I suppose it depends what one means by “finance”. A more-quantitative business major? A type of job? IB/the kind of career that makes one read WSO religiously as a freshman/sophomore?
For colleges that aren’t on any typical list, kids I know got jobs in Finance from Dickinson and Lafayette (Quantitative major+social science minor - think: Applied Math+ Organizational psychology, Econometrics+Jewish studies…)
Baruch is both obvious and unusual: 99% commuter, lots of red tape if you’re not in the Honors program (Baruch Honors, not necessarily Macaulay) but excellent program&great placement opportunities. Great if you’re from NYC or nearby, if you’re not it’s socially very hard unless you get a room in the one expensive tower/dorm.
TSBNA- I defer to your expert use of Linkedin and the internet to contradict decades of experience hiring (and rejecting) new grads from a wide variety of schools.
But it is demonstrably true that one does NOT need to major in finance to get a job in finance, and in some tiers of industry (not just investment banking) there are other degrees which will get you there faster.
I never said someone has to major in finance to be in IB. Many of the feeder schools don’t even offer finance.
I will disagree that 100% of people in the industry come from a select set of schools - that that’s what people tend to imply.
I’m not disputing anyone’s career in the field - but I also know the world is changing - I see it everyday in what I do.
I was simply saying - the use of the word misinformation is not appropriate - IMHO.
It’s not info you agree with and that’s fine.
I actually don’t think many people are saying many different things - we are simply saying there is not an absolute throughout the industry whereas others deem that it is…
I will also add that things have changed a lot in the last 3 years.
A datapoint of 1-at my kid’s MBB consulting summer gig, every single student had a STEM or business degree. At other kid’s BB commercial bank, every summer analyst had business or econ degree.
Yes, we all know creative writing majors who break in. But reporting what my kids saw or supervised this summer in major financial center for famous consulting/BB banks employing dozens of summer kids.
OP: the AMA was about FinTech / Wall Street Tech, based upon my experience as a technology executive. Not sure if that particular topic is of interest to you, but happy to answer any questions via DM as I do have a second degree in finance.
Given new technologies, we will see industries changing month after month but guess what, then these folks employed will fall into new processes or spaces. Or they’ll wilt.
We’ll all have to - whether zoom, AI or whatever is next, technology will create change, even amongst the stodgiest of industries.
Profits and shareholders will demand it.
And people will have to adapt.
In 5 or 6 years from now when this student graduates, I can’t even imagine what the world will look like.
A poli sci grad who has worked with large datasets (census data for example) is likely a super-user and programmer in R, Matlab, etc. If their senior thesis was exploring the relationship between voting patterns and economic trends/levels in a particular region (which is a pretty basic, vanilla subject that poli sci students study) , they are going to have fantastic experience with predictive modeling, regressions, etc.
Nobody is suggesting that someone “picks up” computer skills. They take actual college classes in it. Advanced modeling and applied math classes are super helpful for any social science major.
Not quite as on point as the Poli Sci major example, but my astrophysics kid did all kinds of coding and acquired proficiency in those applications you mentioned along with others. Today, even if you’re not strictly CS, you’re going to wind up using those skills just to get your homework done.