MS in Finance - Associate role or strictly analyst role?
Hi all,
Long time lurker here. I do have a question that I hope you guys would be able to shed some light on. I worked for 3 years in finance (BO and then trading) followed by 2 years in project management role. I realized I want to get back into finance (much more interesting) and went for a top MSF program. I'll be starting this coming Fall.
I understand that if you want to get an associate role, MBA is the way to do it. And if you have a MSF degree, they would usually place you in an analyst role. For someone with more experience say 3-5 years, is it possible to land an associate role coming out of a top MSF program or procure an analyst role with higher salary? Have anyone seen this happen to people? Any insight would be greatly appreciated
MSF's go into analyst roles because the vast majority have little to no experience. I think you could come into a more senior role in something outside FO banking because that is where your experience lies. If you want FO banking, you will most likely come in as an analyst because you do not have the experience. You could angle for an associate summer role, but it will be tough.
I'm actually in this exact situation right now. Most of the people I have networked with see me as an associate, but the difficulty is getting past HR even when someone pushes my resume. Your best bet is to focus strictly on small boutiques, which have been a lot more open to the idea in my case. If I had to do it all over again I would go the MBA route.
Thanks for the reply mmtheory. Are you close to landing an associate role or is it looking more like going the analyst route? Is HR hesitant in bringing you in as an associate due to the higher salary? I thought those decisions would be up to the division that you're trying to get into.
It looks like I'm going to get a summer associate position at a small boutique and I had a few others that told me they would have considered it if I contacted them earlier.
The pushback from HR seems to be because they are just not familiar with the degree. They want people from backgrounds they're familiar with and there's probably a lot of bs they'd have to go through to bring me on, which nobody wants to do.
If you don't mind me asking. Are these smaller boutiques companies that came onto campus and you told them you were looking for an associate position or did you reach out to the company through HR and ask them if they have any associate positions?
I figured if I want a shot at associate, I'd need to do some heavy lifting myself and go through the school alumni to get an associate position.
Completely through networking with alumni. Most of these small firms don't even have an HR department. You just have to be very proactive in reaching out to people.
Which MSF program are you starting? Feel free to pm me if you don't want to post it publicly.
Does a MS Finance only help you get an analyst level role? (Originally Posted: 05/20/2017)
Monkeys, I have an year experience at an angel investment network. It is a front office role and I am the only employee at the analyst level with a couple of deals under my belt.
I wanted to pursue an MSF degree since graduating a year ago. However, I wasn't sure about the course from an international student's perspective. I came across a couple of MSF courses having the STEM status (helps extend the stay for international students) and am looking to apply for Fall 2018.
I wanted to understand what the reputation of MSF in the IB industry was and how my experience of 2 years will be looked at.
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