Is there a noticeable distinction in caliber between the people who join MBB pre-MBA vs. post-MBA?

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There is a noticeable difference in age

likefunny

I’m a BA. The BA job is “more competitive” than coming in as a post MBA because of simple numbers.

I don’t think the calibre of us is necessarily higher, BA recruiting is just pretty elitist. We’re doing better at recruiting from more schools, but a lot of MBA hires who did more “pedestrian” stuff pre-MBA probably had the chops to work here as undergrads, they just didn’t have the opportunity since they went to the “wrong” school.

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Yup, if you haven’t heard of MBB early on or whatever, you could unknowingly end up choosing a school / program excluded from OCR

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harder to get in from undergrad

overall quality on average seems higher but both are very top caliber group of folks

likefunny

I'd guess average IQ probably higher on pre-MBA, but sometimes lacking common business sense.

Post-MBA usually more well rounded but some really struggle with the consulting toolkit.

likefunny

On average? Pre-MBAs.

But there is a subset of post-MBA’ers who also went to top UG and either chose something other than consulting, or just didn’t apply themselves in UG, but definitely have more intellectual chops and polish than the UGs now that they decided to do consulting.

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On average, yeah decent sized difference. It’s an annoying topic though because it’s hard to talk about this without coming across as a you-know-what.

But to your question, yes, most T10 MBA students had pretty pedestrian trajectories (relatively speaking) and levelled up by dropping hundreds of thousands in tuition + opp cost. Some had really strong pre-MBA backgrounds, but those types are usually interested in something “cooler” - PE, VC, PM, startups, etc.

Lots of partners end up coming from the post-MBA pool because the pre-MBA ones often have more attractive opportunities appear at some point (or they burn out quicker…).

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Great point, have noticed the same!

I’m biased but associates have stronger trajectories… but less polished coming in

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I think undergrad hires definitely have a higher caliber as they were focused right from the early days unlike post-mba hires who come from random industries and random jobs

Exactly. What is your definition of caliber? How do you compare a concert pianist turned post-MBA consultant to a pre-MBA consultant turned concert pianist?

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