<p>I have heard lots of people suggest a path like that.....
And it makes me kinda confused. what about those people with a business degree?
They still do lots of math aren't they? </p>
<p>And also there are plenty of math degrees focus on business field. Should I earn a math degree instead of an engineering one, in order to get into the business field?</p>
<p>I don’t know about other programs but Stevens Institute of Tech offers blends of engineering and business because it is so close to Wall street. You might want to research that school to see how they do it. Lehigh also has business with engineering as do a few other schools.</p>
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Not compared to engineering or the hard sciences, no. Compared to a philosopher or golf-course management major, they do lots.</p>
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If you want information on business and finance careers, I would suggest working the business forums - they are more likely to know the best routes to that field.</p>
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<p>Business types usually do not do a lot of math, except for the small number of quantitative finance types. Background for that is anything math-intensive, such as math, statistics, economics/finance (math-intensive), industrial engineering, operations research, or “Master of Financial Engineering” (a quantitative finance oriented professional program offered by business schools that is distinct from the usual MBA programs).</p>
<p>I don’t know if engineering is better or worse than math for going into finance careers, but it’s more common for math majors than engineering majors to aim for or choose finance careers than engineering careers.</p>
<p>I got my BSEE in the 1980s then spent a year as a broker with a Wall Street investment bank. They were eager to hire technical guys who could sell their tech IPOs to other technical guys. At the time, I think the EE degree helped me get hired over all the business and finance guys. Even though I made quite a bit of money that year it was not a match for my personality. I know a couple of guys still there working on the tech side - computer algorithms, IT, and such. In sales, it was more about having the right look and the right voice than having the right major; think “Mad Men,” but with one kind of nerdy guy thrown in. The technical aspects (of my job) were really easy after going to engineering school.</p>
<p>The Wall Street tech jobs like programming and IT are just jobs, not much different than working for IBM or Boeing. To get a feel for what it was like as a broker while I was there, read “Liar’s Poker” by Michael Lewis. Obviously my broker info is kind of dated.</p>
<p>A friend majored in Economics and works for a large Mutual Fund company. Another friend works in VC in Silicon Valley. She majored in Finance. Those are much more typical pathways.</p>
<p>Magnteron, did you get pay a lot higher in a bank than in a normal technical company?</p>
<p>Sent from my SGH-T989 using CC App</p>
<p>The best paid brokers at the time worked on commission split. Someone who bought a stock (mainly what I sold) paid 8% above the stock price. 4% went to the company, 1% to my supervisor, and 3% to me. Large purchasers paid a lower commission.</p>
<p>I was in training for 6 months making next to nothing. I was a broker for 6 months and made about $60k. Brokers in my office averaged about $200k/yr, VPs about $500k. My best client owned a couple of junkyards and had about $3M in stocks. Another was a retired widow and had about $8M in her account, mostly mutual funds and municipal bonds. I left it for a $35k/yr engineering job.</p>
<p>Technical and office staff were paid competetive salaries and did not share in the money geyser.</p>
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<p>Heh heh: ‘competitive’ salaries surely being a euphemism for ‘low’ salaries (or at least, low compared to the bankers who were evidently being paid ‘uncompetitively’ highly).</p>