BS in Computer Science + Masters in Finance for IB/Strategy consulting?

I am currently finishing a bachelor's degree in comptuer science from an eastern-european country (gpa 8/10, have a silver award (2nd place) on a national high school algorithm competition)

I would like to break to either investment banking or strategy consulting and I am seriously considering doing a MSc in Finance, probably at Imperial College or Cass (other options include, HEC Paris or Bocconi).

Is this a smart idea - will I be able to land an entry-level IB/Strategy consulting job with this background, given that I don't have any experience/internships in this area?

7 Comments
 

Well it could go wrong, if I waste 40K EUR, and not get a job. I heard mixed things about the Tanaka business school (Imperial), I probably could not get into MSc Finance at LSE/Oxbridge.

I think it would be hard to break into finance with a background only in CS, that's why I am considering it, but another option would be to work for maybe 2-3 years for a good consulting company (probably not MBB, but Booz or something similar), and then get an MBA at Oxford/Cambridge (the cost is almost the same as Imperial MSc Finance).

Can anyone think of any other possible paths?

 

Well it could go wrong, if I waste 40K EUR, and not get a job. I heard mixed things about the Tanaka business school (Imperial), however I probably could not get into MSc Finance at LSE/Oxbridge.

I think it would be hard to break into finance with a background only in CS, that's why I am considering it, but another option would be to work for maybe 2-3 years for a good consulting company (probably not MBB, but Booz or something similar), and then get an MBA at Oxford/Cambridge (the cost is almost the same as Imperial MSc Finance).

Can anyone think of any other possible paths?

 

Anything can go wrong. You won't know until you try. As for your CS background, your knowledge of algorithms and programming skills will be completely wasted as a consultant. They really don't care about your background - you just need to make .ppt slides and analyse some data (at most finding mean and std).

If its finance you want, I'd go for the MSc in finance, then straight as an algo trader, London's got a few good prop shops.

Just Do It
 

Hi, may I ask what you done in the end? I am currently in a very similar situation but come from an engineering background. Any advice or comments on what you decided would be massively helpful. Thanks

 

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