Hello everyone. First time post on WSO. Looking to switch careers to finance and any help would be appreciated.
To give you guys a brief background, I graduated with an engineering degree at HYP with a 3.76 GPA in 2014. As an undergrad, I thought I wanted to do research. I spent my summers and term time doing academic science research, but my senior year realized that it wasn't for me and decided not to apply to grad school. After I graduated undergrad, I got a software consulting job at a small company with approximately 400 people. It isn't that prestigious and probably wasn't the best career move, but I thought it would give me the best blend of business and technology experience.
Anyways, I realize I don't like the technology work I'm doing as its mainly coding. I was thinking of going into Technology I-banking or another finance related role. However, I don't have any finance classes under my belt (except for some intro econ classes), nor do I have finance related work experience.
I was thinking to remedy this, I could get a Msc in Finance. I was looking at programs like LSE Warwick, Vanderbilt, University of Washington, and UT for a master's in finance. How receptive are these programs towards accepting people without experience? How can I frame my essays to explain this career change and have these schools give me the benefit of the doubt for acceptance?
I would be willing to pursue an internship or something of the sort, but for most internship positions you have to be a student. I was thinking that by getting into a msc program, I could get an internship either before I start or after I finish.
On two of the GMAT Prep tests, I scored a 770 with a 50 in quant in both tests. I'm thinking then I can expect at least a 740 on the GMAT, maybe higher if I study a little more. How competitive does that make me for these programs? What program is my best bet to achieve my goals?
Thanks for any help guys.
With a GMAT like this (think 750+), the university and GPA you mentioned, and a good story there should be nothing that can stop you.
There are also several others I cannot recall in a heartbeat, but you can find them by looking at similar topics on the forum. From the top of my mind, Bocconi is one which you have missed and should probably take into consideration.
What you can do as well is walk through some Finance-related courses on Coursera or similar sources in order to have a more 'formal' background that should be taken into account while your application is being reviewed, assuming you manage to slip this information into your whole story.
Hopefully I am not giving you a false lead here.
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