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Accounting and Finance vs Economics

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Original post by Princepieman
A manager at an investment?

Yeah people tend to toot their own degrees when they're giving out talks, tis quite easy to do so.

Truth is most of finance is maths you learnt in year 7-8, and the really complex stuff is where you have your Maths/Physics/CompSci PhDs, everyone else just has to be ok with numbers. And your degree can be in whatever.


I think it was obvious from the context I meant Investment bank, and I'd accidentally missed out the word 'bank'.

Well here's a link I just found with some interesting data:
http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/204526/which-degree-will-get-you-a-high-paying-investment-banking-job/
This might correlate with some of what you just said.
Original post by Princepieman
Never asked you to take my permission on board, but if you must. Go ahead :smile:

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Original post by ajay1998
I think it was obvious from the context I meant Investment bank, and I'd accidentally missed out the word 'bank'.

Well here's a link I just found with some interesting data:
http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/204526/which-degree-will-get-you-a-high-paying-investment-banking-job/
This might correlate with some of what you just said.


Yeah, but managers aren't really a title in the front office of an investment bank. So was thinking you're maybe talking about an investment manager..

I was about to post that link, but you beat me to it.

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Original post by Princepieman
Yeah, but managers aren't really a title in the front office of an investment bank. So was thinking you're maybe talking about an investment manager..

I was about to post that link, but you beat me to it.

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Ever heard of a floor manager? Just people who are the manager of a floor in large investment banks. I'm not sure if they have any real authority but they do exist.
Original post by ajay1998
Ever heard of a floor manager? Just people who are the manager of a floor in large investment banks. I'm not sure if they have any real authority but they do exist.


Yeah, I mean trading floor 'managers' may exist but they're not really involved in the thick of things. You can think of them as akin to office managers who will coordinate the admin stuff/project work.



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Is anyone in this thread at Uni now? I have a non-related question to ask :smile:
Original post by Dervo
I've recently just finished my AS exams this summer, achieving an AABB in Economics, English Literature, Maths and Government & Politics respectively, and I have now got to decide the course and universities to apply for in the coming months.

Realistically, I could maybe get offers for universities such as Exeter, Manchester, Loughborough, etc... for Economics, but for Accounting and Finance, as the grade requirements are often significantly lower, I could potentially get offers from likes of Warwick, Durham, Nottingham, etc...


Not sure but wouldn't you want to apply for target unis (Oxbridge, LSE, Imperial UCL, Wawrick). So if you have more of a chance of getting into those target unis doing a A&F degree, then wouldn't you take the chance as opposed to having more competition and less of a chance doing economics. Also Accounting and finance and economics are both highly represented in investment banking so i doubt there is much of a bonus picking one over the other.. except for the fact that economics has more career possibilities. So if you defo want to do IB then go for A&F. Uni is more important than the degree
Original post by gr8wizard10
hey, this is pretty interesting information, where did you source this from?


I'm not the person who you quoted but I've heard this too. Of course you occasionally get people who did French or something unrelated who get into banks, but when I was speaking to someone from JPMorgan at a networking event, they told me that economics is viewed as being academically rigourous whereas accounting and finance wasn't well respected in comparison (they actually laughed at it and said who actually does an accounting and finance degree in a condescending way...). Though I do think that graduating from for example LSE with A&F looks better than an econ degree from Leeds or somewhere non-target.

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Original post by icecreamcake
I'm not the person who you quoted but I've heard this too. Of course you occasionally get people who did French or something unrelated who get into banks, but when I was speaking to someone from JPMorgan at a networking event, they told me that economics is viewed as being academically rigourous whereas accounting and finance wasn't well respected in comparison (they actually laughed at it and said who actually does an accounting and finance degree in a condescending way...). Though I do think that graduating from for example LSE with A&F looks better than an econ degree from Leeds or somewhere non-target.

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Oh ffs, that's just typical banker snootiness - doesn't actually translate to how A&F is perceived in the recruiting process.

Conversely, I spoke to the head of one of the IB groups at JPM and they said any degree is welcome.

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(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by icecreamcake
I'm not the person who you quoted but I've heard this too. Of course you occasionally get people who did French or something unrelated who get into banks, but when I was speaking to someone from JPMorgan at a networking event, they told me that economics is viewed as being academically rigourous whereas accounting and finance wasn't well respected in comparison (they actually laughed at it and said who actually does an accounting and finance degree in a condescending way...). Though I do think that graduating from for example LSE with A&F looks better than an econ degree from Leeds or somewhere non-target.

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on efinancial careers it saids A&F is the most popular degree among investment bankers then economics (not sure how recent it is). So they mst be doing something right
Original post by Princepieman
What if I told you, I know a Music grad starting a graduate scheme at Towers Watson?*


I'm sure most of his colleagues will have done something with maths though and people with maths will probably generally have better chances?
Original post by Princepieman
Oh ffs, that's just typical banker snootiness - doesn't actually translate to how A&F is perceived in the recruiting process.

Conversely, I spoke to the head of one of the IB groups at JPM and they said any degree is welcome.

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any degree is welcome but there are preferred degrees?
Original post by RomeoSantos
any degree is welcome but there are preferred degrees?


For some (highly quant and/or technical) roles, yes, for most no. Everyone is taught at the beginning of either their internship or grad programme what they need for the job, and the rest is on the job learning. Yeah, maybe A&F degrees leave you better prepped, but they're not favoured over any other degree.

Likewise, there is no inherent advantage gained from doing Econ or Maths, apart from maybe being in a class of likeminded people (given you are at a target/semi-target) who will probably apply to the same things as you and the problem solving skill (true of any remotely analytical degree however) from the extra maths you do... But that's pretty much it. The rest is all about academic interests and what you personally find interesting to learn.

So, I will repeat, study what you want to study at the best uni you can get into however focus your mind on doing things that actually matter like: getting involved outside of uni work, gaining some legitimate leadership skills, developing your CV, keeping up your uni grades..

It's just a tad annoying when people come on here and ask about 'favoured' or 'not favoured' degrees so they can outsource their personal decision making based on biased info (e.g. the two people who pushed Econ are both going to be studying Econ at UCL). Would rather people made the decision of what to spend the next 3-4 years studying on other factors.

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Reply 53
Original post by Dervo
Thanks for all the replies.

Just wanted to add, I missed out on the A in maths by a couples marks due to my C2 exam, and I'm hesitant about resitting it this year in case that's seen as a negative by universities - however, if I don't retake it, I cant quite see myself getting an A overall, thoughts?


Just retake it. Most unis don't have any qualms about resitting modules.
Original post by Princepieman
For some (highly quant and/or technical) roles, yes, for most no. Everyone is taught at the beginning of either their internship or grad programme what they need for the job, and the rest is on the job learning. Yeah, maybe A&F degrees leave you better prepped, but they're not favoured over any other degree.

Likewise, there is no inherent advantage gained from doing Econ or Maths, apart from maybe being in a class of likeminded people (given you are at a target/semi-target) who will probably apply to the same things as you and the problem solving skill (true of any remotely analytical degree however) from the extra maths you do... But that's pretty much it. The rest is all about academic interests and what you personally find interesting to learn.

So, I will repeat, study what you want to study at the best uni you can get into however focus your mind on doing things that actually matter like: getting involved outside of uni work, gaining some legitimate leadership skills, developing your CV, keeping up your uni grades..

It's just a tad annoying when people come on here and ask about 'favoured' or 'not favoured' degrees so they can outsource their personal decision making based on biased info (e.g. the two people who pushed Econ are both going to be studying Econ at UCL). Would rather people made the decision of what to spend the next 3-4 years studying on other factors.

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ok I understand. But when I search accounting and finance jobs on google nearly all of them (the decent ones) say on the requirements : degree from an accredited university in Business Administration, Finance and Accounting, Economics, or related major.
Don't understand all the hate on princepieman, he's provided very good answers for the past year on IB and has helped many understand more about a career in finance.

Some of you are saying he's being negative and so but he's taking the time out to help you. What's immature is dissing him on a personal level.
Almost every degree does not have a practical element to it (apart from A&F, pure finance), especially economics which is a complete waste of time if you want to get into investment banking. Its laughable when people who do Economics have the sentiment that their econometrics ability will be praised upon in the bank. But what they do not realise is that being able to quickly utilise MS Excel is much more preffered than being able to regurgitate the black-scholes model. A business management grad from a target, with an understanding of excel >>>> semi-target economics,mathematics.

Do a relatively easy degree from a taget, and use the spare time you have to learn something that can actually be utilised in what you're going to do in the next 3-4 years.
Original post by RomeoSantos
ok I understand. But when I search accounting and finance jobs on google nearly all of them (the decent ones) say on the requirements : degree from an accredited university in Business Administration, Finance and Accounting, Economics, or related major.


Yah, the US tends to be more closed off than here, even then people have applied to jobs with those requirements before with other degrees and have still landed the jobs.

But look at the big finance grad schemes and accounting firms here, you'll see that they don't require anything in particular.


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Original post by Princepieman
Yah, the US tends to be more closed off than here, even then people have applied to jobs with those requirements before with other degrees and have still landed the jobs.

But look at the big finance grad schemes and accounting firms here, you'll see that they don't require anything in particular.


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I'm in the UK and was talking about UK.
Original post by RomeoSantos
I'm in the UK and was talking about UK.


'Related majors'

Post a link?

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