How is the career prospect for MSc Finance at Warwick

hi guys, I am from China.. and I am enrolled for 2012 MSc Finance at WBS...
Can anyone knowing about or graduating from WBS give me some advice if I want to stay in UK and find a finance-related job there?..Well..i dont know what specific job that could be.. IB, commerical banks, or consulting firm.

Does big four, by the way, here mean the same concept we refer to the four companies, KPMG, PwC, DDT and EY? Sorry for that I am kinda a green hand here..

PS: I know its definitely difficult for graduates outside UK to find a job there, especially taking into account the fierce competition on the City jobs, nevertheless I still wanna know the chances of being successful..

The obvious disadvantage is the language skills. But if I work hard at the courses to get a higer grade, or try to perform well on the projects school offer, does that, togher with the reputation of WBS, give me some slight edge? U know, I really want work there for 2 or 3 years and gether working experiences before returning to China.

Thanks in advance:)

 
Best Response

A few things: - yes, Big4 means the companies you mentioned - you need to be more specific in what you want: IB, commercial banking and consulting are all completely different - if you're not sure what you want it will show in interviews and you won't get either. Read about these industries and decide what's the best fit. Admittedly, many people interview for both consulting and banking but very few are successful in the area they are not really interested in - if you're not confident in your language skills then you have nothing to look for in the UK. It's fine to make grammar mistakes or not have a perfect accent (case in point: me) but having troubles to communicate is an immediate ding. If that's your problem then you should start working on it immediately or go back home. Sorry to be blunt but that's the reality

 
Enid:
A few things: - yes, Big4 means the companies you mentioned - you need to be more specific in what you want: IB, commercial banking and consulting are all completely different - if you're not sure what you want it will show in interviews and you won't get either. Read about these industries and decide what's the best fit. Admittedly, many people interview for both consulting and banking but very few are successful in the area they are not really interested in - if you're not confident in your language skills then you have nothing to look for in the UK. It's fine to make grammar mistakes or not have a perfect accent (case in point: me) but having troubles to communicate is an immediate ding. If that's your problem then you should start working on it immediately or go back home. Sorry to be blunt but that's the reality

Enid, I must say that you are very nice and share me with some basic points. I really need to study what specific ares most interest me. Now the answer is IB. As for the language, I guess its no problem, at the very least for common daily talk or professional usage of English at work.

I have transferred my major, and now I am preparing CPA. Actually I ve also got the plan to self-learn some difficult courses like emprical finance, while CA suggested grades dont really help, then I had better fully prepare for some practical thing. Should say sorry for posting a wide and unfocused question here. Thanks for response! And its being blunt and talking in a direct way is the reason whyi came here for advice and suggestion from you guys!

 
CaliforniaAnalyst:
grades dont really help

and yes, if you cant even talk, why would someone hire you?

plus, you don't really know what you gona do and have 0 focus

Thanks! Actually cause i just registered the WSO last night my time. Thus rushed through some ambiguous messages here. Actually I want to do IB, traditional IB work. My under major was engineering and now is doing economics, and then finance at WBS. And I have done the internship as a security analyst, doing some basic work, u know, like gathering data and drawing graphs and conclusion from simple models. But I guess IB is more interesting for me...ha

Hopefully I can learn much from here, from experienced guys like you! Again, thanks!

 

Hi, are you all able to view the above post? b'coz its more than a day since I raised my doubts and there haven't been any responses

RiskManager2318 Control over the Money Supply controls the Empire - Nathan Rothschild
 

You can't get quantitative roles with that degree. You need financial engineering degree for that. As for placements in general finance, MSc finance is flagship and most famous with recruiters in London after LSE and Oxbridge. This program doesn't have very good placements, I would apply to LSE MSc accounting and finance instead. You still have time. If it was MSc finance, I would say go and don't look back. But it's not. Plus the graduates with this degree have to compete with MSc finance grads for certain jobs in banking and consulting, where MSc finance is preferred. It's just a Cashcow program for Warwick, to be honest.

 
undefined:

You can't get quantitative roles with that degree. You need financial engineering degree for that. As for placements in general finance, MSc finance is flagship and most famous with recruiters in London after LSE and Oxbridge. This program doesn't have very good placements, I would apply to LSE MSc accounting and finance instead. You still have time. If it was MSc finance, I would say go and don't look back. But it's not. Plus the graduates with this degree have to compete with MSc finance grads for certain jobs in banking and consulting, where MSc finance is preferred. It's just a Cashcow program for Warwick, to be honest.

Thank you so much, Interlude12. I will not take this degree. I am looking for Generalist MS Finance degrees as my UG background constrains me from a purely quantitative finance/FE course. Will these MSF degrees prepare me for roles in Risk Management? I have applied for MS Finance to various US Universities as well. Can you tell me about Pittsburgh Katz MS Finance as well as UMD Smith MS Finance please?
RiskManager2318 Control over the Money Supply controls the Empire - Nathan Rothschild
 

The core modules are pretty much what you get in all other masters out there, although you don't have accounting, which most other do, and have things empirical finance so I would say above average.

But it all comes down to the electives. If you choose financial engineering, derivatives and financial risk you will end up with a pretty quanty degree.

 

Is it possible choosing elective from financial maths?Which software do they use:matlab,c++,R? Which kind of mathematics:Black and scholes,Stochastic calculus,Monte carlo? I hope so

 

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