UCLA Engineering major go for IB, shall I?

Career Opportunities & Internships Investment Banking
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<p>Hi guys</p>

<p>First of all, thank you for your time reading my post!!</p>

<p>I am a senior at UCLA major in engineering with 3.6+ GPA, and I find out that I have more interest in finance over engineering although I did pretty OK in my courses. I had three internships since my freshman summer including shipping & forwarding company’s fianance dept, marketing company’s sales dept and recent IT dept for SCE.</p>

<p>Do you think I should apply those top IBs? (Morgans, ML...etc) or just some local LA finance firm to get experience or some big engineering company? I know UCLA is only well known in southern california, so that's a big concern I have because I heard IBs only pick from Ivy league.</p>

<p>thank you again for your time!</p>

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<p>Are you joking? Stay in engineering for now.</p>

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<p>If you didn't have an IB internship between junior-senior year you're not going to be able to get hired. Work for a few years and go get your mba from a top program then get into IB if you want. There's no way in hell you break into IB from UCLA with no internship right now.</p>

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<p>Morgans, ML...etc</p>

<p>ML???</p>

<p>You mean Bank of America?...</p>

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<p>ha..
my bad, ML is part of BOA now. Although there is all messed up in wall street, i still believe fianance has a good future; it just takes time...</p>

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<p>There will be so few new hires on WS this year that the top Harvard students will have a hard time. They are projecting 30,000 more jobs will be lost and this is following a 10% plus cut in the past 2 years. You will do much better at tech firms and maybe take a look at venture capital although they now have their pick of experienced engineers with finance backgrounds who have been on WS.</p>

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<p>You can try applying for boutique banks, in addition to bulge brackets. Boutique i-banks in LA are easier to get into, so you'll stand a greater chance there.</p>

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<p>I wouldn't touch ibanking with a 10 foot pole right now....:D</p>

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<p>there are a lot of boutique banks in LA
if banking is what you really want to do, go for it.
the good thing about having an engineering background is that you can always find a job outside of finance if you decide it's not for you. </p>

<p>===
Banker</a> Times
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<p>do whatever will help you get into a top MBA program, then do IB.</p>

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<p>STAY IN ENGINEERING, SERIOUSLY! If I had any quantitative potential, I'd be an engineer in a heart beat.</p>

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<p>Most UCLA students that end up in IBD for a BB, did 1-2 internships prior to junior year in IBD for smaller firms in westwood/west la</p>

<p>Try scoring an internship within the area first</p>