PhD to ER, trading or consultancy
I am currently a postdoctoral research fellow working in Harvard and I hold a Ph.D in Biological Sciences from University of Cambridge, UK. I completed my undergraduates in engineering from India. I am interested in a complete career change and want to enter the banking industry. I was particularly interested in equity research, trading and consultancy. I have to mention here that I completed my undergrad in 4 years and Ph.D in less than 3.5 years! My postdoc has been for a few months, so I believe this is the perfect time to switch. Any help, suggestions and route map to enter these fields would be awesome. Thanks!
For ER, first thing I would do is start working towards passing the CFA level 1 exam while applying to banks. You don't have anything in your background that conveys an interest in finance and you also need to demonstrate your understanding of the basic concepts. CFA L1 should accomplish both. This is just my opinion...
I was thinking exactly along the same lines. Thanks for your input! Reinforces my initial thoughts about increasing my chances of getting into ER. Could I start the CFA L1 preps directly from books like schweser or do I need better starting point since I come from a complete non-finance? Thanks for your advce!
I think you should be fine with Schweser. Once you register for level 1, the CFA institute will send you their own books. So if you are having a difficult time grasping a concept using the condensed Schweser notes you can always try to check the official CFA study materials for that section and get a more complete explanation. I think the consensus is that the official CFA materials are overkill and something like Schweser is preferred. I would shoot for the December exam, unless you think you have a lot of spare time over the next few months to knock it out in June. It's going to be a big time commitment for someone from a non-finance background.
Feel free to PM me if you have any more ER specific questions.
Thanks a lot for the advice! I will PM you with more questions and thanks for being supportive.
Edit: I just realized I am unable to PM you without some more points! But can you provide any insight into the kind of firms that will be interested with someone of my background? Do you think I have to go from the general firms or something more specific to healthcare and life science related ER firms? Could you give some examples of these firms? Do you think my Cambridge tag would help me for any of these firms? Thanks a lot for your help!
I messaged you.
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