Engineering undergraduate to MSc Finance

Hello Monkeys,
Hoping for some advice on my current situation. Graduated in summer 2018 with a Masters in Civil Engineering from a semi target in the UK (think Manchester, Notts, Bristol) with a high (2.1 - 69%). I completed 3 engineering internships at top consultancies (each 2.5 months) and started a grad role as a design engineer in September. My enthusiasm for engineering had pretty much dried up after my 2nd - 3rd year but by which point I'd missed any opportunities for spring weeks / summer internships and was not really aware of my other options. I've been reaching out to alumni and fellow engineers working in IB and have received mixed advice. I'm really interested in infra / energy IBD and have experience working on some of the biggest infra projects in Europe (but only within an engineering context). My main questions are:

1) Would I be eligible / competitive for off cycle roles, given my lack of banking experience and having already graduated?
2) Does a Masters in Finance from a top uni make sense and would I be considered for admission with a non finance undergrad and lack of finance work exp?
3) Can having contextual industry experience and technical understanding be leveraged when applying for specific infra/energy coverage groups?

Any advice would be much appreciated, particularly from anyone who found themselves in a similar predicament?

Many thanks

 

1) You'd be eligible in some cases for off-cycles (some firms require to apply whilst still studying etc)

2)A MFin would be the most relevant path, given your grades, if you have a good GMAT you should get into LSE/LBS and make your story credible. I have seen people with no finance experience getting SA at the end of their MFins

3)Yes, demonstrate a knowledge of key financial metrics/trends of the industry.

 

Thanks for the quick reply, I'm currently undertaking a modelling course and reaching out to people in specific industry groups to try and build up a bit of a network but is there anything else I can be doing? My company has a transactional support department which advises on acquisition of physical assets, would you say some experience there would be relevant for infra IB roles post MFin? I am aware of the GMAT but have no experience with its difficulty, is it realistic to achieve a strong score with a month - 6 weeks of heavy study and get an application sent off before positions are all filled up? Apologies for the bombardment of questions!

 

Not in infra/energy myself can't comment on whats the best to do. Networking can't hurt, and should be helpful once on the MFin.

If you had a 69% doing Eng you should be fine with the content on the quant part - verbal isn't too bad usually its just working on the format/time pressure of the exam. Its all about practice. You can give it a shot but some schools do not require it (Imperial I believe, maybe UCL/Cass).

 

Thanks for the advice, from research it seems that LSE is super competitive and the MiM at LBS has more of a consulting focus than IB. Imperial seems like a good option with strong placement, hopefully some relevant experience and an MFin would stand me in good stead

 

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