MBA Grads and Startups

“Business Insider” has a good piece out on MBA grads pursuing startups.

“Business Insider” has a good piece out by Portia Crowe and Andy Kiersz entitled “Here’s where MBA students want to work the most” that we figured we’d share with our students seeking to earn admission to America’s top MBA programs. So what’s the headline, you ask? It’s that more than a quarter of current MBA students surveyed want to work for large investment banks but more and more are turning to startups these days. It’s a trend that is entirely unsurprising, if you ask us. This is where we all say a collective “duh!”

We don’t foresee the trend of MBA grads turning to startups ending anytime soon.

As according to a survey by Training the Street, a business devoted to training Wall Street interns and professionals on how to become better Excel ninjas in financial services, “It asked 293 first- and second-year MBA students which type of firm would be their top employment choice. Bulge-bracket banks and global financial institutions came in first as the workplace of choice for 26.28% of respondents. 13.65% of respondents chose private equity firms, while 7.51% chose boutique banks. Of note, 7.17% of respondents chose startup companies as their choice place of employment — the highest percentage since Training the Street started providing that option in 2012. The percentage of MBAs looking to work for hedge funds was 4.78%, down from 4.9% last year.” Interesting data indeed.

And so the trend of MBAs trading in countless hours of cubicle squatting and cranking out financial models in favor of crafting go-to-market strategies continues. It’s a trend we foresee continuing for many years to come.