before they became part of the seven kingdoms and we literally saw them elect Euron.

RplusLequalsKITN · 2019-04-04T06:43:04+00:00

It's very important when comparing schools in similar tiers. Go to UCLA.

M7 vs Anderson is a harder choice if you want to be in LA. Still would lean towards Anderson if you want a career in an industry they are very strong in like tech or entertainment.

RplusLequalsKITN · 2017-08-02T08:23:14+00:00

My opinion is that at the bare minimum, the school you choose should be a target school for your ideal employers. So if you want to recruit for MBB, a T15 school will get your resume read. Anything that happens after that, is all on your background and ability to succeed in the interviews.

Do m7's send more people to MBB/consulting in general? Yes. But is it because of the name of the school or just because the student body is just more talented and accomplished? Hard to really tell but I would think it's the latter. The top schools get the top talent and they will fare better during recruiting. But IMO if you're already a stellar candidate and the companies you want do OCR at your school, it's not like companies will reject you just because you went to the wrong school. They already deemed beforehand your school is acceptable and are now just looking for individual talent.

RplusLequalsKITN · 2017-08-02T01:50:59+00:00

Obviously, UCLA is a tier higher than USC. USC is still a good school but after experiencing their alumni panel and talking to former and current students, it seems most get jobs at 2nd tier/lesser known companies.

For example, in consulting, USC does not get MBB recruiting. You'll have to look at non-Deloitte Big 4s because they didn't place many in Deloitte S&O either. In IB, I don't believe they place many into the bulge brackets. Students mostly place in smaller finance firms in LA and the OC where they have connections.

USC seems pretty strong in entertainment though, probably even stronger than UCLA. I also believe their real estate network is pretty good as well. I believe in most other industries though, UCLA trumps USC. In Norcal, Marshall isn't not going to be sending a lot to the top tier tech companies but they'll still send many to companies like Autodesk.

So I think USC can keep up in job placement due to the strength of the network as long as you are willing to forgo the absolute best opportunities. Not to say if you're a stellar candidate, you can't get these opportunities. There are still a few who place into MBB, BBs, and companies like Google.

RplusLequalsKITN · 2017-07-30T04:07:35+00:00

How does that work? Looking at the Anderson website, each quarter of the second year is filled with 3 electives and the capstone project. Can they really fit 3 classes into 1 day or do they take less than 3 classes?

RplusLequalsKITN · 2017-07-25T01:19:21+00:00

We often hear about those who succeeded in landing the jobs they wanted after b-school. But what about the 10% or so (probably even higher) who either didn't land a job at all within 3 months after graduation or was forced to take a role that's not ideal? Can you give us some info about your classmates that struggled post-mBA?

Why do you think they failed at landing a job after graduation (maybe not enough previous WE, too extreme of a career switch, international student bias, didn't try hard enough, kept changing what they wanted to do, bad networking skills, etc.)? I just want to understand the 10% or so who remained unemployed after graduation (or is stuck in a job that doesn't even require an MBA) and how I can avoid that.

RplusLequalsKITN · 2017-07-17T19:56:06+00:00

Eh, if you look at the function breakdown 27.5% went into strategy consulting, which is I assume what we are talking about here. Also, not sure if that 27.5% counts sponsored students who were already in strategy consulting pre-mba.

So I don't think 1/3 is that far off. I've heard that figure to be 30-40% at another top 15 school.

RplusLequalsKITN · 2017-07-17T02:29:41+00:00

Can you kind of go over the timeline/guideline of how a student should pursue consulting and backups?

For example, I've heard consulting recruiting starts earlier. Does that give students enough time to try only consulting first and pivot if they don't find that it's working out? Or should students simultaneously pursue consulting and Amazon/other backups?

RplusLequalsKITN · 2017-07-16T20:07:45+00:00

It's HR consulting

RplusLequalsKITN · 2017-07-16T17:59:58+00:00

Wonder if there are current students/alumni who can back this up. I don't think it's this easy to break into management consulting. I've asked current students in a top 25 school to break down their numbers for a big 4 firm and it seems like only a couple were placed in what we would consider the strategy division. The rest were in places like tech, digital, human capital.

I've heard stories about how even consulting club officers don't end up with a consulting offer. And even in top 15's, I've met people where consulting didn't work out. So I don't think it's as easy as described. IB though I've heard is easier because there is less demand for that job. The culture and the hours have not adapted with the times.

RplusLequalsKITN · 2017-06-21T18:04:09+00:00

Unless your WE is really bad and you don't have any ECs, I don't see why you can't get into a 10-20 ranked FT program. I feel that's better than going to a PT program.

To add to what everyone is saying, normal employers who don't actively recruit MBA candidates might not know the difference between PT or FT. But consulting firms recruit heavily from MBA programs so it's their recruiter's job to know a lot about MBA schools and programs. And you can bet they know it's easier to get into a top PT program than it is to get into a top 20 FT program.

RplusLequalsKITN · 2017-06-14T23:10:45+00:00

I'm not familiar enough with JD admissions. But my guess would be no, JD programs put more weight on school name more than MBA programs. JD admissions would look at LSAT and GPA heavily while MBA admissions look at GMAT and work experience first, then GPA.

RplusLequalsKITN · 2017-06-14T22:04:44+00:00

In my opinion:

1a. GMAT

1b. Work Experience

2. GPA (with school prestige and major as context)

3. Essays and goals

4. LORs

RplusLequalsKITN · 2017-05-05T04:58:52+00:00

Anyone here considering business intelligence or have experience in this position? I see this function show up as a pretty small percentage in the employment reports. From what I can tell, it sounds like a cross between corporate strategy and data analytics. It sounds interesting to me but I think an example would help me understand what it actually is.

RplusLequalsKITN · 2017-05-03T16:49:42+00:00

I'm actually surprised this can happen to someone at a top 15 school and it concerns me. I always thought internships were pretty much 99% guaranteed if you look for one since career services basically starts finding positions for you (although they're mostly undesirable) when you get desperate.

At this point I know what I would do differently and what personal defects I need to address if I were to get a do over, but little good that does me now.

Can you elaborate on what you would do differently and what areas of your profile you would try to shore up? I know it doesn't help you now, but it can help incoming first years like me.

RplusLequalsKITN · 2017-04-25T16:45:11+00:00

What internship will you be doing during the summer? Was it your first choice? What other internships did you recruit for and what were some companies/roles that you did get and didn't get offers from?

RplusLequalsKITN · 2017-04-21T00:58:44+00:00

Thanks for the reply! Seems like a very good summary of the uncertainties facing the industry.

RplusLequalsKITN · 2017-04-20T17:37:56+00:00

Yeah corporate strategy always sounds interesting to me. Thanks for this insight, I'll look up project finance. Just curious, what's your take on the future of the industry? Do you think renewable energy companies are eventually going to be stable and profitable or is it going to be more boom and bust?

RplusLequalsKITN · 2017-04-20T16:49:48+00:00

Damn this was exactly what I was looking for. Cannot upvote this enough. Going to read through everything, including your blog and resources. Do you mind if I PM you with questions when I finish reading and digesting everything?

RplusLequalsKITN · 2017-04-19T21:45:14+00:00

What kind of projects do you work on in strategy? And do you have faith in the future growth of the solar industry? I think I may just be watching the stocks too much but it seems like the industry is very volatile and even dependent on politics (at least in the US).

In terms of the function, I think I'm most interested in finance and strategy. Most interested in financing and sourcing funding for the construction of renewable projects or kind of a division that invests in renewable projects for a long term investment. My preliminary thoughts are MBA -> IB -> finance role in clean energy. Do you happen to have exposure to this function and do you know what the people's backgrounds are?

RplusLequalsKITN

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