Intro to Investment Banking

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Abyssos

Any ideas about where an MSc from Cass Business School (City university) in banking and finance stands?
Also..i have an interview next week with the director of the above course. Not quite sure what to expect or why the interview is happening. Help.... :biggrin:

Thanks!!!

Post-graduate courses from CASS are very employable. The graduate school seems to hold a much higher repuation than it's undergaduate equivalent, although I personally believe both are 'good enough' to land interviews.

Reply 41

Mubsy

Another silly question but how is a medical degree viewed upon in Investment Banking?

Reply 42

kahler_potential

I know one guy who after completing clinical and his year as a house officer jacked it in to go into a bank. It can be done.

Reply 43

Mubsy

Olek

I know one guy who after completing clinical and his year as a house officer jacked it in to go into a bank. It can be done.

Would you be able to shed more light on that for me? How exactly would a medical graduate go about doing this? I honestly don't have the first clue about IB and I must admit the idea only came to me whilst flicking through these forums.

Reply 44

unknownFluency

British Bulldog

Don't give up on something you're already very good at which is unrelated to IB to get into the sector unless you're happy to gamble away your future. Having a good degree in medicine already puts you in a good position for a pretty comfortable lifestyle, don't waste it unless you can dedicate yourself to [B]researching [/B, reading and studying IB.

Reply 45

Elles

British Bulldog

Another silly question but how is a medical degree viewed upon in Investment Banking?

The intercalated (especially if it's more quantitative than preclin/clinical med) & your other pre/during university background might be more important - although a medical degree could stand out on paper!

I met someone a while back who was locum-ing as a doctor & interning at few different banks whilst trying to make his mind up - not much gambling involved really, just a delay in progression of either career. His A levels and intercalated degree/university were probably fairly common amongst IB applicants even if the medicine part wasn't though.

Reply 46

Mubsy

Elles

Well I have a place to study medicine at the Peninsula Medical School (joint venture between Exeter and Plymouth universities) and because of the low percentage that intercalate, I'm hoping to look to intercalate at another institution. Would you recommend when the time comes, that I consider taking the interecalated degree at one of the "Top 20 Universities"?

Reply 47

Elles

I'm a medic rather than an IB-er/wannabe (though have a vested interest in Investment Banking & Consultancy careers! :wink:

) so have heard of PMS. To explain my thoughts:

- Basically the impression I get from this subforum is for IB Front Office they're definitely looking for "quantitative" people. This fits with anecdotes of the non-medics I know of who have gone into it - either quantitative degrees or a quantitative A level background then degree from the number 2 university on that Top 20 list.

- Personally I don't consider medicine a "quantitative" degree so would think that an intercalation further demonstrating these skills i.e. a purer science could be useful.
This might be where people want to tear apart my thinking. If anyone working in IB thinks Medicine is suitably quantitative then yay, see if you can sneak it by them. :wink:

- The medic I mentioned was from number 2 university (but the other one to me!), had intercalated (not sure what theirs is called but shared options with Natural Sciences) & had done Further Maths at A Level.
Based on the gist of this subforum doing it at a university other than Exeter or Plymouth would also be useful for the "name".

So your plan does seem to have some logic to it.

But... starting medical school with IB in mind doesn't make much sense to me: it's not a course that easily lends itself to taking on lots of CV boosting extracurriculars (see threads in here emphasizing importance!) or internships in the vacations (especially if you're somewhere with full clinical days & long terms early on); has its fair share of emotional stress/some would say tedious "professional development" aspects - so might not be the most fun use of 3/4 years university time if you don't plan on making it your career; and the intercalated degree is only one year & fairly different to preclinical so can be quite high pressure if you're wanting a 1st (which this subforum suggests is increasingly useful) compared to courses where elements counting towards finals are more numerous and spread over 2 years.

Hope this helps!

Reply 48

CityMonkey

I think medicine should see you do comfortably well in IBD...long work hours and weekends full of work - sounds like a medic's dream.

Reply 49

Mubsy

MonteCristo

I think medicine should see you do comfortably well in IBD...long work hours and weekends full of work - sounds like a medic's dream.

LOL just what I was thinking. There seems very little difference except I would say there's more blood in Medicine than IB.

So is the general opinion then yeah if I wanted to do so, my chances of getting a good IB job would be excellent if decided to quit Medicine for IB? (as long as I did an intercalated degree and preferably at one of the "Top 20" institutions?)

Reply 50

kahler_potential

Nobody's chances are ever excellent.
If I were you, I'd think long and hard about whether going into IB is something you really want to do, or if you just want to become rich. There are easier ways to get rich (set up a private fertility/cosmetic surgery clinic or something) with a medicine degree.

Reply 51

Mubsy

True but the issue with private plastic surgery is that it takes a long time in terms of years and training to even reach a suitable level when you may then be able to go into private practice.

Could the same be said for IB in terms of reaching a level where the money will be good?

Reply 52

Mubsy

Also apparently I'm now being told that I wouldn't be allowed to go elsehwere to intercalate if I studied at Peninsula Medical School which is so far my only offer. Could this throw everything up in the air?

Reply 53

fonzievision

I see so many medics lately starting to think about IB. Originally got into Medicine thinking they'd get a nice, safe, well paying job. Then they find IB and change their minds in an instant..

Makes me wonder if they'll ever be successful at either..

Reply 54

Elles

MMC issues & the NHS at the moment might have something to do with pushing even more medics away from the career. & IB is probably an attractive alternative to students who will tend to be from the traditional universities (to have medical schools) with peers around them going that way, a sciencey background (with ~AAB+ requirements to get in) & work ethic as MonteCristo mentioned!
Starting medical school with the intention does seem silly to me though.

But anyhow, if I were being included in the 'so many' from presence in these threads - my vested interest is in someone else's career in this area maintaining me in the manner to which I would like to become accustomed whilst healing/managing the health of the needy. :p:

Reply 55

Ancient Beast

How possible is it to go from an actuarial science degree into an IB career? thanks

Reply 56

Singh_87

Crushed.Ice

I was doing some general research and I came across this:

http://www.ubs.com/1/e/about/bterms/content_b.html

Its a dictionary containing useful banking terms.

Hope it helps!

BTW Singh 87 I think your post is really helpful! Saved me from havng to create a load of threads asking pointless questions.

Thanks for the link for the dictionary, it should answer a few queries!

Thanks for the comment, much appreciated :smile:

Reply 57

varunume

British Bulldog

Another silly question but how is a medical degree viewed upon in Investment Banking?

One of my colleague at Calyon is a Doctor and an Equity Research Analyst....Being a qualified Doctor, he covers Pharma sector --- So you can be sure about Equity Research.....

Trading, I seriously doubt.....Corp Fin (Capital Markets and M&A) you can go if you can impress the interviewers...

-- Joining LSE MSc Fin & Eco 2007/08

Reply 58

Khalsa1846

Back again after a year!

Re: Cass degree's - only a few MSc's have a higher reputation than the undergraduate degrees (like MSc in Mathematical Trading & Finance - MTF). From what some very respected staff members have said to me, the undergrads have more respect from IB's (except management and business studies though companng these 2 with equivalents at other uni's they are seen as gold to them, apparently).

Cheers folks.

Mandeep
p.s. whoever put Cass pretty low on one of the forums needs a real reality check! I'll challenge them anyday on Cass' reputation.

Reply 59

Singh_87

Khalsa, I really appreciate what you are doing but you are going to get swamped now with e-mails. If you don't mind answering all the questions then that's fine, but otherwise I'd take your e-mail off there and instead ask people to PM you if they have any queries.