Working at an American IB with a European masters in finance

I was wondering if anyone has experience getting their masters in finance at a top European school (non london schools, price is way to high for me) and subsequently moving to the US to work at an IB. I'm from the US with an American and Dutch citizenship. I have been accepted to St. Gallen Masters in banking and finance as well as Rotterdam's new masters in finance and investments advanced. These are the only schools I applied to because they were the cheapest for me. Does anyone know if one or the other is significantly better than the other in terms of marketability in the US? I was planning on trying to work at an IB in europe before moving back to the US (maybe in Amsterdam/Zurich/London, depending on the school).

26 Comments
 

hey, thanks for the advice. unfortunately i cant reply in PM because im a new user. Im from Florida but im not set on going back there or anything, im actually looking at maybe going to the san Francisco area instead. My only problem is that if i go to rotterdam, which im leaning towards, its a new programme starting this fall so it wont be ranked for a few years. Hopefully it is ranked by the time im applying in the us.

 

New program, eh? What is it, if you don't mind me asking? Rotterdam is still a pretty good school, and if it's a business area, I am sure a related program would be viewed on an equivalent basis, if that makes sense. Again, I think the issue is whether the place you apply to is cultured enough to know what Rotterdam is. I think there are ways to mitigate that such as putting the school's general rankings (business, etc.) on your resume might help.

 

its the master finance and investment advanced, so just a more in depth and longer version of the pre-existing master finance and investment, since I think that programme was starting to get a little crowded. the normal version of the master is ranked pretty well (22) but I would expect (and hope) the advanced version to be ranked quite a bit higher as its more selective and career focused with networking and an internship. Im just worried that if they arent ranked ill have to put the normal programmes ranking which is good, but not as good as st gallen at number 8

 

In theory, many people have gone down that exact route before you. Bocconi places well with IBs in London and you can always try to transfer offices after 2 years on the desk, especially if you are a U.S. citizen. Feel free to PM if you want to discuss more about Bocconi.

I'm talking about liquid. Rich enough to have your own jet. Rich enough not to waste time. Fifty, a hundred million dollars, buddy. A player. Or nothing. See my Blog & AMA
 

I know that both Rotterdam and St. Gallen place well into London; St Gallen places very well into Frankfurt. If your goal is to work in Europe at a BB before lateraling to the US, either uni should be ok if you work hard as the most important thing to lateral is the name and reputation of the bank and group, and your performance whilst there.

 
UFOinsiderWhat school? What program? What bank? What job in NYC?

First choice is prob Cambridge Master RE Finance, or maybe one of the LSE programs (i know there are lots).

Job....real estate asset management, maybe REPE division of a large BB or asset management firm (i'm not interested in RE-IB)

 

If you are an international student, not citizen of either UK or US, you will have hard time finding jobs in both courtries these days. Especially UK is no longer allowing OPT upon graduation. The best you can do is to get an offer before graduation.

 

If you're a US citizen, then it is do-able, especially if you can get into Oxbridge. LSE also works well, but as far as I know it depends on the program for LSE.

I'm talking about liquid. Rich enough to have your own jet. Rich enough not to waste time. Fifty, a hundred million dollars, buddy. A player. Or nothing. See my Blog & AMA
 

It's always difficult to move from a European school to the us, regardless if you are a us citizen. The easiest way would be to start working for a bank and then transferring internally after 2-3 yrs

I'm talking about liquid. Rich enough to have your own jet. Rich enough not to waste time. Fifty, a hundred million dollars, buddy. A player. Or nothing. See my Blog & AMA
 

Ok, thanks. Is it difficult to transfer internally, like can have a say in what city i can transfer to or do they just throw me wherever they think i could be of use?

 

It's more Sth you need to drive. Meaning, if you want to go to nyc you need to raise it with your manager and ideally start networking with teams you know in nyc.

I'm talking about liquid. Rich enough to have your own jet. Rich enough not to waste time. Fifty, a hundred million dollars, buddy. A player. Or nothing. See my Blog & AMA
 

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