Weird Majors->IB ?

I’ve seen many people(although certainly not the majority) that go to a prestigious school and major in something like History or something else unrelated to business and then they end up at GS or something like that. Does anyone know why this happens and how it’s even possible? Why are these schools interested in someone like that? and if there’s anyone who sees this who’s worked with someone who had that pathway, did they perform as good as people who majored in something business related?

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The people you’re talking about go to schools like Harvard, Yale, Princeton etc… top 1% of people. The people who go to these schools are ultra brilliant and/or rich that it doesn’t really matter what they study, elite firms already know they’re more than capable to work in IB or any finance job. Actually they can work in any field, not just finance, that’s why some of them pick a broad/ “weird” major. So when you’re scrolling on LinkedIn, from time to time you’ll see the history major from Yale with no finance club involvement and no prior work experiences related to finance pick up a JPM IB internship for junior summer randomly. Recruiting out of these types of schools is insanely easy. If you’re a non traditional major, with no experiences/ club involvement at a non ivy school however, let’s just say that shit won’t fly lmao.

 

does the same thing apply for UK? I'm in a similar position here doing a major not related to finance but wanting to break in.

I go LSE but its def not the same level as the ivy's in US and not on the level of Oxbridge.

 

DCF18237

does the same thing apply for UK? I'm in a similar position here doing a major not related to finance but wanting to break in.

I go LSE but its def not the same level as the ivy's in US and not on the level of Oxbridge.

No offense mate but youre completely misguided? LSE is a HYPSM-equivalent institution in the UK (which in the UK is the G5). By this I don’t mean that LSE == HYPSM, but that the equivalent top 5 institutions in the UK are the G5, and is LSE is one of those 5. Also LSE is like Wharton so there’s essentially no better place to do a non-finance degree and break into IB from, as LSE reigns supreme, especially in EBs (up to 1/3 of some EB classes can be from LSE).

 

I disagree with the comments above. You don’t have to be “rich or powerful” that’s bs. Lots of ordinary but very smart ppl at targets make it all the time.

When they “don’t have have prior clubs or experience” that’s because they remove those once they make it. This is common knowledge?


also recruiting isn’t ever “insanely easy” from these schools? Have you even tried recruiting from one of those schools? 

other commenters are full of crap and likely are still in high school 

 

When the hell did I ever say powerful lmao? I never said you HAD to be rich either, all I said was that kids at Ivys are already extremely smart, and/or wealthy. And it’s true that being wealthy gives them a leg up in recruiting, especially if one of their parents were in finance (is the case a lot of the time). And you’re completely wrong, for the most part, sophomores who land an IB internship do not remove those experiences when they “make it”.

I have a first hand account since one of my close friends was a Public Policy major at a HYSPW, and had policy internships till he recruited for IB and landed a BB. He also wasn’t involved in any major finance orgs (I.e investment funds, consulting clubs) in his school. There are literally dozens of kids like him. For the record I went to a state school that was actually ranked decently high, and I still had to major in finance, be in one of the major investment funds on campus, and network hard to break in. I know what I’m talking about here.

 

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