Will tough electives on graduate level pay off?
Hey guys, I do my msc in applied finance and it's time I should choose electives. From your experience, is it reasonable to take advanced level macro and financial analysis classes? I would love to take macro, but I don't feel I have enough fundamentals to take an advanced level class as it requires good intermediate level, so I can end up with B only. At the same time I have feeling that taking very easy classes is so mentally boring. Any advices, please?
challenges pay off. wasting time doesn't, unless your easy class at least builds the fundamental for you.
I do not agree with this at all.
I have no postgraduate experience but I'll give you an undergrad perspective.
Disclaimer: I'm not from the USA, but I assume it is identical throughout all regions.
For IB it is PRIMARILY about GPA (excluding networking). In IB, you have little to no tangible "technical skills" (I wouldn't consider IB analyst modelling skills technical at all) and everything you do is commoditised. They are willing to teach you any accounting/finance/excel you need to know, which is not much anyway. You will pick up anything you need to know quickly on the job.
Your major and classes make no difference WRT IBD. If you are aiming for an IB analyst role, your primary goal should be to maximise GPA in any way possible. The fact that most of the people working in IB are finance/accounting/econ majors has more to do with a self-selection bias - not a preference by recruiters.
Thank you all, it's just a feeling of choosing an easy vs hard path. I tend to believe that challenges pay off, even if you end up with lower GPA, your knowledge gives you more confidence that you can deal with complex stuff. But I already had a lot of it, and now just feel super burn-out after these classes.
I try to rely on core courses from MBA programs, and top must-haves in finance are managerial and financial accounting. Maybe it will be a good option?
The people who are recruiting you for these positions will also have done easy majors 99% of the time. They have no idea the difficulty of doing a hard STEM major - it is not even in the same league as finance/accounting/economics.
I understand what you're saying but it is only valid in a different context. Life is not fair and for the route you're wanting to take, you will not be rewarded for putting in the extra effort. Stick to the same, easy path as everyone else for IB roles.
Yes, make sure you take financial accounting, as well as any corporate finance and valuation classes you're offered.
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