| Topic Name: |
Medical School or Law School? |
| Message Name: |
no more myth than law myth |
| Date Posted: |
10/06/2001 |
| In Reply To: |
Doctors and Lawyers love to cite Investment Banking as the best career option for earning money.
Yes, a managing director at an investment bank can earn upwards of 500K per year.
But do any of you realize how difficult it is to attain that position? Apparently not, and let me explain why it's so hard to succeed in IB.
You can't even enter IB unless you start at the analyst position. And to get an analyst position, you have be young and from an Ivy League college or reputable non-Ivy league school like Berkley, Duke, Northwestern or Rice.
Then you have to endure 80-100 hour weeks being their slave for 2 to 3 years. Then you have to get your MBA from a top 10 B-school.
Then you will start out as an associate. And Banks hire tons of associates with the intent to weed them out like Big Law. Yes, these are Ivy League grads that are weeded out. Many enter other industries and accept that measily 120K job. :-)
Okay, assuming you aren't one of the associates that survived, you will make VP. And if you can survive as a VP meaning you kissed enough butt, endured no harsh economic times and got lucky with your analysis, you just might....just might make managing director.
Yes, you might as well try to walk on to Major League Baseball team or try out for a soap opera in L.A. Your chances are about the same. |
| Message: |
You explain that the $500K IB jobs aren't so easy to get into, and I'm sure that's correct, but the same can be said about partner at law firms. And I don't think ANY doctors ever make that much money (although maybe someone will correct me on this).
I still hold to the advice that if you can get into Columbia or Wharton, which both are feeder schools to the investment banks, then this is an easier path to easy riches than going to law school.
If you can get into ANY medical school, you will make six figures after you finish your internship and residency, which is better than all but the elite JDs and MBAs make.
Of course it's worth pointing out that there are people with no graduate degrees at all who make over $500K.
Good sales people all make six figures. If you have the ability to sell, then you don't need a graduate degree, go into sales. In some ways, the irony of law school is that if you go to a mediocre law school, only good sales skills will get you into a decent law job. Those same sales skills would make a lot more money just doing sales.
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