Does an Economics degree give you better pay in the finance world?

Hi there,

I was wondering if for the same job, let's say working at a hedge fund or as an investment banker, would having an undergraduate in Economics command a better pay than a science degree?

Hi there,

I was wondering if for the same job, let's say working at a hedge fund or as an investment banker, would having an undergraduate in Economics command a better pay than a science degree?

Hi there,

I was wondering if for the same job, let's say working at a hedge fund or as an investment banker, would having an undergraduate in Economics command a better pay than a science degree?

Industrial Economics at Nottingham, for example, is likely to yield better pay. But that's mostly down to the reputation of the course itself and of the university and its links to employers, and maybe not so much the fact that it's in essence an economics degree.

As long as the econ degree is maths-heavy it's likely to be brilliant for investment banking.

You would think that the more specialized you are on the job itself, and the better combination of modules you have, the more suited you are for the job, and the more appealing you look as a possible employee. But even then, what matters are your modules, not the name of your degree, really.

And the reputation of the university and its links to employers, of course.

Hi there,

I was wondering if for the same job, let's say working at a hedge fund or as an investment banker, would having an undergraduate in Economics command a better pay than a science degree?

Doesn't even need to be maths heavy at all.

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Really? Why would you say so? The professors and course leaders I've spoken to were of a different opinion for some reason. Surely Maths is very appreciated in the field? Economics itself doesn't require much maths and yet economists have to know an immense amount of maths as compared to what they need as most Economics degrees nowadays are mathematical not behavioral.

Do you really need to know multivariate calculus in order to work out WACC or EV? Ok maybe high school level calculus to understand greeks and payoffs in derivs trading, but in 'investment banking' (i.e. deal making), it is pretty much irrelevant. If you are comfortable with numbers (you can do GCSE maths and pass some online numerical tests (legitimately, division, multiplication, exponents..) you're good.

A maths degree itself however is great for developing critical and logical reasoning skills. *

I couldn't agree more; the same would go for Economics degrees and I'd guess most Economics workplaces, but what matters is that you know the stuff in the first place.

We're not talking about what you would need to do well when you already have the job, but rather what you would need to get the job in the first place. Professors and course leaders maintain that maths is very important in terms of getting a job; interestingly they didn't mention it being required for doing the job itself now that I think about it.

Besides, you have the internet and proper software to help you with any sort of maths you may encounter in the first place; if anything you'd just have to know how to use these sorts of things. But that doesn't mean employers don't want people who know of such things much more in depth, surely?

There's been this TSR topic from a few years ago of a Warwick graduate of Philosophy with a 1st, and he'd get calls from employers who would refuse him the second they heard he got bad A level results (B, Cs, from what I remember). I don't have much faith in the mental capabilities of employers...

I do hope that employers aren't in fact so desperate for heavy maths modules or prize them as much as they seem to do from what I've heard.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by 'knowing the stuff', any 'stuff' you need to know will be taught to you in new hire training and from day to day working life.

What you need to get a (non-quant) finance job:
- Decent uni
- Decent grades
- Solid experience both work-wise and extracurricularly
- Great communication skills
- An ounce of intelligence to get through tricky interview questions
- Genuine interest in the field, which means keeping up with news and knowing basic concepts that are googleable in seconds
- Being comfortable with numbers (i.e. you can pass numerical tests and can at least do basic operations like adding, subtracting, multiplication on paper - ya know the things you learned when you were 8-10)
- Great can-do attitude
- And a commensurate personality

^ that's the list, uni subject doesn't fall in there at all (apart from being a signal for intelligence).

Your professors are correct only for where knowing university level maths would be beneficial - which is primarily restricted to a few niche areas like quant analysis, some obscure derivatives products, economic research, economic consulting etc..

Yeah, I do agree with your point about grades and I've heard some employers are changing their policies to focus less on a-level grades and more on university achievement. So things are on the up, in terms of that.

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Hi guys,

Thanks for all the replies. I am at UCL doing Chem with Mathematics (regrettably !). I hate the labs sessions, so I applied this year again for Econ which is why I opened this post. I got a first in year 1. But the degree is rather mundane. I am wondering whether I should leave my current degree, to start Econ in year 1.There are a lot of things to consider this was one of them!