MFin + CFA L1 or MSc Data Science
Hello everyone,
Disclaimer: I've done hours of searching across WSO and Reddit to help me out with my situation but have come up with different forms of advice or answers that only help with some of my questions.
Background: graduated recently (convocation was in fall 2016) with a 3.4 GPA in neuroscience. No finance work experience. Have lots of volunteer work in unrelated areas during my undergraduate. Do not reside in the USA or Europe.
Goals: I'm NOT interested in IB. I am interested in working at a F500 company in the finance or business analytics department.
Knowing this which is the best route for me to take?
A. MFin + CFA L1, schools interested in: Bocconi, UVA B. MSc Data Science, schools interested in: MIT
Additional Questions: As a non-European citizen what are my placement chances taking my background into consideration?
My job is a mix of both of what you have described, which is a bit unusual, but I will do my best to offer some advice. Feel free to ask me anything else as well.
Generally, the MSF and CFA route is a complete 180 from getting a masters in data science. I'll explain the latter first.
People who work in data science generally have backgrounds in technology, computer science, engineering, and mathematics. Many of the people that I work with are data engineers and more than 1/2 have PhDs. They're smart dudes. If you can go to MIT, that is top notch for this type of work and being that you don't necessarily want to go into banking, you have a lot of options that will focus on data and not finance. At this point, many companies are investing heavily in data science. The reason is that it has become very beneficial for people to employ predictive analysis, machine language, etc. It allows for companies to think about data from a whole different standpoint. I've seen this become a huge growth field that should continue to grow as technology and data becomes more complex. Granted, you do not need a MS to work in business analytics. That field alone is extremely vast, but data science is really the cutting edge sub-field of data analytics at the moment.
As for the MSF and CFA, there's a lot of resources on here to help you with this, but I'll just say that it will give you options in finance that the MS in data science may not. If you don't want to work in IB, then the next common path is AM or ER and yes the MSF and CFA will help.
At the end of the day though, you have to ask yourself which you like better? An MS in data science from MIT will set you apart and open up doors that the other will not. Who knows, you may work in data science in the finance industry which may be the best of both worlds.
Thanks for the tremendous amount of info. I have another question. I've been looking at more US schools with decent placement such as Cox Business School and I was wondering how difficult it is for an international, in my case a Canadian, finding full-time work in the States?
I've done more research on European schools and it seems that besides the ones in the UK (unfortunately my GPA is low) the rest aren't worth it if I don't speak the native languages of that country.
Tough to say at the moment, especially with Trump's changes to the current H1B Visa process. I know that many companies are having problems retaining people on visas. It's very expensive and a lot of firms will only pay if you are a VP or higher thus making it more difficult for entry level analysts/associates to both find a job and retain it. In many cases, if the company likes you and you're a strong employee, they may try to move you internationally to retain you.
My advice would be to research a school before you attend. Check out their placement especially with international students. Understand the major companies that they have relationships with and their hiring process as it pertains to sponsorship.
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