How difficult is it for International students to enter IB / Finance? Is it hard to obtain a H1B working visa. Does a candidate with STEM-OPT have a stronger profile as compared to a applicant without STEM-OPT?
Hello there.
This thread discusses careers in financial technology. For careers in IB / Finance, please check out @Catcherinthetoast’s excellent AMA here.
Oh yeah, sorry, I actually was reading both and must have gotten confused as to where I was posting. Thanks!
Thanks @DadOfJerseyGirl for fielding quesitons here.
My son graduated from Bucknell University in 22 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. After a junior summer internship, he accepted an offer to work full time for an MEP/engineering design firm in NYC. He soon discovered that he does not want to do this type of work (using AutoCAD, etc to draw pipes and ducts) as he’s a strong math kid with excellent problem solving skills that are not being used in this role.
He wants to pivot to a business (infrastructure) analyst, data science/analytics, or some other tech role, but despite a very concerted, active job search (while still working his day job), he has not gotten ANY interviews outside of mechanical engineering.
Do you have any advice on how to pivot into fintech in NYC? It seems these NYC firms (consulting and otherwise) are either laying off or not interested in a '22 with a MechE degree? He’s worked with Bucknell’s career office and alum network and that’s gone nowhere.
Also, do you know of any for-hire career coaches who specialize in placing recent grads in Tech roles in NYC?
Any advice is greatly appreciated!
Hello there.
If he does not currently have demonstrated programming or other technical skills (either through a CS degree or prior work experience), it’s unfortunately going to be very hard to break into fintech. I suggest he start elsewhere first - many industries are not as picky - and then try fintech after he has a few years of experience.
Did he pick up programming and/or data science skills during his undergraduate years? Can he pass an online coding test? If the answer to either of these is no, he should work on gaining those skills first. After that (or if the answer is yes to these questions), have him apply as broadly as he can to a large variety of industries and roles.
Sorry, I do not. And CC does not permit recommending services.
You can find recruiters via LinkedIn though. A good recruiter can provide resume feedback, career tips and help find a suitable role.
Good luck.
Has he thought about something like real estate economics? That seems like it could be an easier pivot from engineering consulting. No programming skills are needed, as they mostly use Excel for analysis, but math problem solving is still important.
My S finds it fascinating. Having said that, things are slowing down and hiring may be cut back at his firm in the new year.
Thanks so much! Forgot to mention he has a math minor, but so do most engineers I assume…I took this from the skills section of his resume: Are any of these “coding” (sorry, but I was an English lit major in the Dark Ages: Microsoft Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Access, MATLAB, Python, R, SQL, Revit, AutoCAD, Bluebeam, SolidWorks, COMSOL, JavaScript, C++, Tableau, Power BI)
Thanks so much for suggesting this! Yes, he would be very interested in that, but to your point, he has networked a lot with folks in engineering consulting and the real estate firms (C&W, CBRE, etc) and you are right… he said postCOVID the real estate firms are all laying off 
But I really appreciate the suggestions and will pass along the title of “real estate economics” as a career field for him to search.
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Python (coding) & R ( R =data analysis/statistical software).
SQL = used to communicate with a data base.
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It seems that some of those skills could be used in Data Analytics Consulting.
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