Quick College Major Question
Someone had recently asked me what I majored in to become an i banker, and I said finance. But then they asked if it was possible to major in a science (this is their main area of interest) like engineering and minor in finance. Would BB i-banks still take you if you only minor in finance?
You can major in anything you want. Obviously majors like Accounting/Finance/Economics are much more relevant, but are certainly not a requirement. I didn't major in any of those three...
Are you at a BB if you don't mind me asking?
Also, on a similar note. Do you think that after a 2 year IB stint, you forget pretty much everything you have learned in college since you don't use it much? So, would an engineer forget everything they have learned, and similarly, would a finance major forget everything they knew about finance? So what I am really after here is to know if after 2 years of IB, is everyone pretty much equal (people with different majors I mean) in terms of switching to PE or HF?
Once it is time to switch to PE or HFs, they will care more about your work experience and whether you possess the necessary skill-set to succeed.
Your college major becomes virtually irrelevant. It may give information as to your capabalities; for example, if you have a degree in engineering it is evident that you possess very good quantitative skills that HFs would appreciate.
However, your work experience should really give insight to that already.
Go to MS career website (http://www.morganstanley.com/about/careers/recruiting/culture/profiles/…), check out engineering majors from the drop-down menu. Seems like the majority of them go into technology and S&T, almost no IBD.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I had the impression that PE recruits mainly from IBD, HF from S&T. So it seems that your college major plays a role in the type of exit opps you want.
I've always wondered why quant majors like engineering and compsci are so hyped up here. Especially compsci, where most go into technology/operations. Don't think that getting hired by a BB = ibanker. The nature of work is going to be different and you will probably be funneled into a quant role because your major indicates you have an aptitude/preference for that.
That's a mistake I made when looking at colleges/majors. I thought engineering = quant = HF = bling bling. But almost everyone has to go through IB first, and I realized I didn't want to touch anything that smelled remotely like back-office.
Of course, you shouldn't take sociology or anthropology if you're not at HYP. But it sounds like majoring in liberal arts and taking quant classes on the side is better than majoring in something completely quant. I'm looking at doing econ-polisci-stats myself.
Engineering is a professional degree, which gives you the necessary training to be a licensed engineer. If you try to interview for IBD with an engineering major, they are going to give you a hard time. Investment banking is not that difficult, and doesn't require tremendous quantitative aptitude. However, for almost anything else, engineering is great. This includes Sales & Trading, Equity Research, anything remotely Quant, and Consulting.
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