Is it hard to get the ideal job with the pay you are looking for, or hard to just get any job within an industry or company you would potentially like to work for?

Any job on the ground floor is better then no job, and pays more then school does, and offers the good chance to leverage into a different position.

Interesting, why are macros discouraged? Does it have to do with nobody really knowing how to fix them if something gets broken? Some of the things I do would be a huge pain the ass to use normal excel functions.

Business units should not be doing their own programming. They really shouldn't be doing that many ad-hoc reports in Excel. That's the whole point of a Business Intelligence team; their job should be to develop those reports and tools to generate data visualization for the business units (sales, marketing, business operations, executive team).

If everyone is doing their own development and reporting, you get disparate answers. It also leads to a conflict of interest if business units are reporting on their own metrics.

As for Riverman: If you want to work in business but lack patience, I have no idea what to tell you.

Your best bet would to become a freelance software developer or something.

Well, unfortunately that's the reality of working in a smallish business.

Getting good at Excel also means learning all keyboard shortcuts and never using a mouse.

I think I've done a poor job of explaining myself in this thread. Of course I understand that big firms will be bureaucratic, the point is to work there long enough to acquire skills and build relationships while ironing out exactly what I would like to do. The alternative is to target smaller firms, but that is harder because even the highly successful ones do not often have a standardized recruiting schedule and/or don't know when they will need someone until the time they need someone.

Perhaps we could discuss the pros and cons of PE/VC, Real Estate Development (both residential and commercial), Investment Management (specifically mutual funds), consulting (what exactly does this mean in Ohio?) and rotational programs at large firms?

Consulting will almost assuredly mean travel Mon-Thurs. Don't think there is much IM in central Ohio. Can't speak to the other stuff.

Unfortunately your location requests will probably be a hindrance for you. Your best bet may be corporate finance at a larger firm in the area. Also network like crazy at any small shops in the area that you are interested in that may not recruit on campus. You need to be proactive with those type.

I had a friend who was an engineering undergrad from OSU. He passed the CFA test and landed a businessy job without needing to get an MBA. He also said that there were a lot of CFA networking events around Columbus, so maybe that is a path you could explore before spending a ton of time and money investing in an MBA.

This is exactly why.

CFA is a tough test, which is why this person was able to get a job.

Three years. I think it is much tougher than an MBA.

Finance rotational at a large firm sounds least suitable given your goals and persona presented in this thread. PE / VC / Asset management would be more appropriate given your goals as you will gain experience in analysing a range of businesses, and could eventually receive remuneration in the form of equity I the fund you help to manage (quasi passive given you would also earn a salary and cash bonus).

Your impatience should guide you more towards a mutual fund analyst role than PE VC given generally longer term investment horizons and compensation schemes at the latter.

‏@GSElevator

#1: If you can't use Excel without a mouse, keep your résumé updated. 390 Greenwich is just down the street.

https://twitter.com/GSElevator/statu...48305298817025

Is PE/VC realistic for someone not from a Top 10 B-School? Strikes me that OP has a very weak sense for what type of job might be available to him coming from a more mediocre B-School.

Or perhaps there are regional advantages I am missing?

http://fisher.osu.edu/about/ranking-...tics/rankings/

Hm - is that considered mediocre btw? If not, apologies, OP. Although still do believe the PE/VC consideration is outside of OP's consideration set only because he would not get looked at (not just based on his MBA program, but also his professional background to this point).