What's your opinion WSO...
I've been ripping my hair out the past 6 months. I just started college in the fall 2012 and have been undecided between majoring in electrical/computer engineering vs majoring in finance. "But wait jon those are totally different" said everyone. I'm having problems deciding because well... I put myself in quite a pickle. Maybe I should start from the beginning here.
So there I was in senior year being the lazy idiot that I was decided eh I'll just go to Kean University (its cheap) so I can take some classes in both fields and decide off of that. Which wasn't a bad idea, but I regret the fact that I had a 3.9 GPA at a well known high school (JP stevens) and could of gone to a lot better school had I not been such a tard...Anyway so I'm in my second semester now I've done my research and have analyzed how I'm doing in which classes and what interests have held through. I plan on transferring to Rutgers in spring 2014 when i have all the requirements for their engineering program.
Classes I've been thriving/loving so far
- Calculus ---> its like butter (A)
- Physics ----> i like it, but I never read the book (that laziness factor gotta stop) (B-)
- Communications ---> i can't believe its not butter (A)
- Accounting ---> i hate it but i love it (A)
- Econ Macro ----> easy and interesting (A)
GPA so far 3.5
I can't think of all of my classes right now its kind of late at night when im writing this haha.
Personal interests
I love to create, improve, and analyze. Doesn't have to be physical objects its also conceptual design, in fact that's why I love the business world along side the engineering field because both careers involve this quality of creation/analysis.
Drive
Money (extremely important), promotion, that guy in the suit sunglasses and a lexus. It sounds ridiculous I know that haha, but these things are probably what would get me out of bed in the morning. Alongside the teamwork and high end decisions. What I thrive to become is an executive or CEO in a tech or financial firm. I'll be honest the movie facebook was something that made me want to just get up and go out there and just flip the world upside down. I already have a lot of invention ideas and I don't have a clue how to build them/program them since I don't have the knowledge (duh).
And that's my problem Its like I have this balance for a brain saying "no jon you should do engineering because...INVENTION!" and then the other side is saying "no jon you should do finance because...MONEY!". Now of course engineering can transfer into business, but my case here is....
Even if I did become an engineer I fear that I wouldn't be able to get an internship right now in my freshman year or so, and even if I'm studying for engineering would financial institutions take me in for an internship? I'd fear that I wouldn't get that same promotion as a finance guy does.
I honestly want to know what each world is like before deciding, but the paradox here is I can't know until I decide. I feel like I'm just so tired and lost now and probably most of this whole forum post is just me being tired and babbling.
Also if you had any suggestions for different paths its more than welcome. Constructive criticism is key and this isn't like I'm basing everything off a forum...that's silly. Its just the more opinions voiced from not only family, friends, professors, co-workers, and etc the more informed decision I can make. Thanks in advance.
I don't really see a reason for why you want to do finance in your post. Liking your accounting/macro courses is great, but those are just pre-req level - you haven't gotten into the meat of any curriculum.
But anyway, you suggested that money is extremely important to you, and you have a desire to be a big swinging dick CEO 10k/day, so I'm automatically going to tell you that finance is probably not for you. It's not even half an issue for you not to have an internship your freshman summer, so don't worry about it. If you're unsure about what you want to do then take that summer to take summer courses to boost your GPA/find out more about what you like. You might hate finance once you get into the upper level courses, and you might hate engineering.
Out of curiosity, what field in finance were you thinking about going into?
Also why are you talking about promotions when you're worried about your freshman internship? Unless you're talking about down the road when you have a fulltime position, I think the quality of how you perform in your position against someone with a finance background will determine who gets promoted.
By the way, I've never heard of your high school.
I suggest you re-read your post and imagine you're someone else reading it. You make it seem like if you choose engineering, you'll be Steve Jobs and if you major in finance you're going be making strategic decisions with c-level employees. Wake up call: that is not going to happen. An infinitely more likely scenario is that you will be working long hours doing heavy grunt work with other recent college grads. You need to get some sort of job during the semester or summer to cure you of these delusions of what a job is like. Work is not glamorous.
PS -- Change your username.
SirTrades always delivers the realest talk possible lol
Definitely agree with the above posters, particularly SirTradesaLot. With that said, I think it is important to note that you can break into finance without a finance or BBA degree. And it sounds like you are really more interested in engineering.
I am an econ major and I will be starting a SA position at a boutique in NY this June, but if I could go back and choose my major again I would definitely choose to be an engineer. As an engineer you never have any doors that are closed to you because you have all the technical (math, science) skills. I personally am very interested in alternative energy and I often find myself wishing I could understand the principles behind some of the ideas better.
If I were you, I would do electrical engineering. It won't be easy to break into banking if you are sure that is what you want to do, but you can definitely teach yourself most of the finance stuff if you can do engineering. I taught myself all of the principles with the help of one intro-level class. The hardest part will be the amount of networking you have to do, but that is going to be necessary regardless considering you are currently at a small school and then headed to Rutgers.
Good luck making a choice. Just my two cents.
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