I think it will be difficult to win traditional IB roles if you have 17 years of work experience. I won’t say it’s impossible because people have done it before, but you don’t have a great chance even if you’re in a top traditional MBA program. And an Executive MBA program outside the top ~3 makes it even harder because your availability for summer internships may be unclear to recruiters.

If you really want to do IB, maybe spend a few months attending these events and meeting bankers and see what feedback they give you. If it seems like they consider your experience level to be an obstacle, switch to another field where that’s less of an issue (possibly consulting, maybe corporate banking, an independent valuation firm, maybe corporate development at a normal company, etc.).

I don’t think it’s worth giving up entirely because in stronger hiring environments, banks are sometimes open to more experienced candidates if they need the help. The hiring market is bad right now, but these things can change quickly.

I have full access to campus IB recruiting activities, company presentations, week on wall street, etc. Should I even test my chances given this access or is my age still a showstopper at this point? Even if I was to get a summer internship at my current BB employer or others, would they consider offering me a fulltime role immediately after the internship assuming I perform well? It’s a risk to be unemployed after an internship in hopes of an offer that won’t start until the following year. Wanted to get your thoughts on those questions.

Thanks for your insight.

Yes. See: https://mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-in-london/

I think it depends on what this “development position” means. Is it more of a project finance / infrastructure role, where you’ll be building models and assessing deals such as asset acquisitions and new wind projects? If so, I think it’s better than a a domestic ECM/DCM role at a Korean bank, especially since you can probably list the Macquarie name on your resume/CV.

But if you’re not going to do much modeling or deal analysis in that role, the ECM/DCM role might be better. Many people do not consider capital markets “real” investment banking, but it still counts… it’s just that you’ll be doing a lot of market update slides and not much deal work.

Just wondering, with brexit. Is London still a good financial hub to work in?

1. Recently I got two full-time offers. One is Corio generation Seoul office (portfolio company of Macquarie Asset Management and Corio is an offshore wind development company) as a development position and one is Korea local investment banking firm as a ECM/DCM junior position. My career goal is working in PE, IB, Asset Management or global LP (such as a GIC) in Singapore/Hongkong one day. In this case, what is your recommendation?

Here is my background
Age: 26 (spent two years for mandatory military service)
Grade: Senior student
School: Top 5 school in South Korea

Depends on how long you’ve been practicing medicine full-time, but if it’s more than a few years, you’re probably not going to get in as an Analyst. This article might help:

https://mergersandinquisitions.com/medical-school-to-investment-banking/

An MBA is usually the best option for making a big change after significant work experience.

It depends on your grades and work experience and other background information, but if you made it to ACs, you should have a chance at IB roles. You probably just need to prepare a bit differently and/or handle the group dynamics more effectively (but I can’t really say since I’m not sure what went wrong).