How great is a philosophy major in the finance world?
I'm a rising senior in high school and did my first ever internship at a tiny hedge fund (1b AUM) this summer, working with a lot of 25-30+ yo's. One studied astrology in college and is now an outstanding commodities trader. Another one majored in art history and is now a well-paid healthcare sector analyst. The one finance major I talked to around the office actually regretted their degree, saying all they did was learn useless modeling and that they didn't use a single bit of learned material at their job. Just FYI, all three came out of T20 schools in the US. I hear the problem with a finance major is that it's way too narrow and common for much "wow" factor in the job application process. Makes total sense... I guess. This obviously upsets me a little, since I had always been deadset on majoring in finance in college - now, not so much. I've been looking at viable alternatives to diversify my skillset and am considering philosophy, seeing as some hedge fund greats (eg Soros) got their start there. What are your guys' thoughts? How useful is philosophy for finance? Would love it if philosophy majors could share their thoughts. TIA!
Tbh they really don’t care what your major is as long as you come from a good school and have good gpa and can articulate why X job
So you're saying the prestige is really all that matters? Not the degree itself?
Yes
Unless you are going to be a quant or going into a very technical type of HF - I think a liberal arts degree is pretty beneficial AS LONG AS your basic quantitative skills are also up to par. Actually many philosophy majors are extremely strong in mathematics and the sciences.
Investing zoomed out is a combination of the application of inductive and deductive logic applied to the real world. That's why thinking at a systemic level tends to be helpful.
Very helpful comment. 👍
If you want to do philosophy, do a double major in finance and philosophy.
I'm a philosophy and history major that just graduated and beat out Stanford and Wharton grads for a couple hedge fund jobs. Yeah there's a lot of luck involved but if you're dedicated to learning you'll do well and philosophy especially prepares you for that.
Philosophy helps you make better decisions, or? I’ve always wondered how theory translates to trading / investing.
Philosophy teaches you not to accept things at face value and challenge things you read. Really useful when going through like 7 years of 10-Ks if you already are versed in reading some obscure medieval philosophy texts.
Investing is something that should come naturally to philosophers bc you can logic it out if something is going to succeed or be a failure, but not in a mathematical sense in that you always get the right answer but you have a general feeling if something is right or if it’s off.
My previous PM was also a philosophy major, people usually see it as a “smart” major in the liberal arts compared to something like gender studies and environmental science. I can’t tell you exactly how to lever and unlever beta but I do know what debt does to a company, if it’s sustainable from a company’s cash flow to its interest payments, or if management is lying through their teeth.
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