Career From Engineer to Finance - Help Wanted

I have 8 years of experience. Worked for companies like Accenture as a consultant. I m pursing MBA. I m trying to move to finance. But, companies are rejected me for a general F&PA role saying I dont have prior experience even for an internship position. As part of my school work, I am also research about Blockchain technologies.

Can someone suggest me how I can get a breaking in the finance domain with my background.

 

Hello all,

I work as an HR admin but my undergrad degree is in millennial snowflake studies from an online university less than 50 years old, paradoxical I know but hear me out before you berate me with insults. I work down the hall, and three floors down from the Portfolio Management team of my firm and I was wondering how hard it would be to make the transition from HR admin with a degree in millennial snowflake studies from a paradoxically youthful online university to Portfolio Management. The Portfolio Manager I spoke with mentioned that I should earn my CFA designation, while the Institutional Sales Director gasped when he heard me repeat what the Portfolio Manager had told me and said that the only reason why anyone would say such a thing would be to befuddle the truth. The IS Director said that the CFA is the poor man’s MBA and it will never get you serious consideration from Institutional Clients. With this knowledge in hand, I returned to the Portfolio Manager to challenge him on his assertion that the CFA was indeed superior and you know, he told me that the most important thing to remember is that the only reason why God created the MBA is so that people with more money than brains could have a credential as well. With that as a backdrop and keeping in mind that while I can probably attain an offer from a Tier 1 MBA school while only attaining funding for a Tier 2 out of state school, which is my best route to take if my career objective is to become a successful portfolio manager?

 
Shaun-Mullins:
Hello all,

I work as an HR admin but my undergrad degree is in millennial snowflake studies from an online university less than 50 years old, paradoxical I know but hear me out before you berate me with insults. I work down the hall, and three floors down from the Portfolio Management team of my firm and I was wondering how hard it would be to make the transition from HR admin with a degree in millennial snowflake studies from a paradoxically youthful online university to Portfolio Management. The Portfolio Manager I spoke with mentioned that I should earn my CFA designation, while the Institutional Sales Director gasped when he heard me repeat what the Portfolio Manager had told me and said that the only reason why anyone would say such a thing would be to befuddle the truth. The IS Director said that the CFA is the poor man’s MBA and it will never get you serious consideration from Institutional Clients. With this knowledge in hand, I returned to the Portfolio Manager to challenge him on his assertion that the CFA was indeed superior and you know, he told me that the most important thing to remember is that the only reason why God created the MBA is so that people with more money than brains could have a credential as well. With that as a backdrop and keeping in mind that while I can probably attain an offer from a Tier 1 MBA school while only attaining funding for a Tier 2 out of state school, which is my best route to take if my career objective is to become a successful portfolio manager?

You write very well for a troll. You have an odd style of trolling.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 
Sally Deora:
I have 8 years of experience. Worked for companies like Accenture as a consultant. I m pursing MBA. I m trying to move to finance. But, companies are rejected me for a general F&PA role saying I dont have prior experience even for an internship position. As part of my school work, I am also research about Blockchain technologies.

Can someone suggest me how I can get a breaking in the finance domain with my background.

T10 MBA. If your uGPA is good and you do well on the GMAT, I think your Accenture experience should be adequate to get you there.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 
Sally Deora:
I have 8 years of experience ..... As part of my school work, I am also research about Blockchain technologies.

What does this statement mean? You have 8 years experience, so are a ~2009 grad, but blockchain just came out in 2009 .... ?

How were you researching Blockchain when you were in school in 2007,08,09 and it wasn't invented?

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

Sounds odd to me that they would go through all the trouble to do a first round interview after seeing your resume/previous experience, then go through even more inconvenience & financial burden to pay to fly/bring you to their office for a final round (undoubtedly also paying for a hotel), only to not even give you a chance because you don't have the experience theyre looking for? Did they tell this to you during the interview or after the rejection when you asked for feedback? Could just be a convenient excuse for them to use for why they actually didn't want to hire you...

EDIT: just reread your post as well, what type of MBA program are you at now? Seems to me that your issue isn't the relevant finance experience part, but that you don't have relevant experience AND don't have a solid understanding of the field and finance in general ... why would you work on studying blockchain technologies if you want to do FP&A? Sounds more like a play at getting into tech right

 

Well, for the behavioral questions did your answers indicate you had a genuine interest in finance (FP&A?)? The consulting background should be more than adequate to show good business acumen and intelligence ... did you talk too much about your blockchain research? Personally, I would even consider leaving it off your resume / giving it very minimal attention - it doesn't seem to fit your "story" of going from consulting to finance very well - indicates more of an interest in tech...

 

All the engineers I know that made the switch did it with an MBA. They said it's the easiest way by far. One guy had a Chem Eng degree and worked for big oil. He then did an MBA and he just recently got promoted to VP.

 

Where are you getting your MBA - do they have good campus recruiting?

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

As the above poster said, it depends what you mean by "serious money".

If "serious money" means BILLIONS, then Technology Entrepreneurship will offer you a much better chance. If "serious money" means upper middle class, then maybe Finance is your answer - just don't expect this route to be easy.

 

Here it goes again.

Been lurking on WSO for some time and reading through the forums. Looking for your expert opinion.

Based on my situation I have narrowed down my choices to the following 2 options:

1) Look for a job in Finance right now. (I know this is a long shot, switching from Mechanical engineering to IB, is most likely to yield no result.)

2) Apply for MBA. (Is a Top 10 admit possible?)

My Profile:

  • Age 30

  • Working as a "Contract (consultant) Mechanical Engineer" at a Fortune Fifty company in the Mid-West for 5 years now. No career progression or anything to show for a great career. Only significant achievement I would say is a pending patent application as a co-inventor and may be another one in the pipe line, in say the next year or two.

I have no significant extra-curriculars outside of work like say for example working for a NGO or starting a side business.

Also, this job is quite unstable. Always in fear of being laid off.

  • MS Mechanical Engineering (non-thesis), Purdue University, GPA 3.41/4.0

(Finance) Relevant courses: All of these are Grad 500 level courses

  • Risk Management

  • Engineering Economic Analysis

  • Statistical Methods

  • Advanced Mathematics for Engineers & Physicists - Parts 1 & 2

  • Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering, India, GPA approximately 3.5/4.0 (this university does not use the grade point system and hence the GPA is in the ball park)

As mentioned, I am planning to either

1) Look for a job in finance now

OR

2) Go to school for MBA

So, what say guys and gals?

PS: Experienced immigrants may have an opinion on this

  • To complicate this all, I am right now on H1B work Visa in the US and will be eligible to apply for a green card in 2 more years (2018). If I decide to go to school now I may risk my status if there are no job prospects after MBA.

Thank you.

 

Ivy League. Woman. Engineering.

I'd just say that you're going to have quite a shot.

"It is better to have a friendship based on business, than a business based on friendship." - Rockefeller. "Live fast, die hard. Leave a good looking body." - Navy SEAL
 

I graduated with engineering four years ago (not top school and I did bare minimum just to graduate) and I took corporate FP&A analyst job at global 500 company for a lot less money right after college. It was a right move for me. Four years and five title changes later, I'm now working on a global transformation project with the key players at my company and I have a clear vision of what I could become 10-20 years down the road.

One of my mentors told me that I will always be an engineer regardless of what my job is because I was trained to think like an engineer. (He graduated with ME from MIT then became a finance/strategy person). It'll be the same for you regardless of what you end up doing...your skillset will be different from a lot of people and that will make you an asset. It's not a pipe dream.

 

Graduated from a not terribly impressive school with a BSME in 2010. Didn't even need a full two years to learn that Engineering was not for me, AT ALL. By the fall of 2013 I was enrolled in a quality MBA program. While I now have 100K worth of debt, between an internship and handsome signing bonuses/tuition reimbursement I've seen essentially zero foregone wages in the last two years. In two months I'm starting consulting with a company that I absolutely LOVE, and for double the salary I used to make. That's not to mention just concluding two years that were beyond my wildest dreams awesome.

Get that MBA! Feel free to PM me if you'd like to learn any more.

 

I would skip the technical masters and take the MBA advice. Start planning now to apply next fall if you can wait that long. That gives you time to crush the GMAT and decide where to apply. Going to an MBA business schools">M7 would be a no-brainer if you're trying to be a consultant; in case you don't get in go to McKinsey's website to see what other schools they target. Take this a proxy; if you can get into McKinsey from a school, you can get into a lesser consulting firm, though it will be more competitive for slots at any school below the MBA business schools">M7. Keep in mind that outside the top 7, (excepting perhaps Tuck), the top tier firms take less people; but you'll still have a solid shot out of any school on their list.

This will also open the door to corporate leadership roles coming out if you would prefer to manage people than put together presentations, deal with clients or model in excel. Any one of those top 7 + Tuck schools will give you a very solid shot (that's HBS, Stanford, Booth, Wharton, Columbia, MIT, Kellogg). I'm pretty sure that 99% of people that head to those schools that want to get into consulting get a consulting job, though they don't all get their dream firm. I'm headed to Booth, for example, where something like 30% of the class goes into consulting and something like 40-50% of that figure ends up at a top tier firm. I think those odds are pretty standard for the MBA business schools">M7. Each school has a different flavor to it, don't listen to the stereotypes online, talk to some current or recently graduated students to see what program really gets you interested.

 

Consulting firms place a high value on engineers. They do so for three reasons, none of which are directly related to the technical content that we learned in school:

(1) Engineers have well-honed and structured problem-solving skills; (2) Engineers are comfortable with quantitative analyses; (3) Engineers tend to have a strong work ethic.

On the flip side, engineering candidates to consulting have three key questions that they need to answer:

(1) Does the candidate have the lateral (creative) thinking skills required to succeed in consulting? (2) Does the candidate feel comfortable solving problems in non-quantitative ways? (3) Does the candidate possess the requisite leadership and soft skills to work with clients and command the respect of his or her project team?

Although every consultant needs to possess a broad range of skills, engineers need to convincingly show through their work experience, coursework, and extracurriculars that they are not limited in their way of thinking through problems. In my (very) limited experience, I've seen two routes to consulting for experienced hires:

(1) Stand out at a well-regarded F100 firm, usually in an operational role, before transitioning to a mid-tier consulting firm such as Deloitte S&O/Strategy&/Oliver Wyman or a technical role at an implementation firm like PwC Advisory/Deloitte Tech/Accenture; (2) Receive an MBA at a top school, doing well enough in case interviews to receive an offer from MBB, mid-tier consulting firms, or top boutiques such as AT Kearney/LEK/Marakon/Cambridge Group.

Hope this helps!

 

I'm in the same boat but 2 years older with 4 years of engineering experience. I'm heading to an MBA business schools">M7 MBA this fall. Getting an MBA is probably the easiest way to switch your career

 

this isn't even a question...of course you can switch into something else, you're only 25. yes, you can go get an mba...but first, maybe just throw out some feelers and see if there's a consulting firm that will take you as an analyst etc. that way you will have a bit more experience under your belt before getting the mba...though just getting an mba will work fine too.

 

Great thread! I am an undergraduate civil engineer and like William said, I quickly found out engineering wasn't for me. I dabbled in businesses on the side and it didn't work out. I ended up going to a good MBA program but it isn't recognized even though it's the top IB school in the nation. My advice is to go to a MBA business schools">M7 school and focus on what you want to do.

 

also the absolute worst thing you could be doing this summer if you want to go into IB is take classes at university. Tons of people go into IB without any formal education-- it's all about experience, how you present yourself, and networking. paying $$$ to take classes (which most people in IB don't even value) is a large step backwards.

engineering in IB is not unusual, but it is VERY unusual if you don't have any story/experience.

 

I have come to understand that the experience and knowledge that is gained in IB is incredibly useful in all aspects of banking and wall street including trading.

Thanks for the insight about the classes, as I have no experience with it this is the kind of stuff I have come to this sight to learn more about it. I am currently putting together a list of people to contact and have a plan in place that I am going to start this week to start contacting banks in my area to try and get more insight from them as well as hopefully trying for an internship (possibly unpaid) during the later part of the summer and during the school year.

 

you know that people are recruited as analysts for S&T, right? I don't get the point of doing IB unless if you are ambitiously aiming to get a HF exit out of IB, which to be blunt will be very difficult given the market outlook and your experience

 

okay, so the clearest path i could see is no name boutique ft 1 year -> aggressively network into BB for 2nd year -> hf recruit as a 2nd year.

This is a HUGE uphill path--like this is beyond being "ambitious". everyone working in IB is ambitious; to be blunt, your average competitor for these spots will be as ambitious as the top 1% of SMU students, and that 1% has experience you don't have. coming from a target, this would be seen as nearly impossible and will take more luck than skill. It's going to be exponentially harder as you will probably have to recruit for a NY opportunity as energy banking (typically in TX) is doing shitty atm.

Just tried to give you a realistic outlook as you can suffer professionally by spending your first couple years aspiring to do something that you lack the traditional backgrounnd for. best of luck

 

Note: assuming you have a good quant background from engineering.

I see more value in you leveraging quant skills to go into S&T or quant-orient buy side at somewhere small enough to take you. Then either going to grad school or learning enough fundamental analysis on your own that you're skilled both in quant. and qual.

Every time I see an engineering student I think "here's someone who can do amazing things with numbers that I can't grasp" - don't see why not to play that up and target a position that lets that type of skill shine through.

 

I did undergrad in STEM and the biggest ding I got on my credentials when networking was "nothing on your resume says 'finance'". I don't think building your finance skills in an academic environment is a bad idea, however, you'll also need to do a tremendous amount of learning outside of class (I haven't seen any academic program properly cover even an interview level "walk me through a DCF" well).

As a engineer, people will assume you can do the math. Accounting and finance are relatively simple concepts (addition, subtraction and compounding). compared to engineering math. "Modeling" is a form of programming you will probably consider overly simplistic.

The trick is you have to be extremely precise in how you articulate your knowledge. The most common mistake I see from STEM candidates is they "get the idea", but don't express it precisely. Finance people are very picky about being exact when expressing financial concepts.

 

Lets start off with Plan B, which I am more qualified to comment on:

https://math.nyu.edu/financial_mathematics/

Note: this is Plan B. All else equal it's better to have $100K you would not have spent in tuition and two years worth of experience and savings than an MFE. But your engineering undergrad gives you preparation that most people don't get for an MFE program and I believe you could be both a successful applicant at and graduate of an NYU, CMU, Columbia, or Princeton. (Princeton is always a dice roll)

If you have some free time this summer, try and get a 165-170Q on your GREs. Also try coming up with some exciting hobbies.

However, my suspicion is that oil is heading to $60 by this fall, especially if there is any sort of unrest in the Middle East or if tracking production dips more than anticipated, and energy groups from S&T to IBD to perhaps even research will realize they've hired too conservatively. This could be Plan A. I'd start talking to friends who are doing banking or IBD and meanwhile try to get some sort of relevant marketable experience this summer. This price rebound might also give you a lead into an Exxon, Conoco, or Tesla or some renewable firm (where I think the future really is) as an engineer, which could also set you up well to do an MBA or MFE and transition to finance with a stronger and more marketable background.

 

Having known someone who went to SMU and is currently in IB at JPM, it can be done. That said, know that your competing for an increasingly small number of spots with some of the smartest people in the country if not the world. And frankly experience and good grades will matter more than the actual classes you took (as long as they're quantitative or business related) in my opinion, because your school doesn't have the brand of a Harvard or Yale. It's still obviously very good, but that's just the way it is.

"There's nothing you can do if you're too scared to try." - Nickel Creek
 

What is your engineering background in? From what I understand, you should try to stick to that background.

For example, if you're a mechanical engineer, try to prove that you know a lot about manufacturing firms or something similar and try to find a group within a related sector.

Do you have any internship experience? Same deal as above. If say, you interned at an energy company, try to find an internship with a strong energy group at a bulge bracket. That will make you a little bit more competitive than say, trying to fight a typical finance major with experience into a product group.

Just my $.02, hope that was helpful. Good luck to you.

 

I am bit new to consulting as I am just starting out after a five year career in healthcare. However, based on my experience, as long as you have a bachelors degree companies such as Booz Allen Hamilton and even Deloitte seem to be willing to give you a shot given that your resume catches their attention. Maybe apply to the the big consulting firms in your region prior to going to get your masters and see if you get accepted. Majority of the times consulting firms, as I am sure you are aware, look for specialization in a particular area. In your case you have 10 years of software engineering experience which should definitely help get you noticed.

Just my two cents, good luck!

 

This is a good idea. I'm always a bit put off as some of the positions sound as if I would need more project management experience. But I guess if I apply, I could find out my weaknesses and work on them.

Thanks!

 

It would be worth a shot to do a consultation with WSO's mentor. That way you could ask about the industry and they can assess your skills, plus they can help you how you can package yourself.

 

Banks do hire engineering students (namely petroleum) for A&D work within an investment bank (i.e. Aiding in the purchase/sale of O&G assets).

Have you tried looking into other areas of IB? Perhaps Strats if you have strong quant skills or maybe you can look into technology or industrial groups within an IB?

What would help is if you reach out on LinkedIn and find engineers that are currently working in IB and network with them as they have a similar background as you.

 

Yeah, I'm aiming to get into a tech group for IB for now. That should set me up for later if I want to move somewhere else where I can work as a quant.

Will look into Linkedin.

 

Very hard IMO without any relevant finance experience, let alone banking experience. I personally made the switch from pre-med with PWM internship but was not able to get land a SA last recruiting cycle. Got some super-days but was red flagged due to no relevant banking experience and hard to justify "why ib" without any experience/knowledge about industry.

 

Yes you can easily land a job in finance with a degree in engineering. If you still have time in school, try to get and internship for the summer. Maybe focus on firms that specialize in industrials, tech, or capital goods.

 

Probably going to need some more information about yourself: what school did you go to (UBC?), where else have you worked/interned at and what is your GPA?

Either way, you are probably going to need to do a lot of networking to get a finance position as you missed full time recruiting on campus (assuming you graduated spring 2014). You are going to want to network with school alumni and since you did your CFA level 1, you could try CFA charter holders where you could ask both of them for career advice, etc. There are a lot of topics on this site about networking so I can let you find them on your own. Keep in mind Vancouver does not have the largest finance presence, in Canada the main hubs are Toronto and Calgary (O&G) so the amount of positions you find will be even less there. I am not suggesting you move to Toronto or Calgary though.

You should decide on which area you want to specialize in as IBD and S&T are fairly different/require different skills. Why do you want to do either one of them and why do you want to go into finance after getting a science degree?

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