Is A MSc finance or related worth it ?

Hi,

I am coming to the third year of my Economics degree. I was unable to get a spring and a summer in a bank or a large consulting firm.I did apply over 100 places and did get an assessment centre or two so it is definitely possible. I was thinking of doing a masters in finance or a finance related subject to improve my employability. I would ideally like to break into sales and trading but trading more specifically and thought I would do a masters to break into a Quant firm that don't normally take economics students as we do not have the relevant skills. But ideally, I would like to end up in Sales and Trading. I was thinking of applying to top tier unis such as LBS,LSE,UCL,Imperial and Oxford. Cambridge do MPhil, is that worth it?

q1) Should I do a MSc in Finance or focus on a more specific niche such as MSc Computational finance ?

q2) If I don't do a masters, is it possible for me to still break into front office roles in a bank or consulting without any summer or spring experience ?

q3) Let's say if I do a masters in finance. Will I end up at the same level as a first year graduate who has not done a masters? Secondly, if I break into a bank, will my masters in finance help me to go further in career progression vs someone who has not done a masters?

Thank you so much

Reply 1

Radella000

3

I suggest that you go to Reddit as it can provide more info on the subject but to simplify it. It require quantitative skill such as computer science and statistical as compared to the usual econ, finance /accounting .

This is from reddit
- quant dev = cs major or science major with very strong coding skills, and need to stand up to decent stats knowledge in interview

- quant (generic) = stats masters or equiv maths knowledge and coding skills too

- quant researcher = stats/physics PhD or work your way up via quant experience

But nowhere in that are accounting/finance degrees for sure , not that it wouldn’t be possible but personally I’ve never seen it

Source: is my job

(edited 10 months ago)

Original post by GamerBoy123

Hi,

I am coming to the third year of my Economics degree. I was unable to get a spring and a summer in a bank or a large consulting firm.I did apply over 100 places and did get an assessment centre or two so it is definitely possible. I was thinking of doing a masters in finance or a finance related subject to improve my employability. I would ideally like to break into sales and trading but trading more specifically and thought I would do a masters to break into a Quant firm that don't normally take economics students as we do not have the relevant skills. But ideally, I would like to end up in Sales and Trading. I was thinking of applying to top tier unis such as LBS,LSE,UCL,Imperial and Oxford. Cambridge do MPhil, is that worth it?

q1) Should I do a MSc in Finance or focus on a more specific niche such as MSc Computational finance ?

q2) If I don't do a masters, is it possible for me to still break into front office roles in a bank or consulting without any summer or spring experience ?

q3) Let's say if I do a masters in finance. Will I end up at the same level as a first year graduate who has not done a masters? Secondly, if I break into a bank, will my masters in finance help me to go further in career progression vs someone who has not done a masters?

Thank you so much

Hi @GamerBoy123

Great to hear you are considering postgraduate study, it’s a way a lot of people have accelerated, refocused, or improved their career paths in the past. Picking which is the best for you is never an easy decision as so many things factor in, but having been at Cranfield, a postgraduate-only university for nearly 3 years now, hopefully I can give some insight into what has worked well for others!

q1) Should I do a MSc in Finance or focus on a more specific niche such as MSc Computational finance ?
This depends on many things, including how sure you are about your career path, the availability of courses, and which you can get a place in.
Even though the more ‘general’ courses (like the Finance MSc, or Accounting and Finance MScs offered by Cranfield) might seem less focused, they produce well-rounded graduates who are suitable for working in diverse teams and collaborating within large businesses. You can still show your dedication to a specialism by choosing the appropriate elective modules, and by working with your dissertation supervisor to curate a thesis that will best support you in your job hunting!
This should allow you to consider other factors about the courses, such as access to industry contacts, opportunities outside the course (such as the CFA Institute UK Research Challenge, previously won by Cranfield students), accreditation (for example, the Finance MSc allows you to work towards the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) qualification during your study), etc.

q2) If I don't do a masters, is it possible for me to still break into front office roles in a bank or consulting without any summer or spring experience ?
This isn’t my area of expertise, but I know several friends who have shared the highly competitive nature of this industry.
This is part of the reason why Cranfield supports it’s students through the Careers and Employability Service, who can connect students with industry, help prepare you for your interviews, and even help with getting the best offer! I’ll leave a link here with more info on how they can support you:
https://www.cranfield.ac.uk/study/careers-service

q3) Let's say if I do a masters in finance. Will I end up at the same level as a first year graduate who has not done a masters? Secondly, if I break into a bank, will my masters in finance help me to go further in career progression vs someone who has not done a masters?
You can never be guaranteed any position, and others will not necessarily have taken the same path to get to a job as you will. If you have a degree just listed on your CV, this will give you some advantage. However, if you can take a wide range of skills and knowledge from an industry-focused and career-driven course, plus the experiences you gain in your course, and bring that to your interviews and demonstrate this in your career, you would be expected to have a much larger advantage in your career progression.
A good example of this is is the access Cranfield’s Finance students have to infrastructure used in industry via the Bloomberg Suite. The resources include Bloomberg terminal, BoardEx, Capital IQ, CRSP, Datastream, Eikon, EBSCO, Factiva, FAME, Financial Times, ORBIS Bank Focus, ProQuest, Science Direct, and SDC Platinum. You will use real-world, international case studies to support your learning- you can really tell that the course design was informed by a panel of industry experts!

I hope this has helped you make an informed decision, and best of luck when applying to courses!

Ciara
3rd year Agrifood PhD student
Cranfield Student Ambassador

Reply 3

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

21

Original post by GamerBoy123

Hi,

I am coming to the third year of my Economics degree. I was unable to get a spring and a summer in a bank or a large consulting firm.I did apply over 100 places and did get an assessment centre or two so it is definitely possible. I was thinking of doing a masters in finance or a finance related subject to improve my employability. I would ideally like to break into sales and trading but trading more specifically and thought I would do a masters to break into a Quant firm that don't normally take economics students as we do not have the relevant skills. But ideally, I would like to end up in Sales and Trading. I was thinking of applying to top tier unis such as LBS,LSE,UCL,Imperial and Oxford. Cambridge do MPhil, is that worth it?

q1) Should I do a MSc in Finance or focus on a more specific niche such as MSc Computational finance ?

q2) If I don't do a masters, is it possible for me to still break into front office roles in a bank or consulting without any summer or spring experience ?

q3) Let's say if I do a masters in finance. Will I end up at the same level as a first year graduate who has not done a masters? Secondly, if I break into a bank, will my masters in finance help me to go further in career progression vs someone who has not done a masters?

Thank you so much

I doubt a finance masters is going to be sufficient for a quant role. They target physics, maths, CS grades (sometimes engineering) - not economics or finance. Also usually they target PhDs, not masters students.

Overall I think it's just a really expensive way to either a) add a target university name to your CV (which may or may not be necessary depending where you did your undergrad) or b) to give yourself an extra summer between undergrad and masters to apply to internships aimed at continuing students (not even sure if they will all be open for those going from undergrad to masters). Whether that's worth it is up to you.

Bear in mind there is extremely limited funding for masters degrees (usually max £10k for both "maintenance" and tuition costs) and finance type degrees are extremely expensive (often well over £20k tuition per year) as they function as cash cows for the universities to draw in rich international students primarily. So you might want to start from the standpoint of "can I actually afford this"?

Is A MSc finance or related worth it ?

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