Hi All,
I am looking to do a Masters degree in London (preferably at Imperial) with the goal of it facilitating my entry into the hedge fund industry, however I am struggling to pick between a traditional MSc Finance, or MSc Financial Technology.
Both offer a great selection of core and elected modules, however there are are few differences. Firstly, the former, MSc Finance, is a member of the CFA University Affiliate Program whereas the latter is not. The CFA is another qualification I hope to gain in the 4 years. Secondly, the MSc Financial Technology has modules available for R, Python and C++; coding skills will be invaluable in an increasingly digital world.
To anyone working in the industry, what do you look for or prefer in a candidate? The end-goal for me is running my own hedge fund but that is at least 15-20 years away.
(In terms of the requirements to get in, I achieved a first class honours degree with my thesis paper getting a mark of 88%.)
The CFA program doesn't mean much. Going to be very hard with each degree to go to the HF industry without solid WE first. I suggest doing a few years of IB, then try for the HF industry if you want to do fundamental research. If you want to join a HF doing quant work, the MS in FinTech seems best but you'd best work at a bank first.
I will try and get a job in HF and IB if nothing comes from my HF applications. The Fintech one is certainly more quant-based which would be interesting and useful because my programming ability is somewhat limited.
I would ideally be starting in Sept 2021 so that gives me a year to get some WE beforehand.
May I ask why you say the CFA doesn't mean much?
The CFA University Affiliate Program is nonsense, the CFA program is very important. What does the affiliate program mean? You sit in a class and watch CFA videos? Take the exam for credit? Nonsense stuff and in no way should result in a grad school decision.
It's going to be near impossible to get into a HF directly from your program. IB will also be hard from Imperial, you're going to have to really push on networking.
The CFA affiliate program is just that the curriculum of the MSc Finance has a lot of the same content as the CFA. You don't get anything towards your CFA but when you come to study for your CFA you'll already know most the content.
Seeing as I am taking my CFA L1 next June, I'll already know the content, so I may as well go to the MSc Financial Tech and get some coding proficiency as well.
Imperial is ranked #1 in the UK for Masters of Finance, and 9th in the world. It is unlikely that I'd go straight into HF after, more like 1-2 years as an associate in a BB IB before moving.
its not only the degree that matters. I graduated about a year ago, went into big4 consulting and now will start in HF. Graduated from top 15 EU business school with Bachelor in International Business.
In the future I am definitely going into a more tech oriented Masters, rather than Finance.
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