I grew up in Sydney but studying engineering undergrad in Canada. I would say I have pretty average grades. I focused on following my passion so picked the most interesting but challenging courses thinking gpa did not matter .Ideally I would like to start in consulting but open to IB. Although my uni is ranked top 40 its not very known. I missed / did not prep for MBB, finance and have only general internships. Would I be best to get a masters or apply for general job / b4 and try again later.

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Hey! DM me, I'm on a similar path. Happy to chat.

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I want to add I think I want to end in either PE or the dream is to work for myself. Im not very motivated anymore by the nitty gritty engineering work and not a strong programer. I would say I have pretty good soft skills. One other option is work for a couple years and then go back in 4-6 years and do a MBA and try break in from there. I am currently working part time for a very new small business and absolutely love it and am learning so much but earning potential is pretty flat (at least until the business grows) and it was started by a very close family friend so I would almost feel bad asking/pushing for more money as I consider him family.

Masters are grossly undervalued in Australia. Big 4 is the obvious choice and still it's hard to land a grad job there. IB & consulting sounds distant now but you really set your mind to it your focus needs to be on landing a solid analyst-type job. This could be anything from mid-office gigs with a bank down to audit roles at any reputable accounting firm - start there and work your way forward through the usual pivot to IB/consulting pathways, do a solid Australian masters program 2-3 years in if you need to. Worst thing to jeopardise your career in Australia is to go into something unrelated (i.e. sales, HR, operations) or study for a masters straight away.

Alright thanks for your reply. From the sounds of it you really recommend against a masters strait from undergrad? How come, I just thought if im applying for the same grad roles with a undergrad in engineering + finance masters would make me more competitive applicant?

I think yes to your question but one thing to keep in mind is that Australia do not favour master graduates anymore than those with just a bachelor, I think this is where it's different to North America and Europe. Adding an MFin to your resume without working experience between would unlikely improve your odds of getting into an Australian T1/2 consulting firm or BB/EB/MM IB program. Another way of explaining this is that you're likely to be eligible for the same graduate jobs now versus 2 years later and adding ~$50k to HECS.

Imho Australia MBB and IBs overall are quite forgiving if you are able to start somewhere first and work your way into the field. Some of my connections started at big 4 consulting/ national strategy consulting firms and are now working at MBBs and other T2 strategy, a few started at mid-tier/big 4 roles, and now working at various boutique IB, MM IB, and smaller funds. Cant comment too much on how getting masters would improve their situation but anecdotally as long as you start at a good enough graduate role you can grind you way to these roles.

What I said above only applies if you can land a decent grad job in a related field straight after uni, otherwise MFin would makes sense to give yourself a second shot at applying for grad jobs.

I think then you are on the right track to make the best use of those 2+ years to reposition yourself!

If I have one suggestion it's to keep applying for both 2023 and 2024 grad programs as an engineering graduate (dont mention you are an incoming master student at xyz uni) and on the other hand apply for 2024 winter & summer programs as a 1st year Mfin student (without overlapping any of the companies you applied for graduate programs). Also not all Mfins are the same, would stick with Go8 if you can.

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