Industrial Engineering at Georgia Tech to become an Investment Banker?

<p>Unlike a lot of people who suddenly discover their interest for finance in the middle of college and frantically try to change majors/get internships, I will go into college knowing that I want to be an IB. My question is that is it possible and likely for me to get an IB job as an industrial engineer at GT given that I can establish decent connections, etc and that I work with the GT career services very early on to determine the appropriate steps for me to take? IB has been something I have wanted to do for a very long time. The reason why I want to major in engineering is to gain technical knowledge as I can always learn finance along the way. I am not the stereotypical engineer either as I am very bold, social and know how to use my connections. I hope to somehow demonstrate that I am great at problem solving, can work long hours, and can leverage social skills. Do BB firms such as GS even pay attention to GT? I know they are a non target school.
Anyway, thanks for reading&answering.</p>

<p>Typical engineers are obviously usually meek, shy and have an inability to use connections the make. Good assessment there.</p>

<p>Almost everyone I’ve met who wanted to do IB went into college knowing that. Some changed their minds from there but no one I can think of in the middle of college decided they wanted to do IB. You’ve got 0 advantage on that front. </p>

<p>As for recruiting, they’re not going to be looking for you at GTech. It’s going to be about whatever connections you can create, so if you can make it happen then it’ll happen. But you’re going to have to make it happen. </p>

<p>It’ll be much easier for you if you find your way to a top BBA program. The route you’re going is not a very good one.</p>

<p>The irony, of course, will be when you realize you want to switch professions to industrial engineering midway through college ;-)</p>

<p>^haha</p>

<p>But yeah. IB’s are all about target schools and specific paths, which you seem to know. Follow the herd.</p>

<p>Check with Tech’s career services department (or the Industrial Engineering department), I’m sure they can answer your questions around recruiting.</p>

<p>See InPursuit’s posting in the following thread, as it refers to GT, IB and Goldman Sacks.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/georgia-institute-technology/1466504-georgia-georgia-tech-finance.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/georgia-institute-technology/1466504-georgia-georgia-tech-finance.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>BBs don’t recruit at Georgia Tech. If they do, it’s for operations / wealth mgmt / back office-type stuff - not IB. </p>

<p>What’s the point of gaining technical knowledge if you don’t plan on using it? You can show problem solving skills in any major. </p>

<p>If you were an employer looking to fill a finance job - would you hire someone who studied and is familiar with finance or a “bold, social, problem solver who, by the way, picked up finance along the way.”?</p>

<p>Banks may hire random majors for finance jobs at target schools (read: Ivy League) but not at non-targets. Studying something you’re not really interested in will only hurt your grades and motivation to do well. There are smart people outside of engineering. If you really want to do IB, you should major in finance, get good grades, and network like crazy. You’ll have a much easier time securing finance opportunities with a solid finance background.</p>

<p>I don’t think an IE degree is going to help you much with IB. I worked on trading systems on Wall Street and at a few investment banks in SF. Even though I had a masters in IE, I got hired for those jobs because I had a bachelors in CS and knew how to program. The only thing an IE degree might give you that would be attractive to a Wall Street type company would be some statistics knowledge.</p>

<p>An IE degree that focuses on Financial Engineering (Quantitative and Computational Finance or QCF) is as good as any degree (offered at Tech) to land an IB job. And Tech does place IE’s into IB like GS. However, it’s not many, and the IB’s are very, very, selective. </p>

<p>[GT</a> | Quantitative & Computational Finance (QCF) Program](<a href=“http://www.qcf.gatech.edu/]GT”>http://www.qcf.gatech.edu/)</p>