Help me choose a job out of undergrad [X Post]

[pmuir10]

Hi all,

I will be graduating from a top 30-40 undergrad business school in May. I am currently considering 3 possible jobs out of college. Some of my life goals I guess are to eventually get my MBA, end up in the Finance field doing venture capital or some other type of risk vs return work and to make a lot of money.

Option 1 Bank of America Credit Management Training Program (half training half on the job work, for 12 months. 40 people chosen for the program nationwide, 3 to my specific office location)
Overview –
Offered by the Global Bank Debt organization, the Credit Management Development Program combines training, mentoring and hands-on experience to enhance the analyst's skills and knowledge. The Credit Products business drives our organization to make banking work in ways it never has before.
As an analyst in the Credit Management Development Program, you’ll gain exposure and experience in a variety of areas:
• Analysis of company performance and assessment of ongoing credit worthiness
• Commercial lending credit policies and procedures
• Financial analysis and cash flow models
• Sales and promotional techniques for commercial banking products
• Acclimation to the financial services industry and
Bank of America

Things I like about this position is that the training is general evaluation of companies, and I feel it it is a good starting point for a career in the Financial Services industry. Also as BoA is a huge company there is opportunity to move in other directions such as Risk Management, Treasury Services (investing and maintaining companies capital) or whatever else I find interesting while I'm there. Also the job is 9-5 and theres not a lot of overtime necessary. I received an offer (53k)

Option 2 Portfolio Administrator Bain Capital
This position is doing Operations work for Bain Capital (Boston based private equity and LBO company) It is in their high-yield debt division (Sankaty) and is a back-office position. The tasks will essentially be reconciliations of cash, processing trades, checking for compliance, tracking down missing interest payments. Its a support and accounting type role.

Good things about this position, is it is probably higher paying than BoA, their offices are absolutely amazing with views of all of Boston, good people and its a very prestigious private equity company (for the resume). I think I would like working for a small company (100ish people in this division). Things about this position I'm worried about is that I don't think the work will be as interesting because it seems like a lot of accounting/ fact checking type work. Also theres not much opportunity to move around and although I would love become a trader or actual analyst for them, its near impossible coming from Operations. Salary would probably be like 2-5k more than BoA (and bigger bonuses). I have not received offer yet but have final round interview tomorrow.


Option 3 Accenture Consulting Analyst Systems Integration
This is a technology consulting position, helping companies install new and more effective software to help them improve their business processes. I think it would be interesting, and it is a great consulting company with awesome training. I liked the people I met here the most. However I'm worried about straying to far from the Financial Industry as this job is basically all tech oriented. Also it would require a lot of overtime and long hours as well as a ton of travel. The salary will probably be in between the previous two (have not received offer yet, but I think I will after the final round on Friday)


Overall, I am leaning towards Bank of America partially because that is the only one where I actually have an offer, but also I think it would be an awesome stepping stone into the Financial Services industry. Bain is probably my next choice because I think it would be a sweet place to work and pay well, but I am worried about doing accounting all day and being stuck in the back office. I have final rounds for Bain tomorrow (Thursday) and for Accenture on Friday. However, Bank of America is only giving me a week to decide and needs a decision by Monday Nov 19th. So a lot of this is hypothetical assuming that I get offers from all three over the weekend.

Any advice, thoughts, comments, TLRs or ideas are much appreciated.

[schundler]

some questions-
what was your u-grad gpa?

what internships did you do during u-grad?

[pmuir10]

3.4 cumulative, 3.71 major

work experience on my resume is 2 summer camp gigs and one "Business Development Internship" that runs until present at a small software startup company of 12 people. I pretty much just do random tasks here (sales, marketing, buying office supplies) but nothing to do with their financials or programming.

[NozeCandy]

All three sound like a lifetime of hell, honestly.

[pmuir10]

Well then I guess its a good thing I won't be doing any of them for life.

[coopersmydog]

You'll learn more, faster with option 3 if you're interested in a well rounded experience. You're job will likely focus on building relationships, managing change, and optimizing processes. The system is simply the tool that records all of that. Don't think of it as a development/techie job, it's probably not.

Depending on the types of systems you'll be working with, you would likely touch all the major functions of a corporation (finance, supply chain, etc.). If you have any interest outside of finance, this is a good option.

On the downside, being away from home 5 days a week sucks after about the third week. And you'll work a tons of "overtime", but you may as well get the idea of an 8 hour work day out of your mind.

If your interests are purely in finance, then I'm not of much help. I can't stand the thought of looking over spreadsheets all day every day.