MBA in finance party is over

Wall Street: Is the Party Over for MBAs?

For a certain type of MBA, but certainly not all, the degree is all about landing a job on Wall Street. And not just any job, an investment banking job, the kind that promises untold riches—a lifetime of high six-figure salaries and bonuses to match.
But that kind of job is rapidly disappearing. UBS, Deutsche Bank, Barclays, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Credit Suisse have all announced massive pay cuts for investment bankers in recent weeks, and many of the same institutions have also reported job cuts. In fact the global financial services industry is hemorrhaging jobs of all sorts, not just investment banking, with the total now somewhere north of 200,000 in the latest purge. For a withering view of life among the Masters of the Universe these days—and a good explanation for why lower pay may be a semi-permanent condition—check out this week’s New York magazine cover story, “The Emasculation of Wall Street.” If you’re contemplating a banking career, or already have one, it will give you second thoughts.
These banks are big employers of MBAs, or at least they were. At Chicago’s Booth School of Business and Wharton, big banks hired nearly 70 full-time MBAs at graduation; at Columbia, in Wall Street’s backyard, the number approached 100.
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Comment: This is not a dip, it is a long-term trend. Devil takes the hindmost.