I’m very much interested in a career in Investment Banking, and I’m considering an Msc in Finance to help “re-brand” my profile and get a better shot breaking-in abroad. Could you please evaluate my profile and share with me any tips/advice/must-know about this? Here is a little more about myself: Education : Senior student at a top university in my country (Morocco) majoring in Finance with a minor in Mathematics. Completed an exchange semester in Korea University Business School during my Junior year.
GPA : 3.9 / 4.0 Major courses : International Finance, Corporate Finance, Investment Theory, Advanced Macroeconomics, Money and Banking, Multivariable Calculus, Linear Algebra… GRE : 163 Quant, 157 Verbal Work Experience : Currently at a Big4 with the Risk Management Advisory team, internship is 5 months long Worked as a Financial Analyst over the summer at a Fortune 500 (Junior summer) Worked as a Sales Analyst over the summer at the same F500 (Sophomore summer) Languages : Native in Arabic and French, fluent in English My target universities for Msc Finance are: Oxford, LSE, HEC, EDHEC, SSE. Could you please tell me if I stand a chance? Also, please let me know how I can improve my current profile to become more competitive and if there are other programs I should consider to have another shot at IB. Thank you for your time!
He means sponsorship for a work visa - it’s harder for employers to offer you a position if they must bear the cost of your work permit. Anyway, the first thing you should do is consult the job placement statistics of the MS programs that you are interested in. If those programs have histories of placing graduates in investment banking jobs, then it should be apparent in their recruitment reports. I suspect that MS Finance programs will be more related to asset management, risk management, or other miscellaneous finance jobs, rather than investment banking, but you should verify that yourself. You might also be interested in another sort of finance position as an alternative - IB is not the only thing worth doing (nor is it necessarily the best).
If you were applying to the US, your best, and perhaps only chance to enter investment banking would be through a top ranked MBA program. However, it is rare for people to enter these programs straight from undergraduate school without some prior work experience. I don’t know how it is in Europe or the other countries you are considering.
Hey, Most MBAs require some work experience before applying, which doesn’t fit with my current aspirations. Besides, I am not exclusively considering Europe/Africa; I would welcome an opportunity gladly elsewhere. Any leads?
Ohai, thank you for your input! I did indeed look up placement statistics of the MS programs I’am interested in and a big chunk for their graduates end up working in a BB or transitioning to MBB (depending on the program and the school). While I am aware that IB is not necessarily the only thing worth doing, it remains something I am very passionate about and would love to pursue. That being said, I remain open for other opportunities. Concerning the US, besides few MSc (Like MIT and Princeton), most Business Schools offer an MBA which requires work experience as you said. Which brings back my initial concern: is it realistic to pursue this road for IB given my profile? What could be some other ways to do this ? Thank you again !
Most IBs don’t sponsor foreigners, do you need work visa? If you do just forget about it. But you can get into big four maybe and transition to IB possibly but that’s difficult as well. I would lower my expectations and no one is passionate about IB, it’s usually about the money and exit ops. IB is highly geared toward native language speakers because it is still sellside and client facing so you’ll be severely disadvantaged vs US graduates.
I think these questions would be more productive if directed towards alumni or people who are otherwise affiliated with the programs you are considering.
