Getting hired with no experience and a Science Degree?
Hi,
I attend a non-target school in Northern Virginia. It's ranked pretty low, and I came here primarily because of the scholarship package. Thanks to that, I'm graduating with no loans, and am generally very happy with my college experience. I saw many great things, and learned a lot, basically, no regrets! I had the opportunity to go a really highly ranked college, whose business school does aggressive recruiting, but I decided against it because I would've amassed a significant amount of debt had I gone there (UVa, read on...I'm considering going to graduate school there now, so I guess I won't leave unscathed as far as loans are concerned...)
So, I majored in Biology when I went to college. I had planned on attending Medical School, took my MCAT, did well on it, but my heart is just not in it. I've become disillusioned by the profession, and don't care for 8+ years of training. So, I recently got interested in a career in Investment Banking or Research Equity. I've been reading many books about it, and I even got one of my cousins to get me to shadow an Analyst at Deloitte. I loved that day, and decided I could definitely do what he does, and be very, very happy with it.
I have absolutely no experience. No internships, all of my jobs are related to science. My GPA is good (3.81 by graduation), and my GMAT is good as well (720). I have the option of attending a one-year MSc in Commerce at UVa, which has a good track record as far as recruiting goes.
But, to be honest, I'd much, much rather start working right out of college. Is there ANY advice you all can provide me with? I'll apply wherever I need to, and as much as I need to. I'm very eager to learn more about this business.
Thanks so much for your advice,
UndergraduateGurl
You can cold call some boutique IB firms
Attend one of those financial modeling bootcamps by Training the Street, Investment Banking Institute, Wall Street Prep, etc. Do the self-study programs by yourself too. Make sure to learn financial modeling & valuation.Throw these programs on resume. Make sure you have GMAT & MCAT scores on resume. If your major GPA is higher, throw that on too. Network with everyone, everywhere. Use LinkedIn to stay in touch with these people.
I would recommend just doing the extra year at UVA, by the time you do you're reading/studying modeling/valuation it's going to take a few months. It's going to be hard to get a gig at a top place because they have structured programs, if you stay in an extra year, you can participate in the full time recruiting process in the fall for jobs that start in summer. At UVA, you'll have plenty of alumni to reach out to. Don't think of it just as an entry point to IB, it's going to help you long term as well.
have you looked into MSF programs? The UVA program is alright, but its not specialized, which may show a lack of focus/interest. You don't wanna come out risking the appearance of lacking hard skills. You should look at Princeton, MIT, CMC MSF programs. BBs do recruit and hire front-office positions, and you'd also have elite boutiques available too.
But if I were you, I'd go into medicine, or try the DAT for dentistry. Unless you're consulting for MBB or doing IBD at BB, you're not going to be making milions, or upper six-figures, and unlike medicine, you're vulnerable to layoffs, market crashes, long periods of unemployment. While medical resident pay is low, around 60000, its not too different than entry level analysts in most finance/accounting positions, and if you get a legit subspecialty, you'll soon be (almost) guaranteed mid six figures, but a ton of perks too, like IRS leniency, getting out of tickets, easy credit, assumption of altruistic genius from people, etc. You get to be more than Ms/Mrs., you get to be "Doctor." Some more of the free money lies in the expensive dinners/hotels drug reps take you too. From analyst to managing director can take not too different a time frame when you count becoming associate, assistant VP, getting your MBA, etc. And hell, many doctors have consulting agreements with Wall Street firms, for like 200+/hour. Oh yea, a practicing doctor has a wayyyy better work-life balance than most Wall Street types.
Thanks for this advice, I really appreciate it. As far as Medicine/Dentistry, if I were to go for one of the two, it would most definitely be Medicine. Dentistry saddles you with what will eventually become an insurmountable amount of debt (after you buy into your own practice, which is the only way to make good money & have autonomy). Medicine isn't as bad, especially because there are so many state sponsored scholarship programs that cut tuition down to manageable means...if you do public service.
That being said, I just don't want to invest 7+ years into training for something that my heart isn't 100% on. I'd rather explore this new field, see what it's all about, and potentially carve out a fruitful career. One thing you mentioned did pique my interest though...this whole stability thing. I'd like to work in Research Equity if at all possible, is the lay-off rate very high in these companies? And, do they age you out at a certain point?
Yea ER was (and still is) my hopeful field. But getting in is so unbelievably hard if you're a non-target. There's a reason so many more people go into IBD than ER aside from the pay: there are fewer ER positions overall. They also can be MUCH more quant-based than IBD in both the job itself and qualifications. I've recently discovered how much easier medicine is easier to get in from a non-target than Wall Street FO. On Wall Street, name matters not only BC they care how well educated you are, but because school name affects the company's ability to promote its products (A GENIUS came up with these ideas/models), and to protect itself from bad forecasts (if this is what a genius came up with, no one coulda done better, etc.) You get the idea. Layoff rate high on Wall Street? The industry isn't known for job stability, tho it does have a decent amount of portability given the headhunters out there. Also, most people never get close to managing director.
I was kinda like you 15 years ago. Premed and decided to try out finance at junior year. Took my first accounting class in senior year. In the end I applied to med school anyways, but also got offers on the sell/buy side. I delayed med school for a year and took a job on the buy side. Had been in it ever since.
Well it's pretty clear what you want to get out of the opportunity to work on the sell side. But what do you bring to the table? Do you have basic training in finance or will the employer have to invest resources to train you? What kind of unique skill sets do you bring to the table that a traditional finance graduate won't have? If you do not have clear answers to these questions, you are better off getting a graduate degree to improve your skill set as well as getting access to the recruiting circuit.
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