Computer Science or Finance minor?
I am an Economics major at a state school. My school isn't heavily recruited to say the least. I am choosing my minors right now and I have narrowed it down to 2 choices.
- Economics Major with a minor in Finance and another minor in "Law and Political Philosophy"
- Economics Major with a minor in Computer Science (And I may or may not be able to fit in the "law and political philosophy" minor)
Ceteris paribus, if I have a 3.9 GPA, which is the more appealing combination from a Bulge Bracket hiring manager's perspective?
well it depends, what you want to do but I am just like you a state school kid Econ and CS is what i choose to do
If S&T, cs minor... ibanking go for finance
Id do finance minor for just about every job (except S&T, think the guy above me would know better about that type of thing...)
Couple thoughts:
1.) CS will lower your GPA. Recruiters know that for CS/Engineering/Math majors, but don't give as much credit as they should for minors. 2.) Have you checked US News and World Reports for rankings in both subjects from your school? Does your program breach the top twenty for either? That's what I'd go with and ideally add as a second major if I could pull it off. 3.) CS gives you more options, especially if you're not 100% sure you want to go into banking. I think the industry could be where Detroit was in the '70s. Our product might be overpriced and there's a lot of competition.
For that matter, the most dangerous/foolish thing a CS/Comp. E major can do is graduate school and never write a single line of production code their first year out of school. It's like throwing your degree and training away. You can be an algorithmic trader or a quant developer, but if you graduate in a technical discipline and spend at least a couple years on it, you've locked in a fallback profession if the bottom ever falls out of the financial industry. (Which it kinda has relative to four years ago.)
Problem is, if his school isn't a top CS school, then any finance related programming job out of college will be incredibly sh1tty for him. Not to mention that it would be damn hard to break into front office from a programming role. CS does give you more options out of finance, but if you're strictly thinking about banking and maybe even trading, I would say choose finance.
not sure why this forum has such a hard-on for CS when it comes to S&T. personally i would choose whatever i enjoy more, so finance.
Another question: Which of the following would employers look more highly upon (although I suspect there is little to no difference)?
Economics major with a "Finance" and "Philosophy" double minor OR Economics major with a "Finance" and "Philosophy, Politics and Law" double minor?
Does the "Philosophy, Politics and Law" minor sound like a bullshit minor compared to "Philosophy?"
Also, I know that hiring managers don't like to hire people if they think they aren't going to stick around very long because then they lose money on the training. Would they suspect that I might quit relatively soon in order to go to a law school and thus not hire me?
Am I looking too deeply into this?
I hate to say it, but they both look the same. Both liberal arts.
Thought about a math minor?
Not sure if recruiters will take a math minor very seriously.. I'd say take the CS minor, but ONLY if you learn useful, related programming (VBA, object oriented programming like C++), but do it for the sake of gaining tangible skills, and not for the sake of placing it on your resume.
I'm highly skeptical that recruiters will take minors very seriously unless it's like a language.
IlliniProgrammer: Ok thanks.
Chubbybunny: 3 of the 5 courses for the minor are basically programming courses (Basic Java class, class on data structures/more Java and a class on programming large projects on a team). The other two classes are a logic/discrete structures class and a CS option (I could take another programming language class for this if that's what is best for employment) I've already taken one of the programming classes and I got the highest grade in the class. My school's CS department isn't particularly rigorous so I think I could continue getting straight A's in the classes. You say to do it for the sake of gaining tangible skills rather than a resumé booster. What types of finance jobs require a knowledge of C++ or Java?
How much does doing a double minor with a liberal art as one of them add to my resumé if I have a 3.9? Is it much different from just doing a Finance minor or a CS minor? I figure I need as much help I can get coming from a relatively unknown state school.
I have to choose within the next 2 days so anymore suggestions? I'm leaning towards the Finance minor right now.
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