Got lots of feed back on my Q about investment banking but its 50-50????

some say the bs school is the most imporant other say its job expericence .

so with one is it ????????

Job experience. But it never hurts to keep learning in the classroom too.

Knowing the basics is good, but experience is the key. I don't care how much you know, if you can't apply your knowledge, it's useless.

It depends on which stage of your career you are in. If you are applying for a position a new analyst, you will more than likely have 0 work experience. This position is for new college graduates. The most important thing for this position is that you have done well in a prestigious program and show potential. There is a lot of debate over whether or not you can major in whatever you want and still get a job in the bulge bracket. This is true, I will pull a paragraph strait off of Goldman Sachs website to support it.

A financial background is not necessary. Your area or major of concentration is less important to us than your potential. Whether you鈥檝e distinguished yourself in economics or history, the next phase of your career will be shaped by your energy and vision. We encourage you to apply, provided you share an interest in the financial markets and have demonstrated strong academic performance and professional drive.

So Recap: For a new analyst position, work experience is not important(unless it is an internship or summer position)
Undergraduate school has a great deal of importance. The most important parts are what school you went to and your GPA.

Now then for a new associate position it is different. A new associate is someone with 2-5 years of work experience, many of whom have MBA's. This is the part where it gets tricky. The MBA will play a major part but only if you also have work experience before it. IF you do have a top MBA, then your work experience is not so important beforehand, say if it was as an engineer or something.
If you do not have an MBA, then work experience is critical. It should be in the financial industry or other business,preferably from a bulge bracket, big 4, or a top management/strategy consulting firm.

So if you want to improve your chances of getting an analyst position in a bulge bracket firm, then go to a top undergraduate school and get a high gpa.

To improve your chances of getting an associate position, go get relevant work experience, and go get a top mba.

I think that you should tool around on this forum. Google Wallstreet oasis, and visit the site. There are different sections including ibanking consulting pe hf vc and whatnot but you should check out all of these as well as the Business School section. You will find people far far more knowledgeable than myself or anyone else on yahoo answers, except maybe ranto who is a wharton professor.