Can anyone help me out? I’m interested in pursing investment banking, the only business related majors at my school are Accounting or Business administration and management. Which would be the better choice? Any other advice is helpful as well.
Hello
The first thing to realize is that the school you attend is the most important factor. So, first question to ask yourself is,Do Wall Street firms recruit on my campus, and to what extent? If they do not it will be a very tough task.
Does your school have Economics as a major? Many kids get jobs with an Econ major. If your school has that major go with an Econ major/Math minor .Talk to your career services people and some Professors at your school. Pick their brains. Good luck.
They unfortunately do not have a Eco major. Like I said accounting and business administration only. I’m currently In a CC looking to transfer to that school. It’s in NYC so I am very sure Wall Street recruiters will be there. If it was between those two majors , which do you recommend over the other?
Well,If you were my child I would tell you to email career services or call and talk to them about past job placements from their school with regard to either major in Ibanking. Accounting in general is a major with high job placement if you do not get into I banking
It is very difficult to get directly into IB, especially if you are not at a very top tier college. Of the majors offered at your school I think accounting is the option with a much better career path.
In the NYC area, investment banking firms like Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, probably recruit only from Columbia University or NYU. You would have to be at the top of the cream of the crop to get a job from those firms.
Which school is it? It’s easier to help if we know what their academic strengths and network are. I find it difficult to believe that a school that has active wall street recruitment doesn’t offer an econ major. Particularly within NYC (Columbia, NYU, Fordham, Baruch, Pace, etc.) all offer multiple business fields.
^^^^ It is not necessary to major in econ to go into IB. And econ is not a business field, it is a liberal arts course of study which will have a very different curriculum as compared to an undergrad b-school. Also note that Columbia has no undergraduate b-school (although it offers economics). And as noted above it is very difficult/competitive to get an IB job – typically the top students at the top schools get these jobs.
Which means, in the NYC area, the top schools are Columbia and NYU. If you add the state of NY, Cornell would be in the mix.
Wharton is another target school. Other top shelf colleges such as Princeton, Yale, Harvard etc. also get students into IB jobs even though they have no undergraduate business schools. Investment banks don’t limit their recruiting to NYC schools.
Econ is typically offered as separate tracks within liberal arts divisions of schools and undergrad b schools. I know it’s not a req for IB, I’m just stating that it is surprising that a school that has WS recruitment doesn’t offer econ as a major when it is a more widely applicable field of study than accounting.
Let’s change the question. If you want to major in business and you options are accounting and business administration, what should you choose? You should choose accounting. It’s a far better major regardless of what you choose to do.
Just because a school has a business major and is located in NYC doesn not mean it is a target for IB. Ex. Baruch, Pace, Fordham
Investment banking provides intermediary services. Intermediation is a subject in Finance. So a Finance major or concentration will give you the best chance, holding other factors constant. To see this, take UPenn as an example: a major in Finance will give you an edge than a major in economics.
Now, how about the other factors? The name of the university carries a lot of weight. In general, wall street firms target top 20-25 schools. Your gpa should be good. You need to look sharp, talk smart, and like a cool guy/girl to hang out together (we are talking about a banker here). Internship is also important.
Econ is not a natural major for IB, but you will find many econ majors from Ivy Leagues in this business. The name of the university put far enough stuffs on the table.
Have to agree. Name of university, your GPA and you ability to represent/sell yourself to get an internship is the most important thing. At least if you want front office.
D, now a VP at one of the companies mentioned above, was not a business, finance or economics major. But she had a very good GPA at a top school and demonstrated other “desirable” attributes through her classes, extracurriculars and jobs. Understand that once you get the internship, which is very difficult to get, you have to earn the job. Once you get the job, you have to prove yourself to keep it. D knew interns that were not given offers. She also knows people hired in her analyst class that have been fired.
Back office jobs can also be some very good jobs. Getting hired for them, from my experience, still requires a high GPA, but school is less important. The state school I work for places high GPA students as interns in back office jobs because of alumni. Many of the 3 or 4 summer interns are offered jobs. The jobs are still good and well paid.
You don’t say what school you’re at, but the fact that they have majors in “Accounting or Business administration and management” pretty much means it’s not a school most IBs would recruit from.