I want to be an investment banker or hedge fund portfolio manager. I have no finance experience, (currently work in IT at a small commercial bank) but I really love the stock market. I have a Scottrade account and have doubled my money over the last two years. I’m just curious if I should do the CFA or MBA if I want to land a top front office job. My target companies are Goldman Sachs and D.E. Shaw. I didn’t go to a top 10 university, or get great grades (I have a 3.0 gpa), but I did really well in all my finance classes. Can somebody tell me if I have a shot at landing a role. Maybe not right now since the economy is in trouble, but maybe in two years.
I had an interview at Goldman in their I-Banking group earlier in the year. He liked my resume but said they were on a hiring freeze. Furthermore, I think on top of that, Goldman is cutting 10% or so; I doubt it will be easy to get a job there anytime soon. Best bet is probably to go to ‘as good as an MBA’ as you can and come back when the market gets better (for I-Banking - they don’t really care too much about the CFA, it is just kind of like an added bonus to some firms, and its a toss up if you will go in as an associate if you have your charter and no MBA). The CFA may help with hedge funds - but still super hard right now? I would have to defer to people who are actively looking or working at hedge funds to answer that one.
Get a masters in geology and work for an oil and natural gas firm.
I think he is being facetious. If Gouman is not, they I would say that he has an excellent chance of landing a HF manager gig. Just show them you really want it on your resume, like with marching ants around your qualifications for emphasis. Let them know that you are thinking of doing the MBA or CFA, since that shows initiative.
Oh ok - This is a joke? I didn’t want to tell him a 3.0 was a no-go for Goldman but try not to be too harsh on here (most of the time). If this is not a joke , sorry.
eureka Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I think he is being facetious. If Gouman is not, > they I would say that he has an excellent chance > of landing a HF manager gig. Just show them you > really want it on your resume, like with marching > ants around your qualifications for emphasis. Let > them know that you are thinking of doing the MBA > or CFA, since that shows initiative. pure gold
He could have just waited a couple of days and someone would have posted this for real.
I would suggest that you get an economics undergraduate degree and an MBA. Although this degree combination is probably the easiest of all to get (for example, this combination requires only a high school level understanding of mathematics, problem solving ability, and minimal intellectual curiosity) and is generally useless towards understanding finance, these degrees form the basis for a stamp of approval when coming from a top brand name school that will trump any hard skills you can get from other degree combinations from lesser schools, regardless of work experience. You also have to patch up the inevitable deficiencies in hard skills if you choose this particular degree path, by developing soft skills through a healthy dose of parties and bars in order to aid in better networking ability. Only then will you build up the mindset required to say crap in a confident manner to fit in with your future colleagues.
numi Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > eureka Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > I think he is being facetious. If Gouman is > not, > > they I would say that he has an excellent > chance > > of landing a HF manager gig. Just show them > you > > really want it on your resume, like with > marching > > ants around your qualifications for emphasis. > Let > > them know that you are thinking of doing the > MBA > > or CFA, since that shows initiative. > > > pure gold Yes, if the marching ants don’t work, then try Las Vegas lights. Do whatever it takes, no matter what the formatting.
what the?!?! if you doubled your money you dont need no hedge fund managing BS. just keep doubling it.
Gouman Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I want to be an investment banker or hedge fund > portfolio manager. I have no finance experience, > (currently work in IT at a small commercial bank) > but I really love the stock market. I have a > Scottrade account and have doubled my money over > the last two years. > > I’m just curious if I should do the CFA or MBA if > I want to land a top front office job. > > My target companies are Goldman Sachs and D.E. > Shaw. I didn’t go to a top 10 university, or get > great grades (I have a 3.0 gpa), but I did really > well in all my finance classes. > > Can somebody tell me if I have a shot at landing a > role. Maybe not right now since the economy is in > trouble, but maybe in two years. DOn’t laugh fellas. I was just about to post the same thing. Only for real.
Gouman Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I want to be an investment banker or hedge fund > portfolio manager. I have no finance experience, > (currently work in IT at a small commercial bank) > but I really love the stock market. I have a > Scottrade account and have doubled my money over > the last two years. > > I’m just curious if I should do the CFA or MBA if > I want to land a top front office job. > > My target companies are Goldman Sachs and D.E. > Shaw. I didn’t go to a top 10 university, or get > great grades (I have a 3.0 gpa), but I did really > well in all my finance classes. > > Can somebody tell me if I have a shot at landing a > role. Maybe not right now since the economy is in > trouble, but maybe in two years. To tell you the honest truth, it doesn’t look good. You want to move from no finance experience and mediocre academics to either the premier IB or, arguably, the premier quant hedge fund? Based on a Scottrade account and A’s in undergrad finance classes? Do you know the kinds of people hired at those places? Most of the people I know who work or worked at Shaw are math olympiad types and I just can’t see how you can catch up.
JoeyDVivre Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > To tell you the honest truth, it doesn’t look > good. You want to move from no finance experience > and mediocre academics to either the premier IB > or, arguably, the premier quant hedge fund? Based > on a Scottrade account and A’s in undergrad > finance classes? Do you know the kinds of people > hired at those places? Most of the people I know > who work or worked at Shaw are math olympiad types > and I just can’t see how you can catch up. Who knows, maybe he has an awesome personality or is a former beauty pageant winner
numi Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > JoeyDVivre Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > > > > To tell you the honest truth, it doesn’t look > > good. You want to move from no finance > experience > > and mediocre academics to either the premier IB > > or, arguably, the premier quant hedge fund? > Based > > on a Scottrade account and A’s in undergrad > > finance classes? Do you know the kinds of > people > > hired at those places? Most of the people I > know > > who work or worked at Shaw are math olympiad > types > > and I just can’t see how you can catch up. > > > Who knows, maybe he has an awesome personality or > is a former beauty pageant winner Oh snap!
For IBs: It comes down to individual hiring managers, whose standards might change from day to day (depending on how their morning commute went, or how hard up they are to hire). Without some extenuating circumstance (e.g., client’s kid, relative of Blankfein), any resume with under a 3.5 will probably not even be considered. (I’d consider leaving a GPA like that off the resume.) When it’s a buyer’s market (and you better believe it’s one now) I usually toss anything below 3.7. Anything 3.9 or better (without any red flags on the sheet) might get a call back just to probe. Personally I don’t care much for abnormally high in-major GPAs, if this means that for half of his classes the candidate got a C average. For BB IBs: many (notably including GS) have a strong pedigree standard; if you’re not in their target school list (M7 plus a half dozen others) it’s a (very) uphill battle.
I was totally being facetious. It had just been awhile since I’d seen this post so I figured I’d bring it back.
Why not continue day trading and start up your own firm. Willy
Would day trading count for experience towards the charter? …sorry, couldn;t help myself.
No I think my point is that if you were so successful at day trading, why would you spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours doing an MBA? Willy
If you are trading (intraday, swing, short term, long term, or any time frane) successfully, then you don’t even need any of the following: BA/BS, MS, MBA, CFA, PHD, and so on. Being a successful trader requires a skill set that has almost zero correlation with the MBA, and minimal correlation with the CFA.