Is anyone out there an Investment Banker or Fund manager .. If so what were the college subjects you took/ or wish you took that helped you the most? Or what subjects do you feel others who want to follow in your path should take in order to help them achieve these career goals? Cheers Guys
These are the most competitive jobs for on campus recruiting. Most common path: go to a good school (ivy league caliber); get good grades (3.7 GPA or better). Study something kind of quanty (engineering is ideal, economics, finance, business are okay). More important to have strong grades than what you major in. Ideally play a varsity sport. Banks want "winners." They want to see that you excel in everything that you do. It don't matter what it is as much as that you won. Second easiest path: if you don't go to a good school, then work your alumni network to find people who are in the industry with sufficient power to help you out. Impress them and work for them.
My PhD thesis was about testing a well known phenomenon in a certain financial market, and where I had to develop an algorithm which turned out to be the basis of my hedge fund. So, it's not really about a certain class or a subject matter.. but, rather identifying an inefficiency in an area that you are passionate about, and then exploiting that inefficiency for as long as you possibly can.
yeah that would have worked 20 years ago. Nowadays, and I mean that in the sense of the last ten years, most banks and funds look for people with that special something, people who have done something extraordinary, and more importantly, who think differently. No varsity sports needed, not all top grades needed, in fact a fail grade accompanied by an awesome and logically coherent explanation behind may just get you the spot on the intern or new grad hire list. This winner's argument is bullshit imho. I have worked at numerous investment banks and hedge funds and still do. In fact I would never hire a guy who always came out winner, because he would have no idea how to handle a setback or would engage in illegal activities to cover up failure. No, thanks. But I would hire someone who has steadily shown to improve and get where he wanted to be. I would hire someone who went to community college, if he worked hard, made it after couple years of work into a top grad school program. In fact I would prefer such person over person B who may be 100% identical except that person B already went to top schools since preschool.
good point, banks and hedge funds can afford to hire specialists, people with some extraordinary, if not even geeky/nerdy nich skill set. The times of MBAs who must be lacrosse club members (the most gay sports ever...;-) in order to land the much desired jobs in IBDs are long over.