Undergrad Physics Major
Hey, I'm interested in finance and have a good GPA, a physics major, a math minor, and a good amount of experience with computers. Does anybody know what kind of opportunities I can have?
Thank you!!
Hey, I'm interested in finance and have a good GPA, a physics major, a math minor, and a good amount of experience with computers. Does anybody know what kind of opportunities I can have?
Thank you!!
Career Resources
That's a fairly broad profile. What type of university do you go to (the exact name is not needed, but an idea of if its target, semi-target, or non-target would be helpful)? Do you have any finance internships/experience? Have you done your own research into the finance industry, so that you might have an idea of if you want to go into investment banking, corporate finance, a sales and trading role, etc.?
I am a rising senior with a 3.97 GPA at a well-respected, non-recruiting state university. Unfortunately, my interest in finance has grown within the last few months as I begin to consider careers.
I do not have any finance internships, but I do have extensive physics research internships; have presented at national conferences; and have a good grasp working with heavy data. Any advice?
Thanks!
If you are interested in finance why are you a physics major? With your profile you can get into algotrading/HFT.
Edit: You are interested in finance but didn't even bother to search for yourself what kind of career you can get with your profile.
Physics/CS looking to break in (Originally Posted: 10/28/2015)
Hey guys -
I'm a physics major with a CS minor (at a big 10 non target) looking to get into IB. I'm a junior now, so I'm a bit concerned about my late start, but I've made up my mind that investment banking is where I want to end up.
I have a few questions:
1) How should I go about breaking in? I'm networking via linkedin with IB professionals who attended my college, but I'm worried that coming from a non target will prevent me from getting second looks. If I have the quantitative/technical chops to succeed in a banking environment will this be an issue for me?
2) My GPA is very low right now - 3.1/4.0. This is because I have to retake one of my higher level physics classes that I dropped a day after the deadline. When I graduate it should be back in the 3.3-3.4 range. Is this sufficient, or will recruiters throw my application away due to my low GPA? Do I even have a chance of succeeding in IB?
I'm thinking about getting an MFE from a school similar to my current one - with a master's degree is the non target/target distinction still as applicable? What is a good route (in terms of grad school) for someone with my physics/CS background looking to head into banking? Is grad school necessary considering my lower GPA?
3) Where should I learn the skills I lack due to my course studies? I'm looking at financial mathematics textbooks now and familiarizing myself with a lot of the derivations and concepts. Any suggestions on how to proceed? How would you rank, in order of importance, the technical skills necessary for banking?
A 3.1 GPA for a physics major is NOT even in the same league as a 3.1 GPA for a business/liberal arts major. Given your major, your GPA is absolutely fine - Even more so at 3.3 - 3.4.
That's really good to hear. I didn't know bankers looked that favorably on the more quantitative majors.
I'm a bit confused as to where to go from here. Like I said, I know I want to do IB, and I'm absorbing as much as I can as fast as I can, but any advice on how to proceed would be appreciated.
Another couple of caveats: I do research and I work for 15 hours/week doing statistical analysis in a computational/data-focused language. I also have skills in machine learning and NLP that I apply for my job.
Should I drop the physics research to free up more time to focus on learning IB?
OP, you need to pick that GPA up. A 3.1 is pretty low. You will also need to get some internships on your resume. If you were to submit your resume to my bank, I would immediately be able to tell that you found out about IB last minute, and I would be concerned that you could not handle the hours given your lack of experience.
Your first step should be to start networking. Networking is now your full-time job. Then work on that GPA. Next, try calling around some local boutiques to get some experience. You might have to take an unpaid internship, but at least it will provide some experience. SA recruiting will probably be over soon, so I would suggest focusing on getting an internship during the year and trying to go through FT recruiting. You might also want to take the GMAT and start looking at MSFs because of how hard FT recruiting has gotten recently.
I hope that at least helps somewhat. Good luck.
I disagree. When looking at a stack of 100+ resumes, I look at GPA and internship experience first. I don't have the time to look at the major as well, so while a 3.1 in physics is better than a 3.1 in art history, a 3.1 is still a 3.1 and will get tossed. I know that sounds harsh, and I wish I had the time to look at majors, but this is just how it is, and I imagine that 99% of banks are the same.
That sounds good. As I said, after I retake the relevant course my GPA should be around a 3.3 - 3.4. I appreciate your realistic answers; realistically, can I get a job in IB with a 3.3 - 3.4?
My internship experience is mostly in technology. As I said above I'm working in data science right now, but I'm not sure how relevant that is to finance. Should I drop the data science role and gun for a boutique?
I'm going to be honest with you, it sounds like you went into school set on physics/CS, but then realized that while you work a lot harder from an academic standpoint, IBers are earning more money, so you decided to move into IB. Even if that is not the case, anyone reading your resume will think that. My honest advice is to keep at it and try to get than GPA above a 3.5. Graduate and then work for a few years. Take the GMAT, crush it, and get into the best MBA program that you can (has to be top 20 if you want a solid shot at IB). I think it makes no sense to give up your research and everything that you have worked on to focus on IB. If IB does not work out, what will you do then? I hope that helps and does not sound too harsh.
As a disclaimer, I'm not in IB.
Is it really that late? So what if you didn't know about IB until 2 years after you started college. As long as you have a genuine interest in IB for nonmonetary reasons and you can tell your story well, don't worry about someone judging you for becoming interested later in the game. In fact, I would argue those who are set on IB before they go to college are more likely to be the ones who are chasing money. Focus on why you want to do IB because you'll need to get the decision makers to appreciate your change of interest.
Be realistic with your expectations. Do you have a chance at a BB in NYC? Not likely unless you know someone. You'll have a better shot at breaking in by targeting boutiques/middle markets in other cities like Houston or Chicago. Try to find relevant alumni in the industry who have a similar background (i.e. engineering/sciences -> business) and get them on board with your career goals. Unless you have an immaculate resume, "what you know" only matters if can open a door through "who you know". Familiarize yourself with basic business concepts immediately. Focus most of your efforts on networking, and in the background, explore investment banking details more in depth (study the technicals). Then if opportunity comes knocking, be prepared and study your ass off.
Plan A is to get as relevant an internship as possible from recruiting efforts this semester. Plan B is to change your major to finance, as long as it would extend graduation an extra year, and get a 3.7+ in your course work. Alternative plan B is to get a 1 year graduate degree in MS in Finance from as good of a school as you can. This will allow you to get your GPA up and an extra summer for internships. Masters in financial engineering would be okay but that is more geared toward equity research from what I understand because it's more quantitative.
Plan C is business school (MBA). Business school is a backup plan, it's like playing a restart card and you can only play it once. Use it and time it wisely. Unless you want to start your own business or are taking a major career shift, don't go to business school. It's an extra two years out of your life and you wont even be able to get in to a good one without at least 3 years of work experience. Most people in high finance that go to business schools these days are just doing it for the prestige. It amazes me how many people do top IB -> top PE --> Bschool -> ... then what? Back to the same place your were before bschool? Just in case, you should still take the GMAT as late as you can while still in school.
Just my .02 but Im probably the minority on these boards.
Why IB you sound like you'd be a better fit for S&T
What in S&T? Like structuring you think?
I agree with the notion that major doesn't matter much with regard to GPA. It sucks, it doesn't make sense, but when you are deciding between 100 different candidates, you don't get much time for excuses. You honestly are probably better off with a 3.5 in history than a 3.3 in physics or engineering, especially if you throw b-school in the mix.
Physics major breaking in (Originally Posted: 12/18/2012)
I'm a sophomore physics major at a Big Ten with finance and math minors. I'm interested in how I might break into financial jobs and away from the sciences. I imagine on paper, I'm best suited for quant type stuff, but honestly I'm more interested in S&T from my limited perspective. Is quant my best bet for breaking in and then moving around from there?
What types of internships should I be looking for this summer (I've applied for a dozen or so finance related so far, but they were just ones my advisors suggested)?
My current GPA is only 3.7, but I got 4.0 this semester and I plan on keeping this level of effort up. I've had the general maths (Calc I-III, DiffEQ next sem) and macro/micro plus gen bus courses and I'm decent with python and Fortran (yes, computational phys labs actually still use this). A group at my school does trading for charity which I plan on getting into next year as soon as they're taking new people.
I read up on this forum a lot and I'm reading Hull: Options, futures, & derivs now, but obviously I'm still very green being from the sciences; I guess the main question is what should i be doing right now (besides networking my ass off).
EDIT: Also, my school is not really target, more like semi-target
bump
S&T and quant are not mutually exclusive...
What email to use for cold e-mailing? Advice needed! (Originally Posted: 01/22/2015)
Hey guys,
I'm starting to cold email and I would like you opinion or advice on what e-mail I should be using. I have a @university.com email, but its with the university portal and I cant install any apps to track when the people actually open the email. My other option is to use my business email @businessname.com. Its a business that I started in my freshman year and I have all the cold emailing apps linked to it (think salesforce, yesware, etc). Do you think emailing with business email for an internship will have a lower response rate?
Best,
Why don't you just give them a phone call?
I would go for the university email (let them read and reply whenever they have time), the business email seems like you're trying too hard.
I will call everyone, but I prefer sending an email first and then calling a week later. The call goes better when I say " I emailed you last week" it kinda feels less like a cold call.
I will call everyone, but I prefer sending an email first and then calling a week later. The call goes better when I say " I emailed you last week" it kinda feels less like a cold call.
Good emails, ranked:
Email from a business account implies it's on behalf of that business. So you should email from a business account if your business sells something to funds. Otherwise, nah.
.edu e-mail for sure. People are more willing to lend a hand to younger people; in this case, young is implied from '.edu'. And what do you need to track when people open e-mails for? That's some NSA/stalker level stuff you're talking about.
@ NSA/stalker level, it actually made me laugh out loud haha.
Well, yesware is really cool because it lets you know WHENEVER someone opens your email, so like if they reopen it in a week I will know its a good time to follow up.
@ NSA/stalker level, it actually made me laugh out loud haha.
Well, yesware is really cool because it lets you know WHENEVER someone opens your email, so like if they reopen it in a week I will know its a good time to follow up.
Finished my undergrad in physics, looking into finance and would like help. (Originally Posted: 10/03/2013)
Hey everyone,
Like the title says, I just finished my BS in physics and I'm looking into going into finance. I believe the best approach for me would be to pursue trading and analyst positions. I would like to ask what's my course of action? I've got an updated Linkedin profile, and I have been responding to job postings, but I haven't had much luck yet. Any suggestions on what positions I should be looking for, and how I should pursue them?
Did you graduate? Any internships?
Yup, I finished classes over the summer, but unfortunately no internships. I decided early in my senior year to branch away from physics and academia.
Reach to your school alumni. Since you have a quant background maybe prop shops would be a good idea.
I'm about to graduate with a BS in physics, have you had any luck?
with undergraduate and graduate degrees in physics, what is the most... (Originally Posted: 12/06/2014)
what is the most low-risk, high paying career track? (for sh*ts and giggles)
I do have programming skills in Matlab/Python, but in the context of data analysis. I don't know any c++, so are quant jobs out of question?
I like to go into Asset Management / HF / PE. Should I get an MBA?
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