Leaving the ivory tower for finance

What makes my situation a little different from others I've dropped out of a doctoral program in the life sciences after a year. I want to break in any way possible but I don't have the same college alumni database access I did before, I can't take more courses, and my current network and resume only suits me for more research.

  • I think i'm slightly more crippled than people in either boat as I'll just come off as someone who's been unemployed for a year and a half.

I know people who have successfully broken out from a sciences background either have quantitative skills, or at least have a doctorate - which I do not.

I just want to know about the feasibility and what avenues to take to get exposure to M&A, IBD, PE type jobs without further education.

Background... Currently unemployed BS Biology from Top 30 university- 3.2 gpa 1 year PhD work in biomedical related field - 3.6 gpa, top 10 university - Dropped out after a year, no degree, not even a masters. 1 year government policy writing 4 years biomedical research

6 Comments
 
lonelybankerchickHave you thought about equity research specifically for medical/ gmo/ drug developing type companies?

I'm looking into that now, but how feasible is that without having any industry experience? Also, how would I go about finding these positions - should I start at a boutique or look for an unpaid internship?

From what I know about equity research, I've read that there are not many exit opportunities for lateral transfer and would I be given training opportunities on valuation and what not?

 

Hint #1: Long winded personal introduction will get your post clicked off way way before the "this is what makes me different" line at start of second paragraph.

Hint#2: The search function really does work and it really is the reason that posts like yours rarely if ever garner much traffic or quality responses.

Hint#3: If you honestly think that your situation is that unique, you have no clue how competitive finance is these days and the amount of people across all possible backgrounds who are killing themselves to find a way to break in.

Hint#4: The people from H#3 who actually do make it go absolutely fucking ape shit digging up information on a resource rich website such as this one. Then when they ask a question they know not only what to ask, but how to ask to it in order to get the feedback they want.

Good luck.

 
Best Response
Midas Mulligan MagooHint #1: Long winded personal introduction will get your post clicked off way way before the "this is what makes me different" line at start of second paragraph.

Hint#2: The search function really does work and it really is the reason that posts like yours rarely if ever garner much traffic or quality responses.

Hint#3: If you honestly think that your situation is that unique, you have no clue how competitive finance is these days and the amount of people across all possible backgrounds who are killing themselves to find a way to break in.

Hint#4: The people from H#3 who actually do make it go absolutely fucking ape shit digging up information on a resource rich website such as this one. Then when they ask a question they know not only what to ask, but how to ask to it in order to get the feedback they want.

Good luck.

I apologize, I didn't mean to come of entitled. If anything, I was trying to emphasize that I'm having to start back at square one - since all of my experience and resume are pushing me back to a sciences PhD and I have to essentially start a resume tabula rasa as my experience just says that "I'm interested in healthcare" but don't know how to do anything but sit at a bench and read technical papers all day. Also, if I were to advertise myself as a recent grad, by the time I get a job it may be about 2 years of unemployment which I'm sure doesn't look very favorable.

For the most part, the other posts I was looking at with similar situations come from people with technical backgrounds who can become quants, are undergrads who are trying to divert their bio background with some extra business classes, or are people who already have PhDs ... which I can't compete with.

Anyway, I hope the edits I made to my original post make it more approachable. Thanks for the hints!

 

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