School of Oriental and African Studies

London

Career Prospects?

Hey everyone. This is really a question for people currently at SOAS, although input from anyone would be greatly appreciated. I'm wondering what kinds of job offers graduates get coming out of SOAS, especially with a combined Economics and language degree. Specifically for me it would be Economics and Arabic. Do a lot of SOAS graduates (regardless of their degree) go into business, banking or consultancy? My current thoughts are that with an Economics and Arabic degree, assuming one performs highly and has had appropriate work experience in London whilst studying towards the degree, one might be fairly heavily recruited by Western companies for Middle East-related work. What are people's thoughts? Is economics at SOAS respected enough in business circles for active recruitment?

Reply 1

JakeR

Thank you for asking this! :biggrin:

(Consider it my question also :biggrin:

haha)

School of Oriental and African Studies

London

Reply 2

bryan

Most SOAS graduates I know, workings for NGOs or join the Civil Service (FCO).

Reply 3

Exoskeletal

^^^ that's good news.

Reply 4

troot

That's a good thing no doubt, but not really good news for me. I think that's what I want to do ultimately, but not right after graduation.

Reply 5

JakeR

Do a lot(or, some...or any) SOAS graduates(with an undergrad degree) go into working at multinational corporations too?

Reply 6

uthinkilltellu

its about 70% of grads go into their 'degree' jobs (economics -> economist in a bank) so its not bad the career prospects are very good especially if you are thinking of working abroad because soas's reputation is very good.

Reply 7

lorrybeep

uthinkilltellu

lol

really

Reply 8

uthinkilltellu

yeah. especialy in asia africa. hence the name :wink:

Reply 9

Magnus.

is the economics-reputation really so good though? ive applied for chinese and economics, partly because macro-economics (development, policy, etc) is what interests me the most, and because i think a regional specialization is a very useful addition to knowledge of economic theory. in these aspects of economics, i think soas is up there with the joneses.

but then ive read threads under "Economics" here in the student room (browsing through subjects rather than unis) where most posters seem to doubt the reputation of soas, and so i wonder if soas is any good for getting "degree-jobs" (in economics)... its not that im reputation-obsessed or that i even aspire to be a hardcore economist in a typical degree-job like investment banking or anything, but surely a good economics reputation does count for a lot.

soas's rating is high on the guardian chart, but pretty low in the times...
the best way to know more would be to email a graduate or current student in "my" program (the same for you troot) i guess, but i dont really want to do that until i have an offer.... and ucas track still says seeeent....

Reply 10

Eien

^The rankings are different because the criteria can be very different, and I would imagine SOAS would differ more than most because of its specialist status, i.e. No scores for maths, english, sciences, etc because it doesn't teach them. I still have no reply...not sure if I'll go there yet... For the guardian, it's career prospects rating for Asian and Oriental studies was the same as Oxford - 8, with only cambridge being higher at 9, but then again, it is a highly subjective matter beyond a scale of 1-10..

Reply 11

nb86

Magnus.

but then ive read threads under "Economics" here in the student room (browsing through subjects rather than unis) where most posters seem to doubt the reputation of soas, and so i wonder if soas is any good for getting "degree-jobs" (in economics)... its not that im reputation-obsessed or that i even aspire to be a hardcore economist in a typical degree-job like investment banking or anything, but surely a good economics reputation does count for a lot.

If you are interested in development economics, SOAS is a great place. The course is different from most other L100 courses as there is not that much mathematics (basic stat/calc first year and econometrics in the 2nd year is all you get to do) and the focus is more on political economy and case studies in Africa/Asia. If you're just interested in ibank/finance SOAS is probably not the best place. However, everyone I know who is interested in development economics really enjoys the course and if you intend to work in that field, I'm sure SOAS' reputation is more than sufficient as it is one of the leading departments in that subject.

Reply 12

uthinkilltellu

mmm. but its 'economics' side isn't that strong. its better at development studies than economics....but its reputation is really good, and any degree from SOAS is a good degree to have

Reply 13

nb86

As I said before, the economics department at soas focuses on development economics which is a branch of economics. Not sure what you base your opinion on, but I wouldn’t call the department weak just because it doesn’t cover the broad spectrum covered at other universities or more popular branches of the subject. It is a specialized institution and this is reflected in all of its departments. Also, development studies combines many subjects including economics and students are required to take courses from the economics department.

Reply 14

Socrates

JakeR

Do a lot(or, some...or any) SOAS graduates(with an undergrad degree) go into working at multinational corporations too?

Depends how good you are.

Reply 15

uthinkilltellu

could i woo them with my legendary trombone playing???

Reply 16

Magnus.

nikibary

well thats all im looking for, really.

Reply 17

ÁňûβİŚ

its reputation is high...coz it works for the development of Asia/Africa as the name suggests..hence its got high ratings in Times/Guardian along with other UoL colleges...
But hey, i dont recommend (neither does ppl in UK and London) SOAS for I.Banking or Fin Analysis jobs...more of NGO kinda job or maybe the UN....

I ruled out SOAS and opted a lesser rated college (QMUL) but still good for I.Banking..(not comparing wid LSE or UCL)