“Go to a top MBA program.”

“With HBS on your resume you can do anything you want.”

It’s one of the most common pieces of advice given to anyone interested in consulting or finance: get into a top MBA program.

Even if you went to a no-name undergraduate, did nothing finance-related since then, and you don’t know anyone in the industry, a top MBA program will let you break in.

Or will it?

The Short Answer

Getting into a top MBA program may narrow the gap between you and former bulge bracket investment bankers.

But it won’t level the playing field.

Business school is often thought of as a magic bullet – a way to break into finance when all else has failed or when you have no shot normally.

There’s some truth to that – but there are also a lot of problems with it.

“Non-Target” Programs

Ranking banks, schools, and anything else is a massive waste of time and brain cells – which is why there will never be “rankings” of any kind on this site.

But the relative “prestige” of your business school is important, even if the specific “rank” doesn’t matter: if you don’t go to a school that banks recruit at, you’re wasting your time and $150K.

So even if something seems prestigious on paper or it’s in “The Top 10″ you need to go there in-person and ask students how recruiting really works.

There’s a less obvious conclusion as well: if you have a very small chance of getting into the top programs, then you’re better off pounding the pavement to get in.

Start with informal and unpaid internships and temporary positions at smaller places, and then leverage that to move up.

Cold-calling may not be fun, but it’s a far better use of time than going to a school where no banks recruit and where no alumni are in finance.

Part-Time vs. Full-Time

Until recently, there wasn’t much respect for part-time programs.

This is starting to change, but they’re still not on-par with the most well-known full-time programs.

If you can’t afford to go back full-time and are only looking at part-time options, you need to visit the school in-person, walk around and ask students and faculty how many banks actually recruit there – otherwise you’ll end up with $150K in debt and access to 0 recruiters.

Running Away From Your Past

If you’re coming from an unknown school, you have a lower GPA, or you have less “prestigious” schools or companies on your resume, you might feel like The Fugitive: you didn’t do anything wrong, but you’re always running away from your past anyway.

But here’s the problem that often gets overlooked: your past will still come back to haunt you, even if you get into a top program.

There are some people in finance who just don’t understand anyone who’s not from a wealthy, blue-chip background, and you’ll always have to deal with it if you have the misfortune of running into them.

Getting into a top business school may reduce your sentence, but it won’t clear you of all the false charges.

Geography

“What about top MBA programs in Europe / Asia? Are they as recognizable as ones in the US?”

The short answer: the best programs are still well-known, but no, they are not viewed the same as Harvard/Wharton/Stanford etc. if you want to work in the US afterward.

It’s not because they’re “worse” – it’s just that most US positions are taken by people who go to US business schools. Recruiting is a lot easier when you don’t have to cross multiple oceans for an interview.

If you can get into top schools in Europe / Asia, but can’t get into the top US programs, then sure, go abroad.

No Network

You might be motivated to go to business school if you don’t have a great network and don’t feel like cold-calling dozens of firms each week to get into a local boutique and then working your way up.

On-campus recruiting is convenient, but it’s almost too convenient. The temptation is to sit around and wait for companies to come to you – but that doesn’t work when everyone else at your school is also impressive.

So you need to start building your network even before you even get there. Start calling alumni, say you’re going to attend XYZ school next year and wanted some advice, and take it from there.

Experience: Too Much vs. Too Little

Another dilemma: you might have too little experience or too much.

Going straight for an MBA right after undergraduate is a losing proposition (yes, there’s Harvard 2+2 but that is new and unproven) – you need at least a few years of experience and often more than that to be competitive.

I get emails every week from students asking, “Should I go for a top MBA program right after I graduate?”

No. Bad idea.

Many Associate-level resumes have 5 or more years of work experience – even if you get into a top school, it’s tough to compete with that.

You can also have “too much” experience to make business school useful, but this is less of a problem than having too little.

If you’ve been working for, say, 15 years, it’s almost easier to work your way to the top in another field and then move into finance at a much higher level.

The Solution?

All these pitfalls go back to the original point made in the beginning, and something that Kevin and Jerry brought up on Management Consulted (Why Harvard Business School Does NOT Equal McKinsey):

Going to a top MBA program helps, but that alone will not solve all your problems.

It’s Just Like Breaking In As an Undergraduate

I still get a lot of questions on the CFA and other certifications, despite repeatedly bashing them in the past.

Many students think that adding these lines to their resume will seriously boost their chances, forgetting that they’re just small pieces of the big picture.

And yes, business school is different and much more than just another certification, but the same principle applies: a top school and access to recruiting there will improve your chances, but you need to do more than just go to a good school and drop $150K to break in.

What to Do?

Let’s say you are committed to going to a top MBA program to re-brand yourself and then using that to break into finance – what should you do to make sure it’s not a waste of $150K and 2 years of your life?

1. First, make sure that banks actually recruit anywhere you’re seriously considering. Visit in-person, meet with students and career services, and see what the real story is.
2. If you come from a more “random” background then start addressing “objections” to your background even before you arrive at school.
3. You also need to start networking long before you ever get to business school – all the former bankers will have a big advantage over you otherwise.

Think about pre-MBA programs in finance – if you can, take time off to do an unpaid or part-time job related to finance.

Think about activities and professional organizations that might take you closer to business, or at least ones that let you spin your resume more aggressively.

And start contacting alumni and going through referrals in the months before you arrive so that they know who you are when it’s summer recruiting season.

But Sometimes You Have to Go

Business school is not a magic-bullet solution, but sometimes you pretty much have to go just to have any shot of breaking into finance.

Recent graduates would be better served by going to boutiques and then working their way up to larger banks – but if you have 5-10 or more years of experience, banks only take you seriously if you’re coming from an MBA program.

And if you had a completely random background that had nothing to do with business – like a traveling bard – then you might have to go just to have more than a 0.000001% chance of getting in.

Business school admissions goes beyond the scope of the site, but you can click here to learn all about how to get into top 10 business schools.

Got Brand?

There’s always a temptation to buy more degrees, certifications, or anything else that gets you more “prestige” and makes you seem more qualified.

But not only does HBS not equal McKinsey, it also doesn’t equal Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, or any other top bank.

Think of recruiting as a court case, with your key witness representing business school: a great testimony can push the odds in your favor, but you need plenty of “supporting evidence” as well.

That might be informal work experience, anything that can be spun into sounding like business, or a solid network.

So make sure you have both the supporting evidence and the key witness – otherwise, you’ll end up with a hung jury and no offers.

Last time, we looked at how to set yourself apart in MBA admissions if you’re coming from a finance background.

The main challenge there is “being interesting” – defined as not looking exactly the same as every other person who took the “2 years of banking followed by 2 years of PE” route.

If you’re coming from a non-finance background, though, you face a different set of challenges.

Obstacles for Non-Financiers

If you’re coming from a non-finance background – anything from a political campaign volunteer to a nonprofit worker to an entrepreneur to anyone in fields like accounting and IT consulting – your biggest challenge will be proving that you can do the work.

Remember, we’re assuming that you’re using business school to get into a field like finance or consulting. You still need to “be interesting” to get into business school in the first place before using it for recruiting purposes.

If you’ve been an accountant for 4 years but haven’t done anything else outside work, you’ll face an uphill battle getting into top schools.

But getting these “extracurricular activities” is easier for anyone with a non-finance background, because you actually have the time to do things outside of pitch books and Excel. So you probably don’t need to make any dramatic moves, and you can follow the tips given in our first article.

And if you’re coming from more of a “vagabond” background – you decided to leave the country and head to a monastery for a year, or you founded a nonprofit in Guatemala – your work experience by itself is already “interesting.”

But no matter what your background is, the #1 question any bank will have for you is simple:

Can you do the work?

After all, you’ve never done finance before.

Proving That You Can Do the Work

Sometimes this is just a matter of positioning. A lot of MBA students get interested in finance from exposure they’ve had before – so if you’ve been a healthcare policy analyst but had a chance to do some modeling work when consulting with the federal government, then you know what to do: play that up as much as possible.

The same is true if you were at a nonprofit when it was merging with another nonprofit, or if you helped out with due diligence on M&A transactions when you were at a Big 4 firm.

In other cases, “proving” that you can do the work is more difficult. I’ve received quite a few questions from former Hollywood writers and producers who want to move into finance – if you’re in a creative profession like that, you need to get some exposure to finance before you arrive at business school.

That could be in the form of a part-time or unpaid internship, and your best chance might be in the summer before school starts.

You should get actual work experience rather than “shadowing” someone or doing an “independent research project.” Banks don’t take any of that too seriously for anyone at the MBA level.

It’s a matter of risk management on their part – hiring the wrong person can cost three times the person’s annual salary. Given that finance salaries are (still) higher than almost anything else, firms need to attract “low-risk” individuals.

The bottom line: you’ll be at a big disadvantage if you don’t have anything finance-related on your resume and you’re planning to use business school recruiting – especially if the economy remains poor or gets even worse.

Finding Proof

So how do you actually get this “proof” if you’re working or have some other full-time obligation?

Logically speaking, you have 2 options:

1. Quit whatever you’re doing now and find something finance-related in the meantime.
2. Take advantage of that summer window before school starts and do something finance-related then.

In either case, do not jump into anything unless you’ve actually been accepted to school(s) first.

You get these opportunities the same way you get internships or jobs at smaller firms in the first place: a combination of networking, cold-calling, and persistence.

Don’t even try to arrange something informal at a bulge bracket bank – they won’t be open to it, and they’re less flexible with “creating” new positions.

One exception is if you go through a pre-MBA program that gives you real work experience. I’m not an expert on this topic, but that could also be a potential way to demonstrate “proof” as long as you work full-time in finance over an extended period (e.g. not 2 weeks).

Other Factors – Grades and GMAT Scores

Some people make a big fuss over undergraduate GPA and GMAT scores, but if you’re applying to top schools, they don’t matter that much – past a certain point.

Why?

Almost everyone applying to these schools has relatively good grades (3.5 range or over) and GMAT scores (over 700). The average is already quite high, so having perfect grades and GMAT scores is not enough to set you apart.

It’s like technical questions in investment banking interviews – getting them right puts you in the running, but you’ll never get an offer based solely on your technical know-how. They’re used to weed out applicants rather than to decide who gets offers.

As long as you have grades and scores that put you on par with everyone else applying, your admission chances come down to essays, recommendations, and your “story” – not specific numbers.

So the only way scores and grades matter is if yours are not on par with everyone else’s – in which case you do have a problem.

Aiming Lower Than the Top

We’ve been focused on the top schools, where competition is tough and where admissions rates are likely to be at all-time lows in the near future.

And if you’re interested only in finance or consulting, there’s no point in aiming lower than the top: most firms don’t recruit much at programs outside the top 10 – so you definitely want to get into a top 10 business school.

But that doesn’t apply to everyone – maybe you’re older and more experienced, and you’re interested in changing careers or going back for other purposes. If you’re after the experience rather than the recruiting opportunities, you don’t need to get into the top programs in the world.

In that case, you might be better off saving yourself time, effort, and money and going for a less “prestigious” option.

It goes back to your motivations for going in the first place – not everyone is interested in going back to school primarily for recruiting purposes.

It’s All About the Story

As with interviews and any other type of application, positioning yourself for business school comes down to your “story” more than anything else.

But the challenge is that you often need 2 different stories: one to get into school in the first place, and one to use when you’re recruiting at school.

And you need to start developing both, even before you think about applying anywhere.

Coming Up: How to successfully “spin” your story and make yourself sound more interesting (if I can get anyone to go on-the-record with this…).

“How can I get into the Harvard, Stanford, or Wharton MBA programs?”

“If I don’t get into finance or consulting right now, should I go back to business school instead?”

“How can I stand out from everyone else who’s applying?”

With the markets still in turmoil, more and more people are thinking of heading to business school. Even those who actually have jobs are thinking of going back to school to insulate themselves from layoffs and get a 2-year vacation while they’re at it.

Regardless of your background, though, you’ll face a unique challenge getting into business school and then using it to get into finance:

The criteria to get into business school is different than the criteria to get into finance coming from business school, and the two often contradict each other.

So here’s how you solve that problem…

The False Promise of Re-Branding?

Here’s the paradox that crops up when you apply to business school and then try to leverage it to get into finance:

1. Top schools like a diverse student body – they don’t want everyone to have done two years of banking followed by two years of private equity. Especially in recent years, these schools have become biased against students with pure finance backgrounds.
2. Banks and financial firms, on the other hand, don’t care nearly as much about diversity and would love to recruit only students with previous finance experience. Someone with previous experience represents reduced risk, and is more likely to stick around past their first all-nighter creating a pitch book.

In late 2007, recruiters were still trying to convince me that two years of banking followed by two years of private equity was a “guaranteed” ticket into top MBA programs. It’s funny how quickly things can change.

One of the key selling points of MBA programs is a chance to “re-brand” yourself. And when banks desperately need people (see: 2004-2006), they’ll open up to your story of personal transformation from traveling bard to the next Gordon Gekko.

But when they’re not so desperate (now), they start to consider only those who have done finance before.

So this selling point is highly dependent on market conditions and often turns into disappointment for MBA-level applicants without some type of finance experience.

Curious Conclusion

This past recruiting season, I spoke with many talented business school students who had started companies, nonprofits, and had all sorts of other impressive accomplishments. But even with those credentials, each one faced an uphill battle getting interviews and job offers if he or she had not done finance previously.

This brings us to a curious conclusion when looking at both of these points together:

If you’re already in finance, you need to find a way to stand out amongst the crowd and tell an interesting story if you want to get into business school. And if you’re from a different background, you still need to worry about that – but more importantly, you need to find a way to show banks that you can do the work.

In this article, we’ll address anyone in the first category: anyone from a finance background thinking of business school.

Standing Out From a Finance Background: Got Prestige?

I received an email from a reader the other day asking, “I thought it was basically the prestige of your firm that set you apart in MBA admissions?”

My response: While brand-name recognition matters, admissions committees don’t view you dramatically differently based on where you worked within a specific industry. They’re not going to look at someone and say, “Aha! He worked at Morgan Stanley so he should definitely get in, but that guy only worked at Houlihan Lokey so he is obviously unqualified to join us!”

You do gain an advantage by working somewhere well-known, but keep in mind that people from all sorts of different backgrounds apply to business school – so the “prestige” arguments people often get in on message boards become even more pointless in this context.

After reading thousands of applications, anyone in admissions starts to view most banker types as… pretty much the same.

So basing your entire application on the “prestige” of wherever you worked is a losing proposition, especially these days when tons of laid-off financiers are applying to business school.

The Real Way to Stand Out

Alex from MBA Apply hits the nail on the head with the real way to stand out in admissions:

“Build a life, not a resume.”

This is not a new concept for anyone who’s been reading this site over the past year. Regardless of whether you’re applying for business school, university, or even going through interviews, your chances of success depend largely on your “story.”

One small problem: if you work full-time in finance, it may be almost impossible to find the time to do anything outside work.

How to Develop an Interesting Story Even If You Have No Time

You don’t need to spend 20-40 hours per week on something to make yourself stand out.

But if you’re in banking or at a large PE firm, you probably don’t even have five hours per week to spend on other activities.

If you’re still thinking about business school and have absolutely no time for outside interests currently (Wait, how are you reading this article then? Hmm…), here’s what I’d recommend:

1. First, decide if you’re actually interested for the right reasons. If you’re planning to stay in finance for the long-term and you’re already in it, an MBA usually doesn’t make a big difference (exceptions apply). Being “interesting” therefore matters far less.
2. If you are interest is sincere, reduce your work commitment by moving into a different firm, group, or industry. A word of caution: in most cases the only move that “guarantees” a better schedule is leaving finance and moving into “industry” in a business development or corporate finance role.
3. Once you have the time, develop some of those forgotten interests and hobbies… or find new ones. Even something that only takes up a few hours per week can be spun into a good story on your applications.

Before exiting or entering different industries, you really need to weigh why you want to go to business school in the first place. My own personal view is that the “2-year vacation” plan is a bit silly given the expense, opportunity cost, and the fact that you’ll actually be quite busy (programs have become more rigorous).

That’s especially true these days, when everyone has the exact same plan and admissions are more competitive than ever before – you need better motivation than just wanting to take a break.

Further Reading

For more about getting into business school, check out Top Ten MBA for tips on how to get into HBS, GSB, Wharton, and other top 10 schools.