Philosophy in Private Equity
Hi everyone! At the college I will be attending, I was accepted into the Philosophy Honors Program. Meaning, instead of the normal general education courses, I would be taking classes in philosophy and english literature instead. Is this worthwhile for a finance career, or does nobody care about these type of classes? Like, I could spin it as "analyzing the works of contemporaty thinkers" but do hiring managers care? Or should I just take more finance classes? Thanks everyone
I was a philosophy major, but nobody cares.
Yes - I was at a BB for a while, then moved on as an associate at a growth equity firm for a while and am now a partner at a special situations energy hedge fund.
I also majored in physics, so there is that too. Just study something you like and make sure you do something along the line that shows your interested in finance and taking the necessary steps to pursue that career path. Nobody will care that you have read so and so philosophers, but they will care that you are smart and can figure out what to do when asked to do it. Network and take some basic classes and you can certainly do anything you want.
It's worth considering a contrarian view of college education: outside a limited number of fields where you actually use what you learned (computer science, petroleum engineering, nursing) it's less about the specific skills and more about Signaling that you have personal characteristics that employers value:
Basic intelligence
Conscientiousness (in the face of multiple distractions on campus, you completed all your work and earned good grades)
Conformity (following instructions and "fitting in" with what's expected of you by the institution.)
Doing well in Philosophy Honors certain signals intelligence more strongly than other non-quantitative majors, but you may need to work harder to demonstrate that you're really willing to conform to the expectations of a hierarchical real-world business setting. Finance is about practical reality, and the recruiting team may be skeptical about the esoteric.
This is the precise basis for the careers guide I'm writing over the summer. People are too bogged down by the traditional thinking that what major you do determines the job you get - it largely doesn't, it's merely an indicator out of many.
As a Maths&CS student, I can tell you now doing CS doesn't help you become a good tech professional any more than doing philosophy does.
Depends on the role you want to play in tech. If it's business development or sales, absolutely agree. If it's product management, having a solid understanding of what the engineering team is doing makes you much more effective.
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