Road to Finance

thanks for posting :)

If you are interested in energy & money, I'm sure there is some serious potential in Houston.

Thanks for advice connor. I Have Houston at back of my mind for future..

I will never understand how someone would pass up a 9-5 with great benefits that pays well to work in an industry that is apparently on the decline. The money? you won't even have time to spend the extra 40-60k because you'll be in the office 24/7.

I know a lot of O&G engineers that are now in research in Calgary. If you work hard, it will be no problem for you. I'd rather have your current hours and benefits.

"but still Finance side of industry always somehow attracts me"- this line always amuses me....and im sure im not alone in this...but anyhw i sincerely hope you are interested and made for finance....good luck with your networking and career....keep us posted.

Riveting.

The price of the CFA makes me want to kick a cat. I "sat" in Dec, and the reason I quoted sat is because I forgot my passport and wasn't able to take it. I only paid $1.2k and studied 1-2 hours a day for the prior 6 months. Then again there's a possibility I wouldn't have passed it anyway. I only passed 7 straight practice tests the preceding month, and pretty much everyone agrees the practice tests are harder. For the past 2 months I've been trying to bring myself to dish out $745 to sit again but I just can't bring myself to do it, lol. With practice shit, thatd bring the grand total to $2k+. Apologies for the COMPLETELY irrelevant rant.... proceed

Thanks for sharing. I am also transferring from Physics to Finance and it's really helpful to me.

Dude, go to Houston. I work for a major oil company also but I work in corp fin. I've had multiple interviews at Ibanks due to the fact I work at a major oil company. I think the reason I didn't get those gigs was because I was barely 10 months out of college and didn't have enough experience. Energy banking really loves people from major oil companies. This transition might be easier than you think for you....I would pass the CFA level 1 to give you some credibility (not sure if you'll need level 2 & 3).

G'luck.

BB IBD analyst here - I would strongly discourage anyone with a background such as yours (or anyone really) from entering the finance industry. You've got a tangible skill set in a growing field and can actually contribute value to society. Don't get caught up in the glamor of high finance thinking that you'll be doing high profile M&A deals or working on massive IPOs like facebook. Your job will be to sit on your ass for 18 hours a day staring at a spreadsheet or powerpoint. You will get fat, suffer physical pain and health issues, lose touch with your friends and family, and become bitter despite your bank account being flush with cash that you won't have time to spend or in the event that you do, spend it on people you don't really give a shit about.

Seriously, think twice about working in this industry. The money is absolutely not worth all the tradeoffs you'll make.

I'm from Calgary as well.

There is plenty of opportunity in this city for advising on the technical side of things for asset sales and M&A. Don't overlook business development for an integrated or midstream company either; those jobs draw from technical and financial skills, pay great, and don't have the insane IB hours.

Good luck dude.

PE firms recruit from investment banking analyst classes for a reason - the skill set and work are similar as is the lifestyle. That said, depending on what PE firm you work at, you will end up looking at tons of deals that won't go anywhere, which is why the hours at some of the larger buyout funds are as bad if not worse than banking due to the amount of capital they have to deploy. Don't know much about ER to be honest so can't really opine on that.