The making of an investment banker: Macroeconomic shocks, career choice and lifetime income
From the Briefcase: Research produced by America's Best Business Schools
"This tells me that there is a deep pool of potential investment bankers in any Stanford M.B.A. class," said Oyer.
Another of the surprises Oyer found during his research is that M.B.A.'s are not hopping in and out of investment banking in search of the perfect job. "The idea has long been that M.B.A.'s change jobs all the time. But what this study shows is that they are not jumping in and out of investment banking. It's pretty sticky. Once you're there, you tend to stay; once you've started down another path, you're not likely to move to a Wall Street firm."
The research also suggests that bull markets might discourage entrepreneurs. "One question you would naturally ask [is], if in bull markets more people go into investment banking, what are they not doing?" said Oyer. "And because there are a fairly limited set of things that M.B.A.'s do, there's some evidence that when bull markets move people onto Wall Street, it takes away from consulting and entrepreneurial careers."
One thing that the study does bear out is that graduating M.B.A.'s are correct in perceiving that general economic factors in the year they graduate will have profound long-term implications for their careers.
"Every year, our students get very anxious about the state of the job market. I always thought we—because I was the same way when I was finishing school—were being silly," said Oyer. "But as it turns out, we had pretty good reasons to be worried about the state of the job market, as it would affect a lot of us for a long time to come."
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