I am a research associate at an Ivy League business school. I've been working the job for about a year now, doing most of my work in data analysis and statistical coding. I still have some time left in this job and I am enjoying it, but have realized academia isn't the career path for me.
Is it possible for me to switch gears and enter IB from this job? I'd rather save graduate school for late as I am still young and would like to save money before going after an MBA or J.D. Most analyst positions are aimed at undergraduates. Would I be able to apply with two years of slightly (but hardly) relevant work experience?
It's going to be very tough, you'd have to do a summer internship before they would likely hire someone from your background FT.
Moving to banking from academic economic research (Originally Posted: 01/17/2016)
I currently work at a Fed branch as a research associate for PhD economists. I help them with their academic papers in making tables and charts and also automate FOMC submissions wrt projections and economic/financial data reports. I use Stata, R, Matlab, VBA and Excel extensively, but also know python and javascript.
I have applied to a bunch of top Econ PhD programs myself but won't hear back til March, and am trying to collect some offers in industry in the meantime in case it doesn't work out. I graduated a few years ago with a 3.8 from Purdue in Honors Econ and Neuroscience with significant coursework in financial math, financial mgmt, and derivatives, and scored 170 q and 169 v on the GRE. I've also taken linear algebra and real analysis at UC Berkeley while working at the Fed. If I get in somewhere, great, but if I don't, I am taking it as a signal that I should be applying my energy elsewhere. I'm thinking that elsewhere would likely be banking. I figure if I can't influence policy as a PhD, I will go out and make my clients, my employer, and myself as much as possible so I can actuate some good in this world with my own resources.
My questions are, (1) which subfield(s) in banking (e.g. IB, PE, consulting) do you think would I be a good fit for, (2) what about my record would I be best served emphasizing to recruiters and in cover letters, and (3) how realistic/competitive will my application be? I worry recruiters will see my resume and think I'd be a fish out of water and would like some advice about how to signal my seriousness/fit for this kind of career move. Thank you all for your time/thoughts.
Sounds like a quant career would be the most suitable career track for you based on what you have described, on paper. However, no one besides know what really interest you. What are your soft skills? would you have the temperament and personality traits to succeed in your dream career?
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