Steps to Break In To Wall Street
Hello sir/ma'am
I have a Engineering Degree from Top School in India (IIT). I want to break into Wall Street. I currently work as Software Engineer at a top tech firm in New York. What steps should I take? Should I apply for MBA program?
Thank you
MBA seems like the easiest and most obvious answer. Without knowing too much of your background, it seems like you're very competitive for M7, even H/S/W.
So, security is pretty tight. It's not like the NY Fed but not a cake walk either. You probably want to go through the office building on the corner. The floor is on the building south from that on the first floor. It's basically just a TV set though since basically everything clears through the NYSE ARCA building in Mahwah. I have no advice there. That place is a fortress, and the clearing centers for most of the other exchanges are similarly fortified.
On a more serious note, it's a long slog but have you considered getting your CFA Charter? They are pretty liberal with what they consider "experience" and you need a MBA from a top 10 school to even compare in the industry. B-grade MBAs basically get laughed at. (I've got a cousin in this situation now.)
When you say Wall Street, what do you mean exactly? IB / AM / Corp fin / S&T / etc? Need to figure that out first.
Second, are you sure you want to do so? Golden days of finance are long gone, esp. in the investment management world. At this point industry is in a structural, gradual decline. I'm betting that I'll be able to keep working for another 3ish decades but even then that's a risk and I'm thinking of exit options.
If you're good at tech, which I presume you are since you graduated from IIT and work at a top tech firm, STAY IN TECH. Your hours are likely going to be far better, & this is the golden age for tech with excellent comp. Also consider that you may have to learn a totally new skillset to compete with people in finance vs. developing your core strengths by staying in tech. Just my two cents
I'm going to disagree here. Fintech is the one growth area of AM. I'm pushing myself towards learning more programming, since so few people get both sides of the equation. You've got finance guys who can't program and tech guys who know nothing about the underlying data. Actually putting A and B together makes you a rare breed. Outside of a couple certs I've been working for a Masters in some sort of programming is on my bucket list.
I thought it was more on the automation side but honestly not familiar with the AM landscape. Are we talking roboadvisors or something else?
In ETFs even big-time quant strategies can be turned into algos. Defending IP is a big deal for us.
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Crush the GMAT, go to Top 10 MBA program
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