But for Fay Gosiengfiao, a five-year career at the blue-chip management consultancy firm Deloitte ended when she left to begin an MBA at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.
She was a senior associate with the firm for three years before being promoted to a managerial position in Deloitte’s M&A Transaction Services division, in their accounting arm.
But when she left, her career was far from over. Rather, it was just beginning. Fay transitioned to investment banking, another MBA staple, and much like Deloitte is at the top of its industry, her new career with Goldman Sachs is one that many b-school grads strive – and fail – to achieve.
“I learned what I wanted to in consulting and it was time to get more skills and see what else there was out there,” she says. “It was a great firm and I loved working there. I just didn’t particularly love the function.
“I had always wanted to get an MBA and after I got the promotion I knew it was the right time.”
It is not a decision she regrets. Tuck is one of the highest MBA ranking schools in the States and for a transition to finance, there are few held in higher regard.
The majority (30 per cent) of Tucks’ 2013 MBA cohort went into financial services, the most well-off of which now earning an impressive $175,000 salary. Overall, 95 per cent of their MBAs are in employment three months after graduating.
The smaller class sizes at Tuck are renowned for producing strong alumni networks and Fay is under no illusions as to the impact her networking opportunities had on banking a job at Goldman Sachs.
She first got a summer associate position (healthcare) with the bank in New York, before landing a full-time role right out of graduation as an investment banking associate.
“Tuck gave me the right academic background and support system. It’s a small school, so inevitably we know who goes to which firm and who to contact,” says Fay.
“It was a great alumni network. They helped us prepare for interviews, did mocks with us and shared their experiences. It was hugely helpful.
“It’s not the easiest job; you have to do your homework to get hired. And having classmates there to support you through that stressful process was huge.”
Alex Figueroa, a 2010 Tuck MBA graduate, agrees. He landed a full-time job with Goldman Sachs’ investment management division and told BusinessBecause that Tuck’s alumni network was instrumental in helping him break into the leading investment bank.
Alex first joined the company two years before starting the MBA program – but had no job offer to come back to.
In the summer between his first and second year at Tuck, he trawled through the schools’ alumni database while searching for his next career challenge. “I came across a very successful alumnus in the wealth management group [at Goldman Sachs]. I sent him an email and 30 minutes later he gave me a call,” says Alex.
“He told me to take the bus down to Boston for a chat over breakfast. He was a partner of the firm, yet he spent four hours that morning with me in his office, studying a job opportunity. And I left with a list of other people to contact.
“That’s the sort of thing that happens at Tuck. Tuckies really invest in our alumni network.”
When Fay considered which business school to apply to, it wasn’t a straight choice. She was living in Boston at the time, one subway stop from Harvard; another stop away from MIT, she says.
But what separated Tuck was the enthusiasm graduates had for the program. They couldn’t recommend it highly enough for her. “The way they talk about Tuck is so different from the way anybody talks about business school. They all told me it would be the best two years of my life,” she says.
“The people who go there choose to be there. It was a really immersive experience. You get to know your classmates so well and when you come out you know their wives names, their kids’ names. Tuckies give you 100 per cent of their attention and time.”
So when the opportunity for a summer associate position at Goldman Sachs came up, Fay jumped at the opportunity. Finance is one of the most popular MBA job functions and a recent survey by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) reports that 57 per cent of MBAs world-wide go into finance, consulting or the products and services industries.
The US also has the highest MBA employment figures in the world, with 95 per cent of graduates in employment in September 2013, according to the same report.
Tuck is a good place to be to launch a finance career, and both Fay and Alex are adamant that their MBA experience was essential to landing jobs at Goldman Sachs.
When Alex first studied at college, he was set on a professional football career in the NFL. After changing his mind and joining the MBA program, it helped him to have like-minded individuals with a similar ambition to succeed in business.
Alex says that an MBA can be beneficial when it comes to getting a job at Goldman Sachs, if a candidate does not have a finance background. In his case, he believes it would have been harder to have landed his job without one.
“Prior to joining Goldman Sachs in 2006 I worked like hell to try to get into any investment bank on Wall Street. And I was told at that point that I needed an MBA from a top-tier school to get credentials,” Alex says.
Fay came through a different route, but two years into her career and she is confident Tuck was the right decision.
“The recruiting is so competitive and inevitably you need an edge to stand out,” says Fay. “Tuck absolutely helped. I made the right choice. It is a demanding job and sometimes you work 100-odd hours each week.
“But I moved to New York with about 40 other Tuckies who were all starting their finance careers. So being a first year associate-career-changer was easier because my friends went through the same thing.
“It made a huge difference to have that support network of friends who understood. It helped me survive that first year. And that I wouldn’t have without Tuck.”
There are those that say an MBA isn’t necessary anymore for a top finance job – but these graduates would disagree.
It is not just the top-ranking school name on your resume that counts. It is the alumni network, support and networking opportunities that make the difference in high finance.
And for that, you can bank on business schools.
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