Can I go into banking with my BA Politics and Economics?

BA Econ was my only option because I didn't do A-Level maths and I'm thinking of pursuing a career in banking, but I know I will be sidelined in favour of the Finance majors, but I still want to know if I have a chance

Reply 1

BenRyan99

Careers Forum Helper

Original post by Nice_100

The vast majority of banking internships/graduate schemes have zero preference over what subject you study, let alone a preference over economics vs finance. The quality of the university you attend is far more important.

Reply 2

Nice_100

Original post by BenRyan99

I got A*AA for my A-Levels but got rejected from an RG UNI (KCL), which is how I ended up at SOAS. Do you think SOAS is fairly reputable? It's not an RG, but during my A-Levels, it was everyone's backup if they did not end up in an RG UNI, and there was this perception that SOAS was just 'slightly below' an RG. Do you know anything about SOAS?

Reply 3

BenRyan99

Careers Forum Helper

Original post by Nice_100

Whether a university is in the RG has literally no impact on the prospects of one to get into banking. Banks hire a large proportion of their graduate intakes from a fairly small crop of universities, but this isn't dependent on whether a university is in the RG or not. You've got to remember that the RG is about the research focus of universities, so naturally this has little impact on the hiring of undergrad students. Whether SOAS was the backup uni for students you were at school with also has little baring on the propensity at which the uni propels students into banking role, and I'm guessing it's popularity amongst your former classmates is largely a symptom of going to school in London? In my experience, SOAS graduates are far more likely to protest outside a bank than to work for one 😅

But more seriously, there are plenty of unis with A*AA requirements (i.e. what you got) that would provide a much higher chance of helping you get a desirable job in finance. The problem is that there's a massive grade premium from London unis, but there's plenty outside of London that ask for lower grades that are generally much better for entering the financial sector. Examples would be places like Bath, Bristol, Durham, Nottingham, etc.

However, ultimately you're at SOAS now so there's no point discussing how the past could've been different. I think the point to focus on now is that while SOAS isn't really targeted in the financial sector, at least the university is based in London which does offer benefits. It means that you can attend more insight days and networking events, it also makes attending interviews/assessment centres much easier. It's slightly late now, but if you're a first year then I would be looking at Spring week internships with banks, as well as trying to get a more informal summer internship for the end of your first year.