<p>Hey everyone,</p>
<p>I've been searching for a while now, and I'd like some first-hand information!</p>
<p>I would like to go into finance after college, so would a AEM degree prepare me well? Would I just focus in on finance while studying there? Any AEM alums out there?</p>
<p>More information would be great!</p>
<p>It would definitely be good preparation since AEM has the most specialized finance courses in the university. You’ll be taking predominantly common major requirements your first two years, but during the second semester of sophomore year, you would choose one or two specializations and work toward completing the requirements for those. As you can guess, there is a Finance specialization in the major.</p>
<p>Corporate recruiting at Cornell is quite widespread. Companies don’t only look at AEM majors, but that shouldn’t be misconstrued as a disadvantage.</p>
<p>Where else would corporate recruiting occur at Cornell? Would there be a better route that I’m not thinking of to get into finance at Cornell? What about hotel management?</p>
<p>for finance, what you major in doesn’t matter much at all. (coming out of cornell)</p>
<p>you need a top gpa and good resume to land interviews. after that, you need to nail the interviews to get an offer.</p>
<p>keep in mind, breaking into investment banking or trading at Bulge Bracket is very competitive especially in this economic climate. Be prepared to face intense competition at Cornell for those jobs.</p>
<p>What would be the most advantageous route to avery finance job?</p>
<p>Sent from my DROID X2 using CC App</p>
<p>There really is no “better or worse” route. People from AEM, ILR, math, Econ, Hotel, and still other majors can land a job with a financial firm. A lot of actually getting a job is about differentiating yourself from the competition.</p>
<p>as mentioned, for finance jobs there is no ‘sure’ or ‘best’ way to go. all you can do is get a high gpa and get competitive internships on your resume, and hope to land several interviews from finance employers. After that, it all becomes how well you can sell yourself to the employers, so your interviewing skills will matter a ton. (assuming you can land first-round interviews in the first place)</p>
<p>Getting a finance or other top jobs such as management consulting is largely a function of individual preparation and persistence.</p>
<p>Several buddies of mine from Cornell were all dead-set on breaking into IB or Consulting from Freshmen year and they worked their butts off towards that goal. they kept their GPA up, networked like crazy, worked in competitive internships over summers, and prepped for interviews using Vault study guide. In all, those who were motivated and prepared mostly ended up with the job they want. I have some friends who are making close to 150k a year straight out of college working as traders at Bulge Bracket. (and some others making close to 100k a year as investment banking analyst at bulge bracket bank) And, they all came from a wide range of majors, including econ, hotel, PAM, Government, engineering, ILR, and the list goes on.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I knew a fair share of other kids from Cornell who didn’t really care nor prepare for jobs. They partied, played games, chased after girls, majored in useless humanities fields, and now, some of them are literally working in a mall or working at GAP folding clothes after graduation. Or, I found that many of those who could not get jobs in finance or consulting ended up with non-profit jobs that pay like 30k a year. (think peace corps, teach for america, etc)</p>
<p>Lastly, finance employers recruit school-wide at cornell and they don’t care about what each student majored in. One exception is that for niche areas such as quantitative trading positions or quant assistant positions, fiance employers only recruited engineering, math, or stats students.</p>
<p>In conclusion: what is the best way to get a job in high finance? Go to Cornell, major in something you are good at, kick as$, and work your butt off to secure the job you want.</p>
<p>That’s fantastic advice, LazyKid. I totally get what you’re saying about working hard, with networking, GPA, and interviews. This eases my stress a little, knowing I don’t have to figure out what to major in right away.</p>
<p>I have one objection - I think doing Peace Corps or something similar wouldn’t necessarily be a fallback. I’d love to do Peace Corps after college!</p>
<p>Why isn’t AEM considered a school or a college? At Cornell’s website, it’s not listed:[Cornell</a> University - Academics - Colleges, Schools, and Faculties](<a href=“http://www.cornell.edu/academics/colleges.cfm]Cornell”>Colleges & Schools | Cornell University), even though it’s called the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management.</p>
<p>What’s up with that? It’s under departments, instead.
Why’s it in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences next to animal science and biology?</p>
<p>Mostly because it was originally based on agricultural economics and then later adopted a wider business focus.</p>
<p>Personally I think it should be a separate college since it really doesn’t belong in the agriculture school anymore, but that’s a whole discussion in itself.</p>
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<p>One more advice I would give is that due to the competitiveness of recruiting process for I-banking or top trading jobs at investment banks, I would encourage you to major in something that is marketable and would give you a fallback career option in case you don’t land an offer from top finance positions.</p>
<p>Remember, each year each Bulge Bracket bank probably hires ~130-150 new analysts for investment banking division nation-wide. (maybe less in this economy) So, clearly only very few will end up with those coveted jobs. </p>
<p>Although you can major in anything you want and still land a finance job, if you do major in something like Computer Science, Engineering, Accounting, or Math, you will have plenty of non-finance job opportunities after college even if finance doesn’t work out for you. On the other hand, if you major in something like Government, PAM, ILR, Sociology, or English, and you miss your boat on high finance, you better prepare yourself for a non-profit gig after college that pay like 30k per year.</p>
<p>^ Great post LazyKid, I would give a silver banana if this was WSO lol. </p>
<p>You mentioned how to major in something that would provide a fallback. Would the AEM major provide a good fallback if one does not get a bulge bracket job? Also, it seems that traders are looking for quantitative majors. Would “quantitative majors” be the best major in terms in versatility? I would think that they would be a great fallback if one does not get a job in a bulge bracket, and hedge funds are usually looking to hire grads with a quantitative background.</p>
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<p>Hey, glad to help!</p>
<p>To answer your questions:</p>
<p>1) AEM is, in my opinion, the only non-math/science/engineering major at Cornell that would provide you with strong fallback career option. In AEM, you can be concentrating in accounting and that would make you eligible to sit for CPA exam, meaning that you will be highly marketable to public accounting firms. So, in case you strike out on high finance or management consulting, you can still get a job in audit at Big4. And, getting a job at Big4 audit, coming out of Cornell, is like 100 times easier than getting a job as an Analyst at either Investment Banking Division or top trading positions at BB banks.</p>
<p>2) From my experience with recruiting at Cornell, or my experience with seeing my buddies who got jobs in trading, it depends on what employer you are talking about.</p>
<p>Many times, S&T divisions at BB banks that recruited for trading analyst positions didn’t have rigid requirements of a student’s major. Indeed, I have some friends who come from ILR, Government, or some other random major who are working as traders at Bulge Bracket.</p>
<p>However, I found that many of those highly-selective prop trading firms (think Optiver, Jane Street, DRW Trading Group, etc) seemed to recruit only engineering/ math/ statistics/ computer science students, and in some cases, they also recruited economics students as well. However, many of their analyst programs were more of an niche trading area such as high frequency trading/ quantitative trading/ algorithms trading. </p>
<p>Also, some of those ultra-selective funds (think PIMCO, Citadel, etc) only accepted applications from engineering/ computer science majors. However, only like 1 guy got an offer at those firms from Cornell so it should be irrelevant to most people anyway.</p>
<p>Lastly, for Investment Banking, what you major in nearly doesn’t matter much at all. They recruit school-wide and accept applications from almost every single major on campus. That is both good and bad. Bad because that results in a huge quantity of applicants from all-across the major at Cornell applying to those jobs. Good because you can major in almost anything you want to get the job.</p>