profile review of a "former engineer" - MFin Europe

Hey everyone,

I'm a French/German national about to graduate engineering school. I have discovered myself an interest for corporate finance during the finance elective I took and on the contrary a distaste for the IT industry so I'm considering a MFin to rebrand myself and then aim for positions in London/Paris ( not considering Germany as my German is terrible ).

Current profile:

• French top 5 engineering school : 3.65/4.0 ( which is not that good, ranked around the 40th percentile)
• Northern European technical uni : MSc Industrial engineering with the equivalent of a 3.7/4.0 ( top30%) [ can bump that up to 3.85 during last semester if really necessary ]
• GMAT : 730 (Q48 V42) ( may retake it as I got 750+ on the mock ones)
• extracurricular: some sport at a decent level + president of the corresponding sport club (40members)
• work experience: 1.5 year as a associate project manager (part time) during my MSc

Targets: LSE,HEC,ESSEC

Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer :D

 
Most Helpful

Your GPA for the top 5 uni is good as a stand alone. But looking at the class rank, it doesn't fair well. The school rank definitely helps your case though.

The 3.85 for the Msc will definitely help, as a current 3.7 is not that great given master's GPA tend to be inflated and its not that far from your bachelors.

GMAT is good, please do re-take and get a 750 to make your case even stronger. Extra curriculars are good as well. Work experience - for an Mfin role it doesn't matter much, but does make your case stronger (again). I don't know how much though, given it was part-time.

What raises a red flag though is your interest in the Mfin program. Going through 4-6 years of schooling just to take one finance class and find your interest there? I mean, that's your choice, but you went through so many classes to find a distaste at last with the industry. It's also not like you are going from one engineering to another focus, but completely changing your track without even any experience in the field. Now you are looking at additional 1-2 years of schooling just to start an analyst role.

I think you have a good profile for HEC and ESSEC but the class rank might hurt at LSE. Even try to look at LBS MFA. Also, tell a better story on your change of industry, since one class changed everything just looks bad.

Edit: Only reason why I question your change is because you are doing it without any experience in the field. Most engineers change their field after some experience and than pursue an MBA to re-track. Hope this helps.

 

Thx for the detailed answer, I should have made myself clearer on some points. - ranking: for the French school, the class rank is unofficial ( you get a different internal ranking in each major, I took the average ) so I won't mention it on the application. - interest: So I have been disliking engineering for a few years but I kept going bc it opens a lot of doors , at least in France where engineers can be found anywhere from politics to banks and ofc corporations. Recently, I took a 4h/week finance course for an entire year and it's the only course that did not bore the life out of me so I figured out finance gotta be somewhat interesting. I've also been reading the schweser note for the CFA lv1 to see how interesting the general field is and so far it's fairly good. But I agree that I need a nicer story so I'll try to find something by the time I apply.

  • LBS vs LSE: you're right I will replace the LSE by the LBS. I've just checked their class directory and the average academic background seems lower.
 

Now it makes more sense as you have cleared out the points.

  • If you don't mention the class ranking, your GPA is good for bachelors and could be great for masters if you achieve the 3.85.

  • Are you taking the CFA L1? CFA will prep you for Asset management side, but it is good to have to also strengthen your profile.

  • You might want to do more research on what you want to do after your msc in finance. Each of the schools will get you into different roles based on their placement. Your current engineering degree could also place you into finance roles as an analyst. Maybe not directly into IB, but some other quant roles. So do your research before you make a commitment.

  • LBS MFA is a good start, but the starting salary based on the investment you have made so far will not be worth it. Instead of wasting away years and having two masters degrees for an analyst (entry-level) role, try to get into finance with your current degree, or grind it out for a year or two. This will unlock your door to LBS MFIN and also MBA. MBA salaries will be worth it and makes way more sense for your profile once you have work experience (engineer going into finance is really common here).

 

If retaking the GMAT is low effort, then do it. But 730 is a very safe score; it's in line with mean and medians of the most recent Harvard, Wharton and INSEAD MBA classes. 730 will put you in the very top bracket of the MFin applicant GMAT scores. Also, the potential jump may not do any good to your application. Had you been doing from 680 to 750 or 730 to 790+, then yes.

 

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