Junior Goldman Sachs trader thinks an MBA is still worth it

Would you spend $110k a year on a two year MBA? And would you give up your job in Goldman Sachs' New York securities business do so?

Goldman insiders say that Jason Epstein, a third-year analyst in the securities division, has become the latest person to resign from the bank's New York electronic trading team. Epstein is understood to have quit last week. His LinkedIn profile reveals that he intends to study an MBA at Columbia Business School, presumably starting in the next academic year. 

Not long ago, Epstein's exit wouldn't have merited a mention - leaving banking to study an MBA was the norm. These days, however, MBA qualifications are generally held to be far less relevant to sales and trading businesses than in the past and banks typically only pursue MBA graduates for their corporate finance divisions.

Epstein didn't respond to a request to comment for this article, but he clearly still thinks that spending $200k+ on the qualification is worthwhile.

Columbia's most recent MBA employment report reveals that Goldman Sachs hired 16 of its MBA graduates in 2018 and that JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Merrill Lynch hired nine, five and five, respectively. It's not clear which divisions these MBAs went into but Columbia says students going into investment banking and brokerage roles earned median salaries of $125k plus median bonuses of $50k (which is likely less than Epstein was earning after three years at GS).

Goldman declined to comment on Epstein's move. More exits from the electronic trading team are understood to be forthcoming.

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