Need Advice - Junior at Target School w/ No Experience
I’m a junior from Northwestern and I’ve decided that I want to pursue a career in finance, hopefully ending up working for a HF or PE firm.
To give a little background, I bounced around a lot a majors and interests earlier in my college career, leading me to have a breadth of knowledge, but not a lot of depth in any one area. Right now I’m on track to graduate with a Film degree. Due to my circumstances, I picked that because it allowed me to have flexibility in taking a wide variety of classes. However, one of my interests has been in Economics and finance for the past year. Unfortunately, I didn’t decide to pursue that path then, which leads to now.
I have 4 terms left (quarter system). I currently have a 3.4 GPA, but could get it up as high as 3.7. I still have the opportunity to switch my major to Economics. However, with that decision comes a lot to learn and not a lot of time to do it. If I were to change my major, I would be taking 5 courses a term for the remaining time I have left, with half of those being economic/stats courses.
In terms of where I’d like to go after undergrad, I’d like to go into IB for a couple years as it seems it would be a good launch pad into HF and PE. Specifically I’d like to work in Prop Trading or Equity Research. I’ve also looked into getting an MBA, but with both of those, I’m unsure I have enough experience to stand a chance. I haven’t been involved in clubs, haven’t had any internships and have no connections in finance. It feels like a lot to try and tackle in 15 months, so I’m unsure what to focus on. What skills should I be developing?
Should I put more time into learning about finance on my own and just finish my film degree? I would still be able to take a couple econ courses. This would afford me more time to get involved in campus investment clubs and possibly get an internship during the year. Or would it be worthwhile to make the leap over to economics and set that as a priority instead? That would most likely eat up the majority of my time due to the course load . There’s also a slim chance I could land an internship this summer, though it might be too late and seeing as I don’t have a lot of knowledge pertaining to finance, it seems like a long shot.
Since there’s so much to learn in a relatively short amount of time, would it also be best to wait to go through the process of applying for an MBA program?
Any advice would be much appreciated.
If I was in your shoes I'd -
As for changing your major, it's a toss-up really whether it'll help you or not. Personally, I'd do it, get a degree in what you're interested in....just common sense imo....Another thing you can consider is pushing your graduation back. It'll give you time to get involved on campus, create a network for yourself, learn/study (finance stuff and GMAT if you're committed to going down that path), and reduce your stress levels as far as recruiting goes.
Just my two cents....sorry for my horrible grammar....
Thanks for the advice. Are the guides you'e referring to the interview guides or the financial modeling ones? Unfortunately in my circumstance I have to graduate by next June so I'm definitely on a clock. I'll definitely put more time into networking with alumni.
The behavioral interview and technical interview guides. If you can get something this summer, be it IB at a boutique or MM, or corporate banking, or even commercial banking, it'll look good on you having some kind of finance experience. Then you can try to leverage that along with connections you make to shoot for something better during FT recruiting. It's definitely going to be time consuming and a tall task, but you only lose once you give up. You spent all this time figuring out what you really want to do out of undergrad so you might as well give it your all until you actually walk across that stage with your diploma. Again, just my opinion....you can also shoot for consulting like Eric_s said.
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