Wanting to change my major...

<p>Look like you already did many research/work about your switch, I was about mention the series 7 and no need for a degree. My advice is don’t look back to bio once you decide to switch to finance, you’ll waste your time going back and forth. You mentioned also want to be a stockbroker. What’s the worse if finance analyst doesn’t work out? Just be a borker first if you don’t mind the “sales” part of it, and try to get a MBA, work your way up. I have a engineer friend, he just more into finance than engineering after 5 years of work and quit his job along with stock option, got into NYU’s mba program, and became a financial analyst of a hedge fund.</p>

<p>pretty impressive haha, but when i hear things like banks dont hire from CSU’s is a little pushback…and I can see why but I also know plenty of people that did get hired by firms. my roommates buddy who graduated a couple years ago and was in his fraternity was hired by UBS straight out of college with a decent gpa…he began as a jr. analyst and is back at school for an MBA at UC Riverside. he makes about 65k and after can touch 100k</p>

<p>and no its completely free its sponsored by the business college at my school.</p>

<p>But I agree with hmom5, the broker job is different with financial analyst. My brother-in-lw was briefly in those training program. He gave up since he didn’t like the sales part of it, you need to build up the client/accounts.</p>

<p>Again, whatever job your friend was a ‘junior analyst’ in, it was not an investment banking analyst. There is no such title in ibanking and the salary makes no sense for a guy who had been there more than 10 minutes. To be totally honest, no one would leave an ibanking job for a Riverside MBA. Understand that what were formally called investment banking firms have many different jobs and most within them are not investment bankers. Doesn’t mean they aren’t fine jobs, but you need to understand this. It’s not what your advisor was talking about.</p>

<p>It’s very important to do your research so you understand what you’re getting into. A mom sheds some light. I guess the retail brokers rope people in this way, it costs them nothing as you’ll make no money until they make money. This is about as far from an ibanking job as it gets. It sounds like your friend had an operations job and that might be what you want to shoot for as opposed to a retail broker job requiring cold calling and no real money until you land your own clients.</p>

<p>It’s the part about the trip to NY that makes me feel something is very wrong with this picture. What exactly they plan to show you there is a major mystery. Don’t spend any time or money until you know exactly what the job is.</p>

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<p>Investment banking and being a personal advisor are completely unrelated. The numbers you quoted were meaningless, and for some reason you choose to ignore the actual numbers from the school’s career services. Also, in the current environment starting salaries could be even lower.</p>

<p>then what the hell is the point of a business degree if you make the same as a manager at mcdonalds lol…</p>

<p>i understand theres vast amount of opportunities but when youre dealing with this stuff, why all the hard/***** <em>excuse my language</em> work…for no pay</p>

<p>and who are all these big stock brokers that take care of my parents investments and own huge houses and galore…(just in general)…lol</p>

<p>ebay, your post has been haunting me. You came here to ask if you should abandon pre med to shoot for a high pay investment banking job such as what is described in the info your advisor gave you.</p>

<p>So let’s talk turkey. Better you understand now than after 3 more years of college aimed at something unlikely to happen.</p>

<p>The jobs you started talking about, investment bank analyst positions, have been some of the most sought after jobs in the last few decades. Banks only recruit for these jobs at a few schools such as the ivies, Stanford, MIT, Caltech and some very top LACs. Even at those schools, candidates must have very high (3.7 plus in general) GPAs, have great course work and certain types are favored. Many firms look at SAT scores and 2300 plus would put the candidate in range.</p>

<p>Things are so tough now you need to be a superstar at one of those schools to land an internship, and only perhaps half of those interns will be offered a job for a few years.</p>

<p>So what would it take a kid who has a 3.2 at Fullerton now and could have maybe a 3.6 if he gets an A in every class from this point on to get an analyst job? An act of god, a miracle or something similar.</p>

<p>In truth pretty much the only way you would land at an ibank in an ibanking job would be to finish college, get another job, do amazingly well with major promotions and responsibilities over 5 years, get a great GMAT score and get into a top MBA program.</p>

<p>While doable, it doesn’t sound much easier or shorter than doing what you’d need to do to get into and through med or even DO school. There is no free lunch.</p>

<p>The brokers who manage high net worth people’s money are called ‘personal wealth managers’ or something similar. They are a big step above the average retail broker and can make a lot of money. Still, these are not high paying jobs, they are high commission jobs. If you bring in the customers, manage a lot of money for them and have lots of activity, you can have the big house. But you must build your own customer base and in my experience these guys have needed to travel in circles where they meet lots of people who make large salaries for some time before starting. I met my own at Wharton.</p>

<p>So all of these careers are viable if you can do what’s necessary to make them happen. But your decision needs to be about what you want to spend the next 8 or so years fighting for and I wouldn’t throw out your current investment towards medicine because you think becomming a banker will be easier.</p>

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<p>I believe McDonald’s managers make around 45k a year. However, they have EXPERIENCE. It’s not really a valid comparison because most managers have worked their way up to that point (being promoted several times) and have little to no room for advancement at McDonald’s. On the flip side, college graduates land entry level jobs…aka like the guy working counter at McDonalds but getting paid $50k to do so.</p>

<p>I’m not sure if it’s because you are looking at things from a healthcare industry viewpoint but in business salary tends to start out low with upside potential. Those “big stock brokers” with the “huge houses and galore” aren’t 25 yrs old.</p>

<p>its great that you have high goals and you want to make good money but it seems as though your not living in reality. your posts keep on stating how you want to make a nice salary but you want it instantly and quickly without putting in what is necessary to get to that level. “then what the hell is the point of a business degree if you make the same as a manager at mcdonalds lol…”. having a business degree doesn’t even mean anything. actually a bachelors degree itself doesn’t mean anything and almost anyone can achieve this. anyway, how do you even know that ibanking is right for you?</p>

<p>having gone to the advisement center again, things cleared up a little more for me. I think that being in the health professions through my school can land me into many jobs out of college other than an MD, that being DO or specialty in other things like chiropractor or optometry that can be a good career and make over 100k in general, especially being in the orange county, LA region </p>

<p>but on the finance side, haven spoken to the chair of finance…he think I should look into becoming a stock broker. Now what exactly are the true difficulties in doing this, the same way a doctor must build a clientele and bring in many patients to their practice. Does this, in a similar way, go towards becoming a stock broker. I do know that this does not come right way in salary, same as being a doctor as you only finish residency at about 28-30 years old. I could have potential to make just as much and enjoy either career even possibly earlier. But if anyone could give HELPFUL tips on how this type of service is practical, since i see companies like etrade or td ameritrade are starting the internet securities revolution, how does a financial adviser or broker do well in their career and make the 100k+ that they can, other than obviously building that clientele, and how does the process work out of college, especially my school CSUF?</p>

<p>Your summer plans should fill you in on being a stock broker and what the challenges are. The difference between being a broker starting a practice and a doctor is that the doctor can become a preferred provider for insurance companies feeding him a stream of patients from the start but a broker starts from scratch in building his client base.</p>

<p>What I think you’ll see this summer is that they give you a desk and tell you where to buy lists of names. You pick some financial products and start calling.</p>

<p>sounds like pursuit of happiness lol</p>

<p>i still have more people to be advised on</p>

<p>MD is almost out of the question at this point having talked to all 3 of my health professions advisors, chances are slim due to a C- in 2, 5 unit courses which lowers my GPA for the fact a C- is not passing and had to be retaken…Med schools dont like that is what ive been told</p>

<p>however a career in chiropractic or optometry or even going into pharmaceuticals or the alike may suit me…it all depends, but honest truth is ive gotten sick of the field in general and i dont know if i would like my career down the road. Ive always wanted to do something where the adrenaline rushes here and there and possibly going into brokerage could help</p>

<p>I understand starting from scratch isnt easy, but you need to build with insurance companies as well, you cant just walk into the field and say hey im here give me my patients, it doesnt quite work like that either…a lot has to be done before that even working under other doctors for years before switching to your own practice, by the time you make 100-200+k you can be in your mid 30’s which is great, but the same can go to another career…all depends on preference at this point. work ethics and integrity is not a problem, if I have the excitement in my field and the salary to push towards, sky is the limit…</p>