As far as I know, soft skills are very important in Finances, but concretely the Stats/Quants/Maths guys just seem better in this field.
How to compete as a Business/Management and even Financial graduate ?
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Classic case of tortoise and the hare. Quant based guys really shine in the analyst/associate years because the grunt work is largely mathematic, you’re paid to crunch the numbers and prepare the scripts for the management team to deliberate in the decision making room. This shifts when you get to VP/MD level where it’s much more important to have strong soft skills: negotiation, relationship building, delegation, leadership etc.
Investment Banking at the end of the day is like being a real estate salesman, if you want to be successful as a senior manager you need to look and act the part to continually bring in business. A lot of people who go into investment banking are really interested in the more quantitative side, which is a big reason I believe people are obsessed with exiting to the buy side. There since you are making the investments, your financial acumen is MUCH more important in terms of long term success. Yes, you have to be personable but at the end of the day, your returns do the talking on the buy side. On the sell side, you just have to get the deal done to get paid.
Not sure if this answers your question, but I think quant guys fizzle our on the sell side pre management levels and that forces the exit mentality. I think if you’re an extroverted people person type, you’ll probably find more fulfillment as a long term banker. To “compete” just learn what the fuck you need to know to run the grunt models/move through PowerPoint and use your social skills to get internal leadership to go to bat for you when it comes to promotion time.
This is a superb answer!
This clears up the blur to me. Thanks for sharing your views, this makes sense!
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