Please Allow me to introduce myself, my name is C

Hello everyone,
I a currently a student working towards my undergrad in economics. Although economics was not my first choice of major through some twists and turns I got into economics and I've found that I somewhat have a talent and passion for it. I am here in hopes to increase my understanding of the financial markets, financial institutions, while gaining great potential mentors and networking with industry professionals. Right now I'm thinking about what I want to do for my career, I am aiming to get into the finance industry and originally my plan was to supplement my lack of financial education by becoming a financial analyst the go back for an MBA in finance then go into IB, however after a little bit of reading on this forum I think that I might be better off going straight into ER. I believe ER meets most of the needs I have for finance which are gaining an understanding of markets, industries, technical skills and career growth. With the long introduction aside I want to go ahead and say thank you all for welcoming me and I hope to learn as much as I can and contribute.

 
Best Response

You don't need a degree in finance to get a job in finance. Harvard doesn't have a finance degree and yet its students place better in IB than most other universities. Arts & Sciences students get jobs in finance all the time.

You need to do more research on which job you want. You said ER, and before that said MBA into IB...

Anyone with any degree can get a job in finance as long as they can answer "why do you want to work in ____" (insert investment banking or equity research, or whatever you figure out you want to do....you will also need a stellar GPA, show interest through clubs you join in college (student managed funds, etc.), and show leadership...but you need to be able to answer "why ___?" or else the other things don't matter.

 

The reason that I want to go into ER or IB is because I want to learn about the under workings of the financial system that we live in. Early on as a child my parents encouraged that I focus my attention on medicine and I never really got to develop other interests.

It was only in college that I started to learn about finance and economics. I want to understand how companies make financial decisions, how those decisions effect the economy and I want to later pass the knowledge I got for working in the industry onto the next generation. It's sounds kinda nerdy but the thing I really want is the hands on learning experience of it all and the opportunity to work with some professionals in the industry is pretty awesome too.

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