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So I'm a recent graduate of a top 20 MBA program, and spent 5 years in the Army as an officer. Before that was just blue collar work. I've got a family friend that's decently high up in a big tech company that would like to help me land a job, something she offered when I first got out of the Army too but I wanted to go to grad school first. I've also got an opportunity for a part time program management job at the university I graduated from that's in a field I'm interested in (urbanism related stuff). The pay sucks but will give me the opportunity to meet tons of people and organizations adjacent to this field. I could also pursue a second master's degree with the remainder of my GI Bill or look into some kind of freelance work for additional income. I've never been super interested in a corporate career track, I've always been more interested in finding fulfilling work or running my own business. I'm way more interested in the job at my old university, but the pay makes me hesitant. The high salary of a big tech company is attractive, but I can also see myself getting sucked in and used to the stability of such good pay and never attempting to start my own business. Tough choice between following my interests and following a high steady paycheck.
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Sep 18, 2023 23:00
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| # ¿ May 6, 2024 00:10 |
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Yeah, I'm 36 and the university (it's UW) job comes with benefits. The pay is just awful.
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Sep 18, 2023 23:19
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Ham Equity posted:If you were to start your own business, what sort of business would you be running? Some kind of planning consultancy or something? Have you ever run your own business before? What makes you think you would want to run your own business? During my MBA I actually won a pitch competition for a bike security business plan, which is something I still work on from time to time. Just don't have the money to bootstrap that idea myself yet, and definitely not interested in anything to do with a VC firm. I've already been contacted by the Director of the program at UW, and I definitely crush all the requirements for the job. But yeah urban planning and public policy are some of the things I've thought about for a second master's. With my GI Bill benefits and the UW part time job I'd be making a decently comfortable income. I had no interest whatsoever in the officer career track while I was in the Army, and I think I'll likely come to the same conclusion in a big corporation.
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Sep 18, 2023 23:42
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Think I'm going to hear what the university program has to say about the job, and also see what the family friend has to say about helping me with jobs at her big tech company. Looked up her title and the average for that position is around $400k.... way, way more money than I thought she made. Jesus. She talked to me about helping me out before I joined the Army and it sounded like she was certain she could help me land a job, and that was a few years ago. Knowing the right people definitely seems to be the best way to find a place to work.
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Sep 19, 2023 04:19
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Ornery and Hornery posted:If your intent is to stay in the PNW then I disagree 100% with Lockback. I definitely do not have the independent wealth, but the UW job is also the only one that's moved forward with the employment process so far, and the director seems pretty interested in having me. I applied for a senior program manager job for Amazon's Rapid and Rural Logistics expansion team and it by far fits my background more than any other job I've applied for. All of the duties and responsibilities directly correlate to things I did on a daily basis as a logistics officer in the Army. Spent a ton of time looking at maps doing terrain analysis for positioning logistics nodes. Also lots of autonomy and solving problems with no clear solutions while being geographically separated from my superiors. I sent an email to the family friend that's fairly high up in Amazon and for this job in particular I elaborated on why it's such a good fit for me, I'm hoping as high up as she is that her recommendation has some good pull with the hiring team even if she works in a completely different part of Amazon (tech rather than logistics). The overwhelming majority of jobs I apply for end up being at Amazon only because they have so many logistics positions, and honestly I do find logistics to be fairly interesting and rewarding work. This job in particular is one of the few corporate jobs that does excite me. I keep seeing stuff about reaching out to hiring managers and recruiters on LinkedIn but I almost never see those people listed on job postings unless they're a smaller company.
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Sep 22, 2023 17:57
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Have companies suddenly decided they don't need as many recruiters or hiring managers anymore? I've noticed a slew of recruiters and hiring managers from Google, Amazon, and Microsoft on my linkedin feed posting about being laid off within the last few weeks. Can't remember the last time I saw someone post about getting a new position or job on my feed. Just laid off people looking for work or employed people talking about something their team is working on.
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Oct 1, 2023 22:59
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Moving on to the "loop" interview process at Amazon for a Senior Financial Analyst position. Other than managing budgets and contracts in the Army my most relevant finance experience is stuff I learned in my MBA finance courses. Going to need to brush up and write some finance related STAR answers, the manager said all the other interviewers will be finance folks and they're not as open as she is to candidates without a traditional finance background. But she did tell me that if the decision was solely up to her, she would hire me on the spot.
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Feb 7, 2024 19:32
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Have you ever thought of finance jobs at tech companies? Specifically senior financial analyst or finance manager roles. I start as an SFA (having never worked in FP&A) at AWS in a couple weeks, and finance at tech companies seem to lean much more into the data analyst side of things.
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Apr 22, 2024 19:04
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Only thing I'd add is that from looking at the LinkedIn profiles of other big tech finance folks, it seems the big tech companies typically down-level people if it's their first role in tech. Like senior finance managers from a finance firm coming in as a finance manager, or a finance manager coming in as an SFA.
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Apr 22, 2024 19:16
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| # ¿ May 6, 2024 00:10 |
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Here's a 2022 report from Universum on the most attractive employers for business, engineering, and IT students. They surveyed 185k students. https://poetsandquants.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2022/11/WMAE_2022_report.pdf    I went to a t20 MBA program and I'd say that looks pretty accurate. Some of my friends went to higher ranked MBA programs and the perception I get is that the top consulting firms are more sought after in their schools, though maybe not higher than FAANG (or whatever they call the big tech companies these days).
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Apr 27, 2024 20:27
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