<p>Hi all,</p>
<p>It's been a while since I've been on here lol. I plan on doing the BA Computer Science program at Columbia's School of General Studies (I am still 18 at the moment. I graduated high school at 15 and took 2 years off to figure stuff out). I chose the BA because of the flexibility it gives me to study other things I didn't have the privilege of studying when I was in high school. After this, I plan on going on to get a Masters in Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering, hopefully from MIT, as building things interests me as much as computers do. My main career interest at the moment is Entrepreneurship, as I have an idea which I'm hoping to turn into a company while I'm in school. But in case that doesn't work out as well as I plan, I'd like to go into Investment Banking. So I guess my question is, how feasible is it for me to break into I-Banking with a Masters in Engineering? I'm looking to start off with an Analyst position like the undergrads do (unless I can get something better?), and maybe business school after 2 or 3 years (I know, that is a lot of school lol).</p>
<p>All answers are greatly appreciated</p>
<p>Thank you :)</p>
<p>With a masters degree your considered overexperienced for an analyst position. If you get an MBA though from MIT then you have a good shot at an associate position though banks like to see analyst experience. You can do an internship perhaps to make up for that partially.</p>
<p>Don’t do the masters in Aerospace and Engineering and your problem is solved.
With a degree in CS, your background is much more suited to trading, but so long as you have a decent gpa (3.5+) it won’t hold you back too much. Just be sure to take a few accounting courses and a corporate finance course. </p>
<p>If you do the masters in Aerospace & Engineering, you won’t get an ibanking position without an mba. Why are you even considering this? It doesn’t seem at all relevant to what you want to do? If you enjoy it that much, why the hell are you considering ibanking? They’re not even remotely similar.</p>
<p>i’d ignore angryelf, that’s a ridiculous comment. Im guessing you, like most normal human beings, have interests, but are not 100% sure about them and want to weigh options. My advice is pursue what you are passionate (aero&engineering) and get a great GPA and distinguish yourself in that degree. I’m not sure about MIT’s recruiting, but you want to make sure that you can participate in the undergraduate or graduate recruiting events and on campus interviews. If you can, that means you’ll be able to present your resume to banks if that’s what you ultimately decide you want to do. That said, you will probably not be considered for an associate position (scratch that - you definitely will not be considered for an associate position) so we’re talking about an analyst position, which is not bad at all, given that you’ll still be younger than most of the analysts at that point. Lastly, if youre beginning to think that aero&engin isnt for you pretty quickly into the degree, MIT may allow you to take accounting and finance courses, which should make you a slightly more appealing candidate for IB.</p>
<p>^^ Look through the resume/info book for your analyst/summer analyst class and let me know how many people in it have masters in completely unrelated fields.
For me at least, out of 100+ people in the analyst class, not one had done a masters program outside of Finance, econ or IE. People had unrelated undergrad majors but nothing past that. </p>
<p>Think this through. If you’re hiring someone to work 100+ hours a week who will need to routinely stay in the office past 3am on a thursday night, are you really going to take the chance on someone who at first glance (not saying this is always the case) appears to be using this as a back up role, or is only interested in it for the money?</p>
<p>If you’re really that passionate about aerospace and engineering, why wouldn’t you pursue a job in that?</p>
<p>that’s generally true for boutiques but bb’s dont care, especially when recruiting at targets. many schools now offer combined BA/MAs and banks are getting used to it, recognizing that motivated students in non direct fields are worth a look. the caveat is that you want to come in through the undergrad recruiting channels (i.e. career center) at MIT so that you’re not coming out of left field as a career transitioning masters student. if that’s how its perceived, angryelf is correct, they will look at you funny.</p>