Hi guys,
I'm thinking about doing a 1 yeear masters in finance. I went to a good public school for undergrad and then worked in trading at at BB for a year, then left because of personal (family) issues that couldn't be avoided. Afterwards I went traveling and have been on the road for three years, trading my own cash during that time. Now I'm back in the USA and starting a job search, but frankly after three years not working at an established company it's going to be tough, especially since I don't have an undergrad degree in econ or finance.
So like I said I'm planning on applying to masters in finance programs. However, I'm not interested in IBD roles. I would be interested in ER, trading, or consulting, although lifestyle (hours) is going to be a major consideration for me. I realize this excludes a significant number of firms in these industries. So I'm wondering what other types of roles are open to masters in finance grads? I can't be the only one who prioritizes work-life balance but banking and consulting are the sexiest jobs so they're the ones that are discussed most frequently. Most of the MFin websites are pretty vague about specific positions obtained by their grads as well. Can anyone enlighten me or point me to better information sources?
Thanks.
Go for the CFA designation instead
A couple of points.
If you did not take math or econ courses in college, it will be tough to get into a good masters finance program. They may differe in terms of how quantitatively hardcore they are, but all of them want upper level math courses and maybe even some programming. I don't know your academic background though, so if you majored in math/hard sciences/CS, then ignore it.
Regarding jobs, most MFin students go into quant research, trading, risk management, strategy, at bulge bracket banks and prop trading shops. Very few go into equity research, fundamental research, IBD, or buyside in general. Look at princeton's website where they show job placement, and you'll see very few go into the roles you are looking at. MFin programs are very quantitative, so the students hone specific skillsets and focus on jobs where those skills are applied. Consulting is definitely an option though since you can go through on-campus recruiting as part of the graduate student hiring.
I personally don't think a CFA is that helpful for outsiders to break into the industry. Lot of people have them, and the degree has become saturated.
Thanks for the responses. I'm not really interested in the cfa because like brady4mvp says, I don't think it provides much help breaking in.
Brady4mvp, when you talk about good mfin programs requiring upper level math, are you talking mainly about stanford and mit? I'm not planning on applying to those programs precisely because I don't have high-level math. I don't remember coming across math requirements on the sites of the other programs I'm looking at: claremont, uva, vanderbilt, washu...do you mind saying what you are basing this on? I have taken calc I and II, stats, and intro econ (all ap credit from high school) . Also my gre is 800m. I don't think any of my friends who majored in finance took anything above calc II...
Also to reiterate I'm intersted in jobs outside of the much-discussed ER, asset management, IBD.
Thanks again
UVA isn't really an MFIN, more like a MBA-lite. In general though, the top MFIN programs (Princeton, MIT, Oxford, etc.) want to see Calculus I-III, Linear Algebra, Differential Equations, upper-level Probability, and upper-level Statistics at a minimum, preferably more.
I can't speak about the other schools though as I haven't looked into them.
You can look into British MFin, their requirements are totally different from American ones and are structured towards more you are looking for. They are there so people can break take a Masters and break into finance. A lot of people who did the Imperial one had degrees that were chemistry or engineering or economics that might that necessarily have too much mathematics involved.
European MSc programs have been around a lot longer and are more accepted than their US counter parts. Whereas the MBA is the preeminent degree in the states, the MSc is what people get across the pond. The depth, diversity and selection of programs indicate this popularity.
Within the US, you have really a couple baskets of programs. You have traditional MSF programs which require calc, stats, econometrics, etc. More math than a typical MBA student would have, but not enough to be truly quant. These programs include Villanova, BC, UT Austin, Vanderbilt, UIUC, etc. MIT falls into this category also, but has just a tad more math than the other. You can also customize it some and make the degree more quant if you like.
WUSTL used to be the quant-est of the traditional MSF programs until it separated into two tracks. Princeton is a Mfin created in the image of some European programs. I personally think it is more of a masters in financial math, but that might be going too far. The program is definitely not like the traditional MSF programs. You can see this in curriculum and student body.
You then financial engineering or computational finance degrees. Really quant focuses, very high end math. CMU, Baruch, Berkely, Stanford, etc. The career paths and undergrad majors in this program are very different than MSF programs. Some are housed out of the math department and some are out of the business school. I think the business school ones are more desirable since it has more of an applicable tilt to it, but that is just my opinion.
Finally, there is this 3rd track kind of program. Duke, UVA, Wake Forest, BU, etc. These programs are ideal for liberal arts majors who want some business and finance experience before getting a job and possibly a stronger brand than their UG. UVA offers two tracks for students and doesn't want previous business/ finance students. I think this is a good idea for them since everyone learns together and is engaged. Dukes program continues to perfect itself and is doing very well. BU is specific for investment management which is big in Boston.
All of these programs can be used to break into banking or whatever, just depends what you are most interested in or best suited for.
You then
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