30岁+ TOP MBA的就业讨论

xiaoshuyiyi

去年看见有同事MBA毕业后工作不错,也见猎心喜得准备了一把,没想到最近拿到了WHARTON的录取通知.很犹豫该不该去.想听听大家的意见.

我的情况:

36岁,在东岸某医院写程序已经6年,(生物博士毕业,第一份工作,我本质上是个懒人).薪水六万出头.这种工作将来再涨恐怕也很难超过八万.

WHARTON的学费加生活费两年下来大概是12万,再加上放弃目前的工作,两年一共损失24万,大家觉得值得吗?

以前认识的中国人在这边读MBA,都不是特别出色的学校(Univ. Maryland, BostonUniv...),所以毕业后工作好象也不过如此,薪水不过七八万的样子.有没有人知道中国人在WHARTON这样的所谓名校毕业后的工作情况,不胜感谢.这些学校网页上的统计数字是针对所有毕业生的,但想必外国人的情况会差一点吧.

xiaoshuyiyi

另外,我觉得读MBA自己有点太老了.WHARTON去年的MBA年入学新生年龄是24到40岁.我毕业以后都38了,这样的牺牲好象太大.

我想大家可能对所谓名校的MBA有点误解,实际上根据英国"金融时报"的统计,WHARTON毕业生在毕业后三个月找到工作的比例也不过88%而已,2003年毕业至今的平均薪水是接近15万,刚毕业的工资估计也就十万上下.而且据我的了解,中国人的平均值是比15万差了不少的,我申请的时候问过WHARTON这方面的信息,他们说没统计过.

我个人的感觉,如果毕业后的工资低于十万,那么MBA的投资应该就是失败的.写程序当然不是长久之计,不过中国的MBA很少能在美国做到管理这一层的,比方做金融分析(这是我目前最喜欢的专业),压力很大,何尝不是吃的青春饭?

xiaoshuyiyi

这是我的一孔之见,欢迎大家讨论.

B-school是一个大染缸，进B-school前，学生们对自己未来要做什么都有一个打算，但是大部分人在学校里都会改变。 特别像馄饨这样的学校，第一学期结束之前，几乎人人都要向I-banking发展了。 anything else like marketing orwhatever, is perceived as for people not able to make into IB.

B-school doesn't take two years, by end of first March, your fate is almost determined. If you didn't land an IB internship by
then, you probably will spend the rest 60% of B-school time feeling desparate. You will start going to company presentations like J&J and IBM, but still deeply saddened, just because you couldn't get into IB.
你可能不信，但是除非你现在对未来非常确定，在馄饨那样的氛围里，很少有人不改变的。

xiaoshuyiyi

你再要想想，自己能不能承受IB，哪怕你想只要撑过两年，但是what I've heard about

IB so far is nothing short of "horror", go read the "Monkey Business" book if you haven't. It's a must read before you say you
want to do IB... Are you type-A personality? Probably not otherwise you won't be asking other people's opinions. Forget about Hong Kong,
华尔街可能只把你累趴下，但是中环金钟绝对能把你累死。 38岁的Associate，the odds are against you.

Remember, time and life are irreplaceable commodity, you can't get more of those, no matter how much money you make.
前面有人说的很对,那里那种环境,会让你觉得不做IB你就是个LOSER.做了IB呢,你又会做到累死.他们的劳累程度一般人是难以想象的,而且工作环境的不愉快程度也是很少见的.

GS那个档次的投行,pay是没问题的,如果你能找到那里的工作,回报很容易.他们的工资是不高,将将10万刀的样子,很大程度上看bonus.

xiaoshuyiyi

另外你的personality非常重要.那里找工作,成绩非常不重要(除非你是top多少,那样可以拿出来说),别的人根本不会让雇主见到成绩单.那样找工作靠的是一些soft skills.而且你的personality不够aggressive的话,找工作过了关,工作起来自己会很难融入那个环境,也会比较郁闷.
Because of work, I happen to know many graduates from top-tier MBA programs including Wharton, HBS, Stanford and Columbia spreading in diff industries,amongst them there are quite a few Chinese, I mean, Chinese from mainland.
After graduation 3-4 years, their salary, I would say, is ranging anywhere between 80K – 200K.

Based on your profile, the possibility that you are going to pursue a career in IB or PE field is quite little. Those are the places where you earn big money. Year-end bonus could go as high as 100K.
Let’s ignore that part. But no matter what else you want to do, consulting, marketing, or strategy, an MBA from Wharton is a huge asset without any doubt. The fresh graduates would earn around 80K-100K, usually along with a sign-up bonus 15K-25K

I also have other friends going back to China after working in the states for abt 2 years after graduation. Big consulting firm:
global pay, you get paid around 80K USD, but still, like those firms in the States, it’s hard to get in, a Wharton MBA will guarantee you an interview opportunity but not an offer
.

I met a girl graduated from WHARTON MBA last year.She works at Ernest&Young, basesalary is not high.She told me some ppl went back to China .Not all CHINESE ppl can find a GOOD job here. IT IS A GAMBLE . it is normal for global pay. gs had some position openings in beijing office last year. people got paid 800k rmb/year.

xiaoshuyiyi

去不去读全取决于你的人生态度。３６岁，在人生态度上应该已经成型了。去这样顶尖的商学院读书的人一定都是非常ambitious and aggressive的人。即使你原本不是这种人，一旦往这种人堆儿里一扔，你不当这样的人也不行了，根本由不得你。我认识的几个读顶尖MBA的差不多都如此。你舍不得现在的悠闲生活，说明你不是那种野心特大的人，一旦进入商学院的环境，肯定会觉得难受和不适应。再加上还要花那么多钱，多半会后悔。不过也有别的出路。我认识一个女孩不那么有野心，上完顶尖商学院在大公司找了一份financial analyst的工作，挣得肯定比你现在多，但也不需要特别aggressive。当然，她没有心疼钱的问题，他老公挣得多，所以无论是读书还是找工作心态都比较平和，即使工作挣得没有期望的高也不觉得亏大发了，这样就好办。如果你倾家荡产读这个书，出来要是工资不能翻番，肯定不能平衡，所以还是会逼着自己走上aggressive的道路，会很累的。
为什么那么多人会从CS转到MBA 或者MFE之类的。难道programming真的不能作为终身职业么？是不是这个行业的知识更新太快，令人疲惫，而且，当你的知识老了，公司就会抛弃你？人们都说这个行业是吃青春饭的，难道2000前的programmer都想着转行么？programming不好玩吗？我觉得应该比较有趣。我不了解这个行业，更不知道它将来会怎样。反正看到现身说法的都是再考虑改行。

我也不了解MBA。总觉得这个职业是成也萧何，败也萧何。如果你领导无方(尽管你毕业于名校)，董事会一样弃之如敝屣。以前认识一人，毕业与哈佛商学院，干了两年，失业了，干脆在家做housedad。

xiaoshuyiyi

不过人生就是一场赌，无论如何没有后悔，也不必后悔，反正不知道自己喜欢什么，试试又何妨？如果试都不试试，到老真的要后悔了。
I really understand your hard decision. I experienced your situation before. In our school, only 26 students from mainland china, but half of them had experience in US, just as yours. They graduated 2005. Only 2 in IB,4 in consulting, BUT,BUT, STILL 9 of them cannot find anything. So your money, your decision. But my experience is that no consulting and IB will recruit the chinese guy over 35. I networked with chinese students in IB from our school, the age is between 27-33. So If you cannot get into IB, are you still interested in Warthon? Take care.

I will get my MBA from a top business school next year and haven’t found a job yet. I would like to share my experience.

I am 32. Before going to business school, I have been a programmer in Texas for 3 years. My salary was 90K.

Only 5 months from graduation and no job offer yet, I am really worried about my future. Don’t be misled by statistics! The post-MBA average salary is so high, only because investment banks and PE firms pay very high salary. Having no experience
in finance, I have very little chance to go to investment banks.

Most industry jobs pay less than 100k and are located in expensive areas. If we consider cost of living, these jobs are worse than my pre-MBA programmer job. You may argue that these jobs have better potentials. But when I interviewed for a few leadership programs, the employer hinted that I was too old.

Consulting seems to be the best fit. But when you really compare the income as a management consultant and an IT consultant (contracting programmer), it’s not a big difference.

I am also considering going back to China. But it’s very difficult. A few years ago, you could easily get a high-power job in China, as long as you are a Wharton MBA. But now people focus more on work experience. I applied for a few management/business positions in China, the employers told me I was a non-candidate, because I was a programmer.

You may not be as unlucky as I am. I just want to share my experience, because it may happen to anybody.