Getting onto Wall Street with very little job experience
Hi everyone, this is my first post on this forum. I'm a Medical Student, and halfway done. I've realized I've made a huge mistake by going down this path. My passion is for finance, in particular for value investing. In fact, I have limited, less than 1 year, experience working at a BB before I wrongfully decided to pursue a career in healthcare.
I want back onto Wall Street. Eventually I want to be working at a fund that specializes in deep fundamental analysis and takes concentrated positions based on value investing. But I am willing to take any route to get there. I wouldn't mind going to business school first, but I know that in order to get in any legitimate school, I would need work experience. Does being in Medical School count towards work experience?
I'm a very good investor, and this is one skill I can offer to compensate for my lack of experience. Is there any way I can use this to my advantage? Write up investment pitches and mail them out to recruiters?
I am desperate to get back to the other side of the fence. Any and all advice is appreciated. Thanks.
Easy. Apply to a good MFin program. I think that you have a really good case that you can spin to admission officers. You worked your tail off in undergrad as a premed, got into med school, and realized that you have an entirely different passion after spending x number of years there.
That would work; except my undergrad was in Finance. I worked for a small amount of time at a BB and then switched careers to go to Medicine. I am now looking to go back. So I'm not sure if it's that great of a case...
By MFin you mean Masters in Finance?
Thanks for the reply
I'd say there are probably 3 routes you could take, and I'm not necessarily sure which one is the best/easiest way to break in.
First, do you enjoy healthcare? A lot of the value investors in that space have PhDs, and I would say that would be an incredible skillset to have a PhD and a finance background. You would definitely get a shot if you can write some example pitches.
If not, I would start writing a detailed investment pitch with a valuation model/different cases/sensitivities/etc and try to get into some deep analysis in regards to why your company isn't trading at "fair" value. Use this as a conversation starter with various funds who are in the space and/or funds that are invested in the stock. I would try networking with smaller hedge funds and/or respective asset managers although this takes a lot of work. Maybe offer free work if you think they could hire you. Obviously, this is the high risk/high reward route.
Or, if you are still young and/or went to a target school, have friends or family in the industry, etc, I would recommend trying to break in as an investment banking analyst or equity research. Personally, I know a girl who did consulting after undergrad and hated it, so she switched to ER. These jobs will help develop core fundamental skills that a HF is looking for.
Thanks for the reply.
I find healthcare to be okay. But a combination of mounting loans, lack of pay, and general drag/burnout in the field make me want to quit. Phd is not an option for me because it takes many many years, and might as well finish my degree in Medicine instead of trying to get a Doctorate.
I do like this idea of writing detailed investment pitch, although I am not great at the fine details of accounting and modeling. I am a great big picture guy. But I will work on this suggestion.
As far as breaking into a job - given that I haven't worked in over 5 years, what are the chances that someone even considers hiring me? I regrettably have a very poor resume. Working in a BB research for less than a year, quitting, spending 2 years working towards medicine, applying, getting into school, and now potentially quitting Medical School halfway. Let alone Wall Street, but do I have a shot at ANY finance related job with this record? I do have some friends in the industry and can perhaps ask them to pass on my resume, but realistically, what are the chances?
Thanks again, much appreciated.
You definitely have an opportunity to get back on Wall Street with your story.
Do you think you can stick it out and complete med school? From what I understand, an M.D. is well-regarded for pretty much anything healthcare-related in finance (especially in equity research and PE/VC, where an understanding of probability of technical success is essential--and having an advanced degree in healthcare serves as an important credential).
I think that's what Eatmarkers meant when asking if you enjoy healthcare. While you might not enjoy the clinical, patient interaction side of medicine, a passion for science can go a long way if you're going to be working with therapeutics, diagnostics, med device, and HIT companies.
If you can, finish the M.D., and your story should read like this: you were passionate about finance in undergrad and wanted to explore IB/equity research/etc. While working, you recognized your interest in healthcare and wanted to pursue it, so you attended medical school. And now (this would be once you're done), finished with medical school and having gained technical life sciences knowledge and valuable insights into the healthcare industry from the provider perspective, you're ready to combine your two passions: finance and healthcare. This could open up doors to HF/PE/VC and beyond.
Additionally, it might be worth it to look into corporate VC/business development, where you'd be able to use your science background to essentially make investment decisions for companies. There's so much M&A activity in the pharma space, so it could definitely be an interesting and exciting career path.
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