Big Fish Small Pond? or Small Fish in Big Pond?
Recent grad with two choices:
Work for a no-name commercial bank and get investment/credit research experience buying pieces of large syndicated loans.
Work for a BB in operations.
I am more interested in research/Asset Management, so choice number 1 is more appealing.
Over the long run is a big name on my resume better than the experience?
Exhausted question
1.
/ENDTHREAD
Good Experience > Brand Name
1
Definitely go with 1. BB name means very little if it's not relevant experience.
I only time I can see #2 being the better option is if for whatever reason you know you are going to leave finance to a completely unrelated industry where the people hiring you don't know the difference between FO and BO and just look for big names. In that case #2 would be the obvious choice but if you want to stay in finance it makes sense to get the actual experience.
Agree with lekman. If you are unsure about a finance career, the BB name might help you out in unrelated industries.
But if you want to stay in finance for the next 5-10 years, #1 any day.
Thanks for all the feedback! I'll make experience my priority.
College - big fish in little pond or little fish in big pond (Originally Posted: 05/24/2013)
Hi, this is my first post so please be nice :) I've been lurking the forums for ages, and finally he a question I need to post. Eventually I want to go into prop/algo trading or quant stuff, and I'd rather not work in NY. Id rather chicago, houston, Charlotte, or somewhere midwest/south. The problem is for college I only really have three main options. I could get a full ride to Kansas state or to auburn, or go to Cornell (and pay). If I go to Kansas or auburn I could do really well and join all the finance clubs and even start some probably and get to know my professors and do really well, and I was thinking a double major in engineering/finance and these schools would be great for that. Or I could go to Cornell and I'll have an Ivy League name on my resume but I'll be one of hundreds who want to get into finance from an ivy league. Anyway, what do you guys recommend I do? Thanks in advance :)
Cornell. There IS scholarship money available, particularly for students who do well and get good grades in their freshman year. Besides you will have access to OCR for a lot more places, which is worth it by itself. Cornell certainly isn't HYP but it isn't a bad name to have on your resume for sure. It will still get you a lot more looks than KSU. Not that KSU is a terrible school or anything, I actually know the one of the college deans there, and they have a good regional business program, but it's not cornell.
The thing about some non-targets is that they are 1. good sports schools 2. extremely large so they usually have at least some alumni in every industry imaginable that not really out of touch with their alma mater. KU and Auburn are definitely not bad and, if you start early, you have a shot at getting something good out of undergrad if you are the BEST kid in your class.
WIth that said, Cornell is a great school and has a great network. Being top 20% at cornell is probably > than being anything below the best at a non target.
On the other hand, if you don't want to be in NYC then saving money and going to colleges closer to your desired working location is probably a better deal.
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