Public Policy Masters Student Breaking into Finance (IB/AM)
I will be graduating from a public policy masters program at a non-HYP Ivy in Spring 2021. In grad school, I realized that I am interested in finance and want to work in IB or AM. My previous work experience is in media/advertising (5-ish years) and my undergrad major was in poli sci, so I definitely do not have a traditional finance background.
Is this career transition even possible, and if so, what can I do to put my best foot forward? I've applied to a couple Analyst/Graduate job programs which I understand are mainly for undergrads, but I figured since I don't have an MBA I would not qualify for the experienced hire jobs.
My guess is that your background would be much more appealing to a number of BO roles rather than FO. If I was in your position I would consider something beyond FO but where you could still use some finance skills - plenty of roles out there to match that description.
It really depends on your program.
There are top public policy graduate programs that offer concentrations in finance that place into IB and AM roles as well as IMF/World Bank type roles. These programs even have ‘finance bootcamps’ and interview prep akin to T15 MBA programs. Such programs to focus more on int’l banks and leverage their macro, public finance and international finance strengths.
If you find yourself not at one of these programs, which from your initial post seems the case, it’s vastly harder. It’s a lot harder because you’re training via classes and the clubs may not be to the level that 'high finance' firms look to hire graduate students.
IMHO applying to the analyst / graduate jobs via their websites is a total waste of time. The firms you want to work for either recruit at your program/school or they don’t AND no one is going to hire you as an analyst VS an undergrad from a target. So I'd suggest not wasting time on this.
My suggestion is to
Best of luck!
P.S. The whole "Ivy non-HYP" isn't really a thing at the graduate level. The Ivy League cache is really an undergrad thing, despite what your program tells you. ;)
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