Analyst or Master's in Fin
Posted: March 11th, 2002, 6:02 am
Hi guys,I am a college senior trying to decide what should I do after graduation. It seems that most people on this board have extensive experience in the financial industry/ academia, and I am sure that your advice would be extremely helpful to me. Originally, I was quite optimistic about the placement of master's in fin math/ fin eng students, however, after reading various posts on this board, the job prospect for those graduates doesnt appeare to be as good as what I thought it would be. I started to become skeptical about enrolling in one of those programs.My Background: I am a finance undergrad (from a US university) with substantial background in math and science (but not stochastic calculus and programming). I have recently been admitted to some master's programs in some gd US universities. At the same time, I also have an investment banking analyst offer from a bulge bracket firm. I am now very conflicted about whether I should work or I should study some more. My goal in the long run is to be something like a structurer/ trader/ ECM (Convertibles) banker..I am personally not very interested in being a "pure" quant guy, and may have some interests (but not in the next 5 yrs) to do a PhD in finance. I know that my current offer as an analyst in IBD wont be very relevant to what I am interested in doing. However, I don't mind working there coz I think a stint in IBD will help me polish my "soft" skills. (maybe that's my wishful thinking though)So my questions are:1. Would you suggest me to do the master or work? Or should I re-apply after finishing my analyst contract (Or you would suggest an MBA at that pt). If I decided to go study next semester, it could be very hard for me to find an internship at this pt2. If I decided to study, without knowing stochastic calculus and programming (I only know some VBA), would I be able to handle the work?3. People seem to be very skeptical about the career prospects of graduates from these master programs. Is it true that they have really poor job placement?Other comments related to the topic but the above questions will be highly appreciated as well. Guys, thanks for helping me out!