<p>Can anyone shed some light on the college major/program that would best prepare me for a career in corporate finance. And by "corporate finance", I mean handling the financial matters of a specific company (for example, maybe Samsung USA, or Cisco, or T-Mobile, or Starbucks, or Ford Motors, or Dell). Maybe I named this field incorrectly, maybe it is not called corporate finance. But, regardless of what it is called, what will prepare me the most in terms of major? Would just a "finance" degree be sufficient, or is there anything more specific/suitable? I am not interested in going to an "investment firm" or anything like that, I want to be part of one corporation. Does anyone even know what I'm talking about? lol.... Seriously, though, any help would be appreciated.</p>
<p>Major in Finance...</p>
<p>Unless you can get into Wharton, MIT or a few others, I'd go to the best college you can get into and study economics.</p>
<p>^ I disagree with this. Most Fortune 500 companies are looking for an accounting/finance background to fill these positions, not economics majors.</p>
<p>Can anyone briefly outline the differences between economics and finance?</p>
<p>Finance is a trade degree, it teaches you the actual skills you will utilize in junior positions. Economics is theory and will give you a global view and teach you to interpret events.</p>
<p>My thinking is if you are ambitious about growing through companies you will probably be getting a grad degree. You can learn the trade skills then and in company training. College should be a time of learning to think and evaluate.</p>
<p>There are schools, like Wharton, that give you both. But most business programs don't. So for someone headed to the top, I would choose a good economic program at a strong college over a non top business program.</p>
<p>I hire for finance jobs and will always give the nod to the most global thinker no matter what their major, the business skills are easy to give them, we can't spend time teaching them to think.</p>
<p>Yes, I plan to get an MBA after a few years of experience, but what types of positions/job titles could I have with an undergrad economics degree? And if I want to get an MBA in finance, will the fact that I don't have a bachelor's in finance damper my chances? Thanks...</p>
<p>The position will depend on the company but a starting position would be something along the line of financial analyst. But you could be anything--assistant to the CFO is a job a smart kid I know recently took.</p>
<p>So degree variation (finance, economics) does not make a big difference in terms of getting a starting job and applying to a good graduate b-school?</p>
<p>The things that will effect job most is the college you attend and your GPA there.</p>
<p>I don’t know if this is true for business schools at every university, but where I am it ABSOLUTELY matters whether you take a finance degree or an economics degree (at least in terms of undergraduate/on-campus recruiting). I’m a finance major, which is a degree through the business college at my university. However, economics majors are admitted to (and get their degree from) the liberal arts college on campus. </p>
<p>Here’s the difference: All of the good finance jobs, business jobs, marketing, management, etc. are reserved only for the people admitted to the business college. We have our own recruiting system, our own website, our own on-campus interview rooms, our own career center and so on. Students in other colleges within my same university don’t have access to these positons at all. They have access to the university-wide recruiting system, which is flooded with MANY more students, MANY LESS business specific jobs, and no really good on-campus recruiting process outside of job fairs.</p>
<p>If universities near you are similar, do what you can to get accepted into a business program with a good job placement and recruiting program. The first jobs/internships you get during and right out of college have the potential to jump start your career path. This is important, and business schools generally do business job placement better than other non-business schools.</p>
<p>shane, you should absolutely major in finance. However, in “corporate finance” there is a lot of things. There’s operations, treasury, strategy, internal mergers & acquisitions, etc. So even in the corporate finance level of a fortune 100 there’s still some decisions to make. Overall, it’d be a lot easier to get these positions with a finance major rather than a economics major. Accounting might be okay as well (but preferably double major with finance if possible).</p>
<p>It really depends on your career goals and where you go to school.</p>
<p>Many would consider the most elite corporate finance jobs to be at investment banks. They are certainly the highest paying. For access to these jobs, you need to be at a top school. Banks hire econ majors, English majors, math majors, philosophy majors…it doesn’t much matter. They do their own training and simply hire the smartest folks they can find. Kids who go through this training can skip a lot of levels at a corporation and can enter far above their peers who went straight to corporate life. Same with a few years at a consulting firm, most of which also hire all majors from top colleges and do their own training.</p>
<p>Few of the schools that are targets for the best jobs in business even offer undergrad business degrees. It pretty much drops off after Wharton, MIT, Stern and to a lesser extent, Cornell, UVA and UMich.</p>
<p>If you want to be an accountant, yes, go to a business school and study accounting.</p>
<p>If you’re ambitious and see yourself as a future leader in business, go to the best college you can get into and study whatever you’re good at.</p>
<p>hmom, you said:
“Few of the schools that are targets for the best jobs in business even offer undergrad business degrees. It pretty much drops off after Wharton, MIT, Stern and to a lesser extent, Cornell, UVA and UMich.”</p>
<p>I go to Michigan, but I am not in Ross, I am in engineering, is it considered one of the top schools “For access to these jobs, you need to be at a top school” ? or is it limited to Ross?</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>hmom5 says:</p>
<p>“Banks hire econ majors, English majors, math majors, philosophy majors…it doesn’t much matter. They do their own training and simply hire the smartest folks they can find. Kids who go through this training can skip a lot of levels at a corporation and can enter far above their peers who went straight to corporate life. Same with a few years at a consulting firm, most of which also hire all majors from top colleges and do their own training.”</p>
<p>I agree with this for the most part, but (respectfully) it seems like you’re looking at this only from a recruiter’s standpoint. For some students, ACCESS to these positions can be severely limited by the university. It depends upon which colleges/students are given access to certain job listings; and (at least where I am) only business students usually ever see on-campus postings from investment banks and consulting firms. It’s one of the most common complaints throughout the university as a whole from students in non-business colleges who still want to focus on a career in business.</p>
<p>As a student, it’s important to think about everything a college or program has to offer. Their ability to help you locate and compete for good jobs should be high on the priority list.</p>
<p>There are certainly a few schools where banks are only interested in the business majors, NYU for one, but most targets do not have business programs and all majors are considered. This is the same in consulting.</p>
<p>Are you at Stern ecpmn?</p>
<p>No, lol. I’m at the U of MN (Carlson School). Not even on your list of most highly recruited schools for ibanks and consulting firms; but there’s plenty of recruiter interest in our school. Beyond all of the companies headquartered in the Twin Cities, major consulting firms (McKinsey, BCG, Deloitte) have on-campus recruiting here at least once a year. There’s a little less attention from ibanks because there’s not as much local demand for that here, but plenty of students and alumni have landed themselves in one through networking and searching outside of the recruiting department for opportunities.</p>
<p>All I’m saying is that these kinds of opportunities are usually only made available to people enrolled in the business school. We have our own recruiting system that’s kept separate from that of the rest of the University, and positions like this are typically only posted through the business college. It leaves a lot of business oriented people in other colleges out in the cold, because unless they’re admitted into the business college they don’t have access to the recruiting system.</p>
<p>I’m sure it’s not that recruiters aren’t interested in students from other colleges, but (at least in my experience) the university/college system limits the access of students in non-business programs in order to allow business students the best shot at getting these offers. As a student, I want to be wherever the opportunity is to find, compete for, and land good offers. Then again, maybe the system at my school is unique. That could be why there’s such a high job placement rate for Carlson grads :)</p>