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Career advice - 2nd BSc or MSc Economics - HELP from Italy

Hey there,
I'm an Italian student in the middle of a crisis. So my situation is the following:

I'm graduating in BA languages (eng-ch-jp) with maximum overall score. I was so interested in the subject that I decided to get this bachelor's. But after taking a course in Economics I literally fell in love with it and now I feel like I've wasted all this time. I know, I should have taken a foundation year or something like that, but hey, Italians are stubborn *******s! So now I'm feeling like I won't get a second chance.

I actually have to wait until July (jp and ch exams can only be done in that month) to get my degree, but I've done almost all exams in 2 years. Since I have a lot of free time, I decided to take extra-curricular courses in maths and economics and I'm loving it. So far they're going well.

I'd like to build my future in another country, since job prospects in Italy suck so hard... After graduation I'll be able to enroll in MSc economics/finance programs here in Italy (in English). Rankings don't really matter here, so there's not a "top tier school", or maybe just Bocconi. I could also enroll in BSc econ in Oxbridge or LSE, but this means I'll have to start from scratch again.

What should I do? Is a MSc in a completely different field valuable in the job market, or will it raise questions and mark me as an overreacher? Will I be too old for employers if I finish my studies at 25? I feel so confused and behind...
I could also just learn a job and then invest in a MSc or MBA from a top tier school in the future. I need opinions...

Tl;dr humanities student from Italy falls in love with finance at 21, wants to emigrate and doesn't know what to do. Asks for opinions in a British forum.

Thank you in advance.

P. S. I've had part-time jobs over these 3 years, so it's not like I've just studied chinese linguistics. I currently teach maths to high schoolers (we call it "ripetizioni", not sure about the English translation).
(edited 5 years ago)
Reply 1
Original post by Feprex
Hey there,
I'm an Italian student in the middle of a crisis. So my situation is the following:

I'm graduating in BA languages (eng-ch-jp) with maximum overall score. I was so interested in the subject that I decided to get this bachelor's. But after taking a course in Economics I literally fell in love with it and now I feel like I've wasted all this time. I know, I should have taken a foundation year or something like that, but hey, Italians are stubborn *******s! So now I'm feeling like I won't get a second chance.

I actually have to wait until July (jp and ch exams can only be done in that month) to get my degree, but I've done almost all exams in 2 years. Since I have a lot of free time, I decided to take extra-curricular courses in maths and economics and I'm loving it. So far they're going well.

I'd like to build my future in another country, since job prospects in Italy suck so hard... After graduation I'll be able to enroll in MSc economics/finance programs here in Italy (in English). Rankings don't really matter here, so there's not a "top tier school", or maybe just Bocconi. I could also enroll in BSc econ in Oxbridge or LSE, but this means I'll have to start from scratch again.

What should I do? Is a MSc in a completely different field valuable in the job market, or will it raise questions and mark me as an overreacher? Will I be too old for employers if I finish my studies at 25? I feel so confused and behind...
I could also just learn a job and then invest in a MSc or MBA from a top tier school in the future. I need opinions...

Tl;dr humanities student from Italy falls in love with finance at 21, wants to emigrate and doesn't know what to do. Asks for opinions in a British forum.

Thank you in advance.

P. S. I've had part-time jobs over these 3 years, so it's not like I've just studied chinese linguistics. I currently teach maths to high schoolers (we call it "ripetizioni", not sure about the English translation).

Would you be qualified to get onto an MSc course in Economics? I thought they did a graduate conversion course for a year an then onto the masters - but that most had numerate degrees for this such as maths or physics.
Reply 2
Original post by ajj2000
Would you be qualified to get onto an MSc course in Economics? I thought they did a graduate conversion course for a year an then onto the masters - but that most had numerate degrees for this such as maths or physics.

Yeah I forgot to write some important stuff.
The school system here is a bit different. Masters' last 2 years and students from every faculty can be admitted if they have enough credits (usually from 30 to 80) in key subjects like econ/maths/stats etc. Of course you also need good grades. Here are some examples:

http://www.facoltaspes.unimi.it/CorsiDiLaurea/2019/B73of1/index_ITA_HTML.html
http://www.masters-economics.unito.it/do/home.pl
https://www.uniss.it/ugov/degree/6070
https://international.unitn.it/mec

I guess your conversion happens between your undergrad credits and your 2-year postgrad.
Also, fees are not a problem. It's very cheap here.
Reply 3
Original post by Feprex
Yeah I forgot to write some important stuff.
The school system here is a bit different. Masters' last 2 years and students from every faculty can be admitted if they have enough credits (usually from 30 to 80) in key subjects like econ/maths/stats etc. Of course you also need good grades. Here are some examples:

http://www.facoltaspes.unimi.it/CorsiDiLaurea/2019/B73of1/index_ITA_HTML.html
http://www.masters-economics.unito.it/do/home.pl
https://www.uniss.it/ugov/degree/6070
https://international.unitn.it/mec

I guess your conversion happens between your undergrad credits and your 2-year postgrad.
Also, fees are not a problem. It's very cheap here.

Ah, I see - sorry, I thought you were looking for an MSc in England. Sounds like a great plan! You'll have a huge skills base. Perhaps look through the careers section on this site and try posting on some of the threads in the IB section? I've known a couple of people who studied Japanese at university who got into finance sector jobs pretty easily with Japanese banks and seem to have really done well.
Reply 4
Original post by ajj2000
Ah, I see - sorry, I thought you were looking for an MSc in England. Sounds like a great plan! You'll have a huge skills base. Perhaps look through the careers section on this site and try posting on some of the threads in the IB section? I've known a couple of people who studied Japanese at university who got into finance sector jobs pretty easily with Japanese banks and seem to have really done well.

Thank you for the advice, I'll check them out :smile:

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