Hi all,
I hold a BA in Economics. I have been looking into pursuing a graduate degree in Economics or Finance. Graduate school that I will be applying to only offers Master of Arts in Economics or Financial Economics. My ultimate goal is to get into the investment industry. Will my employment prospects be hindered by having an MA, as opposed to MS, on my resume?
Is an MA worth the time and money if I don’t plan on going into teaching or doing academic research?
Thanks.
If you’re interested in finance, the only grad school you should be applying to is business school. The finance world in general scoffs at Ph.Ds and academia. I don’t know your current employment, but if you’re not in any financial related jobs, try A: networking into one or B: start to get the CFA and use that as evidence of interest in finance to get into a finance job. In addition, if you have the financial means, attaining an MBA would allow you to do a career change into finance as well as provide you with networking opportunities to get into investment firms. If you’re thinking about becoming a quant, matters are a little different. A masters in financial engineering or finance are viable options. However a masters degree in any type of economics will not prepare you for a job in investment because you’ll be lacking significant technical knowledge like accounting and valuation that just isn’t taught in economics grad programs.