I wanted to hear general thoughts across all industries on this forum. If you couldn't make the cut in undergrad, is it worth it get, say, a Masters in Finance if you wanted to get another shot to break into high-finance? Maybe getting a head start on the CFA Level 1?
Thanks.
| +53 | SpaceX IPO - what are your thoughts | 12 | 3h |
| +28 | Should I use Claude or chatgpt? | 15 | 1d |
| +21 | Funny Things to Say to Interns | 7 | 1d |
| +18 | London's future as a financial centre | 18 | 2d |
| +17 | How did you meet your significant other/partner? | 13 | 1d |
| The Great Debate | 9 | 1d | |
| +7 | E ink/electronic notepads | 4 | 1d |
| +6 | Stay Sharp All Day With Best Modvigil 200 MG Tablet | 0 | 1d |
| +6 | Test post will be deleted automatically. | 11 | 2d |
| +5 | get a model before you model | 3 | 3d |
Career Resources
Get instant access to lessons taught by experienced private equity pros and bulge bracket investment bankers including financial statement modeling, DCF, M&A, LBO, Comps and Excel Modeling.
I think so. I went to a non-target and have a low undergrad GPA. Despite this, I'm now in the trading business and want to move to a hedge fund to be a PM. I have skills that I know my peers don't have (coding, data science) and generally compete with MFE graduates at my firm. Despite this, optics are important to clients and throughout the firm; it's hard to hire a non-target with a shitty GPA to a leadership role unless they haul serious cash into the business, whereas your standard Wharton guy tends to get promoted after his n-th deal or n-th year of work. Not saying that I won't bring assloads of cash in, but I won't bank my future on it either.
Second, re-branding isn't only about optics. As a non-target student, my network sucks, and I don't mean that it's sparse. My connections simply don't have the monetary or career capital to augment my own future endeavors. If I decide to open a private office or consulting business one day, it would be great to have friends who are doing similar things. This doesn't happen with non-target networks as all the people you know are store managers at Starbucks or Assistant Buyers at Macy's.
IMO it comes down to a large ROI opportunity that one has to justify not taking advantage of. I'm talking about the MBA here; an MFE or MSF is something I view as a soft reboot or skills augment rather than a true re-branding. The MBA provides you with a broad network of connections who are going down a variety of career paths that are all in proximity to serious cash, many of whom will be leaders of some kind. If your marginal gain from meeting people like that will be low, then you can pass, otherwise I think it deserves serious consideration.
To expand on the MFE/MSF: I think that if you're early enough into your career or young enough (27), lack technical skills, and didn't graduate from community college, this can be a viable option. Once you break in, you won't have brand issues and you'll be able to compete with the MBA crowd.
Re. the CFA: don't misunderstand the purpose of the designation. If you want to work in the securities business (S&T, HF, investment advisory, investment management, FoF, Equity Research), sure. If you're getting into a client sales or relationships business, don't bother (IB, PE, consulting, etc.). There are exceptions and you can craft your own use case to fit your profile, but the above rule has generally held up in my experience.
I think I understand you here, but this is the situation I'm in right now. Currently wrapping up my last year at community-college, and will most likely transfer to a non-target. The finance jobs I was looking to pursue (setting my sights kind of high here) are already wrapping up recruiting so I was just looking for other options to re-brand to get another shot. I just never knew recruiting would be so pushed up. It was just, like, 2 years ago I was reading that junior year was where the recruiting happens. Now it's pretty much the Sophomores right as they start school.
In terms of the CFA -- my goal has pretty much been to work in securities whether it's wealth-management (private banking), AM, ER, etc. I've reached out to some people in the industry, the advice I was given was pretty much to get my CFA to distinguish myself as best as I could relative to where I am right now.
+1, Really appreciate the insightful response.
What you're noticing is that the banking net is being cast more widely to catch people earlier in their career as well as on the opposite end, with professionals such as myself being allowed into FO roles that 10 years ago would have been mostly off-limits unless you went to a top school. This is due to talent competition from tech, depressed salaries after the crisis, and more generally high demand for technical talent versus available supply.
In other words, don't worry. If you're transferring to a non-target that isn't a CC, then you can still do the CFA and if recruiting doesn't work out for you and you don't feel like doing it the hard way (starting BO), you can do a MFE/MSF right out of college to fix your profile a bit and to get another shot at recruiting. Assuming you go into recruiting from a MS program with the CFA L1 out of the way, you should have a very strong profile for many FO roles.
One thing I have always wondered with the MFE or MSF does school matter? I've heard it doesn't matter near as much as the MBA but I am still curious.
It's less important from a brand / networking perspective as that isn't the point of the degree, but still important when considering the quality of education you'll receive. I wouldn't sign up for the first year of a MSF/MFE from some random school nobody has heard of, but a school with an established business program will fulfill the role of the degree. If you can do it at a top school, you likely can skip the MBA later in your career.
Spot on.
Went from non-target to semi-target, agree with all of your points.
What are your other chances? Let's say you fucked up undergrad enough to miss the IBD train, but not enough to miss grad school (i.e 3.0-3.4 GPA), then you could
A) Network like hell, but this is no guarantee. Difficult to network if you're living out in nowhere, or no natural openings for networking.
B) Spend resources on improving your undergrad grades. Depending on where you live, this is certainly a realistic option. I know people that spent one year extra improving grades, which worked out in the end...but what if you screw up? One year down the drain.
C) Hustle your way into decent internships, which could compensate for mediocre grades (but not bad grades)
D) Apply for work at reputable companies, crush it at work, and then apply for Business School / MBA. This could also work, but a lot of it boils down to your employer and B. School.
And as you said:
E) Get a Masters in something relevant, and really apply yourself there. Yup, could also work - should also apply for internships during grad school.
So as you can see, there are options, but it's gonna be hard or time-consuming either way. How much time and money are you willing to put into this?
Well, my plan right now is to transfer into my state-uni which is a complete non-target, after CC. The issue is, there is no network at the state-uni (alumni, and area wise), and recruiting for most finance-gigs that I wanted to pursue are already wrapping up recruiting. So I figured the MSF or CFA would be a way to start "fresh," and get another shot at the recruiting process.
To address your points -- from what I've been told getting into top MBA programs hinges upon a prestigious undergrad, and employer so that's off the list. Networking -- like I said above, not in a good area, not a great alumni pipeline. Grades -- too early to call, GPA is near perfect at my CC with the basic transfer reqs (calc, econ, etc), won't matter when I transfer.
Veritatis hic accusamus et et. Sed ut quas similique qui numquam ipsa. Cupiditate ipsum sed quasi doloremque harum sed. Et similique illum dignissimos eveniet voluptate velit. Ipsam in dolor unde consequuntur sit adipisci. Sed eveniet esse quo hic. Et provident quae consequatur cumque voluptates consequatur.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...