Career FAQ
Are there networking events available during the Fall term? And are these exclusive to MFin students, or do they cater to MIT Sloan as a whole?
Yes, the majority of networking events are in the fall — our recruiting partners typically dictate who gets to attend. It’s usually split between intern presentations (First-Year MBAs) and full-time presentations (Second-Year MBAs and MFin students).
A large amount of the recruiting is done early in the year. How can the MFin program prepare me for recruiting if I haven't had enough academic experience yet?
The Career Development Office provides you with the necessary resources (i.e., network, cover letter, résumé, interview workshops, etc.). Networking and alumni connections here are simply the best. You get to work with and learn from MBA students, Sloan Fellows, and MSMS students. Also, you will have access to the MIT Sloan alumni network, many of whom are very involved in the recruiting process.
Does the lack of an internship period in the program make it difficult to find jobs?
It does hurt to not have a financial internship on your record, so it is advisable to seek one before enrolling in the MFin program. However, even without an internship being a part of the program, every student is usually able to find a suitable jobthrough a combination of extra effort, displaying a real passion for finance, and having the MIT Sloan name behind them.
How will international students be placed? Does this make recruiting difficult?
There are some difficulties associated with placing international students, both in that it is often not possible for international students to work in the United States, and companies from outside the United States find it difficult to travel here just to recruit. However, as you know, a majority of students this year are from outside the United States. Frankly, some of the best opportunities available to our students are international positions — you only have to look at the growth of Asia relative to the rest of the world in terms of IPO deals, etc., this year. In an attempt to be a part of this growth, each year we lead a trek of students to the Asia region to introduce our students to employers there. This year, we are expanding from just Hong Kong to include Beijing and Singapore.
If I am interested in a very quantitative job, would MIT Sloan’s MFin program not be appropriate for me, and should I opt for a quantitatively driven financial engineering program instead?
That is not the case at all. A great number of students come to the MFin program wanting to target quantitative job roles, and they have all found plenty of courses to meet their needs. Keep in mind that in addition to the classes offered specifically by MIT Sloan, students are also entitled to enroll in any class at MIT, including the other graduate departments, such as engineering, computing, mathematics, and statistics.
Did all of the students of the MFin students who were seeking employment find a job?
Yes, all the students seeking jobs had secured an offer by September (when the typical benchmarking takes place). Roles included positions in Sales & Trading, “Classic” IBD, quantitative finance, traditional corporate finance roles, and financial leadership programs. Students were split about 50/50 between domestic and international positions.
Has placement improved in the last year?
First, I want to give all our students full credit for earning their job offers last year. We do not “place” people, in the traditional sense. However, we do offer a number of support services through the Career Development Office shared with all of MIT Sloan.
What are the typical salary ranges we can expect after leaving the MFin program?
Salary is extremely dependent on experience. Analyst-level roles typically are compensated in the $60K-$80K range, while associate-level roles typically pay $100K or more. But remember, recruiters typically expect at least 3–5 years of experience in the workplace before they will consider candidates for this level.
What percentages of the class went into which fields, post-graduation?
About 15 percent went into sales & trading, 15 percent classic international business development, 15 percent finance leadership programs, 15 percent consulting, 10 percent quant roles, 10 percent investment management, 10 percent treasury/CFO path roles, and 10 percent management training.
“These companies are really excited to work with MIT students.They reach out to the community to set up these projects and are great to work with. They give us access to all their resources and are very open to us.”
"The relationships that we forged helped us to turn out a better project. We were able to test our hypotheses with the people that we spoke with every single day. And really, I think the friendships that you develop really propel the work that you’re doing."
“Because of the diversity of our backgrounds, when we hit the ground in Tanzania it almost was a natural play where different people assume different roles.”
“It was really rewarding that they wanted to know what we thought. We left there being fairly certain that they will do some of the things that we suggested.”
“We’re very interdisciplinary. Among the faculty in the group are an economist, a political scientist, a sociologist, and an industrial relations specialist. We’ve always made a big effort to be open to a variety of perspectives, but also to go beyond being open to them, to want to bring them in, because it makes for a richer environment.”
“The concept behind enterprise architecture is that you have all these machines, you have all these business processes, you have all these people doing things, how do you make sure they all come together and achieve business objectives that make you more competitive.”
“You could talk about watershed management and conservation of energy all you want. But until you put numbers to it and financial analysis to it, you’re not going to get much done. I came to business school to speak that language, speak with people in terms of numbers, financial numbers so that I can get projects done.”
“I love being in a place that is such a nexus of people and ideas — people coming to learn something new and to define themselves. Being a part of that process is a real honor and a real gift.”
“At MIT Sloan you have a lot of opportunities to explore entrepreneurship. Especially in a place like Kampala where you have a lot of development, entrepreneurship can be very exciting.”
“One of the reasons I came to Sloan was because I wanted to be at a top MBA institution worldwide. But I also wanted access to working with the latest innovations and the highest technology that was coming out of the MIT labs.”
“I can honestly say that when I was planning on coming to business school I never thought that witnessing the birth of a child would be included in the education. It was definitely an experience.”
"The classroom itself is filled with so much collective brain power . . . it's obvious that I'm caught up in a room full of 124 of the brightest, most curious people from around the world."
“I knew about American business, but not enough about what’s really become a global economy. … You can read about it all you want, but there’s no substitute for being there and seeing the context and seeing how completely different these [other countries] are.”
“We are very much an action-learning environment. The way to learn leadership is not only through reading cases, not only through learning theory — in fact we don’t want people to regurgitate the theory. We want people to take theory and to live it, use it.”
“The conditions in the neighborhoods we were visiting were different than what we realized before getting there. Beyond that, what was surprising was that there weren’t surprises!”
“I actively work to get students to find teammates who think differently than they do. You can’t be successful in management if you only have a single point of view or a particular set of skills.”
