Why is the choice of major irrelevant in recruiting?

I can totally understand that math or physics students are seen as problem solvers. Those people are usually super smart, so that’s not aimed at the actually smart ones. I can also understand putting people who study pharmacy or medicine into healthcare teams.

However, why does IB recruiting even consider people studying the most unrelated degrees and then accept their shitty stories about how they were always so passionate about finance and IB? Not to mention how GPA is somehow treated as if it’s deeply related to these things. We all know they saw some cool social media video about the ‘finance lifestyle’ and how much it pays, and then suddenly decided finance has always been their passion. It’s laughable. Then they binge-learn these dumb guides and still don’t know how to build a simple three-statement model or anything that isnt in the guide.

No wonder everyone constantly complains about the quality of new hires.

Ok, my rant is over.

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IB really isn't that complicated at the end of the day and so anyone theoretically is qualified to go into it. Modeling and pitch deck presentations can be taught in a couple of months, and even series exams are broken down into pretty easy to understand chunks. IB values a lot of soft skills that you don't need to be a hardo finance major in order to have. 

Imo your major choice doesn't really come into play if you go to a top target that doesn't have an undergrad business school and is a target. Harvard and Princeton may not have undergrad business schools, but they still send tons of kids to BB's every year because well, if you're able to get into Harvard and do semi decently you're smart enough for IB from a recruiter's perspective. 

For a non target, the assumption that you're smart enough for IB goes away, and thus the major you chose comes into play. Same goes for GPA. GPA is less of an indication of how well you did in school(Especially now with grad inflation) and more so your dedication to school and how that might transfer over to the desk. 

TLDR: If you're at a HYPSM major and gpa don't matter that much. If not at a target, you'll need to be exceptional. 

Just my two cents. 

Writing
 

Tell me you don't understand finance recruiting without telling me you don't understand finance recruiting.

IB is very do-able for anyone from a Target/ even semi target. It's not hard. This is something prospects never understand. Aligning logos, turning comments is not like, you know, rocket science.

And of course no-one wants to work with a nerd/geek for 80-100 hours a week, give me those soft skills and sport playing intelligent chads anyway of the week. Also, we want someone in the client meeting who remembered to shower and doesn't look like a scrawny freak.

 

retard low IQ work can be taught in weeks, that's why non-finance grads aren't as overrepresented in HFs and fly to other procedure-oriented work (e.g. PE)

incentives trumph ethics
 

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