Was just wondering if you guys think a psychology degree would have any benefit in the field of private banking?
Even if its not that relevant, I do think there might be some material that would help in being able to understand investors’ mentality. In any case, I was thinking of taking up this degree for fun as I’m really getting disillusioned with my work and want to do something new.
Liberal Arts degrees get shit on alot on this board but for a role like private banking it could be a strength to have that background not because of anything specific you would learn but because those types of degrees help you realize that the world isn’t black and white so you need to apply critical thinking. Also you’ll be head and shouldiers above most people in your communication and interpersonal skills which is absolutely critical in private banking jobs because all the technical work gets farmed out.
Actually this brings up a good point, if in the course of your degree you are able to take courses in basic counsleling or interview trchniques, particularly using rogerian counselling methods. That would be a fantastic resource to draw upon in client discover as it will allow you to uncover unapolen needs/motivations and also establish deeper trust and client relationships. This all helps the bottom line because you 1 increase client enmeshment 2 increase cross referrals and share of clients wallet 3 reduce client turnover.
Personally, i find psychology fascinating, however unfortunately I did my UG in sociOlogy and economics.
I hope you can understand what i wrote, i was typing on my phone.
Wasn’t expecting a reply in favor of this idea, wow. Yeah I’ve got a BA and MSc in Accounting / Finance, some experience with the Big 4, and two parts of the CFA done. Feel like I need a break from it all.
I wanna do the psychology degree primarily out of personal interest - the big challenge being getting back into the world of work, and specifically the investment industry. But at the moment, not really caring - gonna try something new and go with the flow. I might kick myself later for foregoing the income (which will soon be raised) and extra experience … but that’s life haha 
It looks like a fun degree and I’ve been putting things like this off for a while now. Might actually do it.
English major can work for ER but I’ve never heard a psych major in private banking. The perception of your clients is very important.
Cognitive psychology is probably the most useful: you’ll get training in statistical methods and experimental construction.
Most financial types won’t automatically see the applicability right away, so you should spend time honing your argument [as to applicability to finance/wealth management] and perhaps do as much work as possible on behavioral finance type topics as you progress through the degree.
At the undergraduate level, you’ll still get a broad swath of psychological approaches, so that’s fine, just make sure that you have some kind of research/term paper/etc along the way that you can point to/use in cover letters and interviews to show how you can apply or have applied psychology to finance.
Rememger also that psychology is one of the most common majors on the planet. That’s partly because college-aged people are still working out a lot of adolescent-to-adult issues and it is a major that is attractive for helping sort that stuff out. It’s interesting stuff, but you’re going to want to make sure you have some kind of differentiating or specializing factor for afterwards.
Have you thought about studying behavioral economics?
I’m not sure how the industry as a whole would look at it but, if you want to be a private banker, I think a psychology degree brings very useful skills. All else equal, I’d hire you.
Behavioral Finance and all that stuff is great, but it still mostly about how people want to invest/deal with money. If you get really good at understanding people (which I guess overall psychology is mostly about) you’ll have an easier time communicatng with them and adapting to their emotional responses - I think you can go beyond conventional behavioral finance (btw don’t call behavioral finance “conventional” - some people don’t like that)
For a lot of clients it will be more about how you make them feel than how well you perform, especially considering that your performance will often be mainly a reflection on what top buy side people at the bank are recommending.
In your shoes I would be hesitant to return to UG as the opportunity cost is quite high and the incremental benefit at this pont of your career is dubious at best. I think you would be best served by engaging in some deep introspection to see if acareer in finance is really what you want. I understand the hatred of accounting as I went back to UG to conplete an acconting major while writing the first two levels and then worked as an accountant for a few years. I was absolutely miserable and even considered a career as an alcohol
and drug counsellor because I volunteer as an outreach worker. However ultimately I determined that a sales role in a brokerage is where I wanted to be and I am very satisfied with the decision I made.
Sometimes it takes life experience and alot of pain and hardship for us to figure out what we want to do with our lives. Id recommend taking some basic counselling and psychology courses to test the water before you jump right in. You don’t want to become blindly focused on something that ultimately is not going to be a good fit and trust me the type of people who write the CFA exams are exactly the type of people that are most likely to be pathologically focused.
I have a pyschology UG degree and really enjoyed the study. I have worked in wealth management and the degree certainly didn’t open any doors, but wasn’t a stumbling block with clients either. Especially if you finish the CFA, you will have plenty of credentials for private banking with the charter, Big 4 experience ,and your UG.
I think private banking and finance in general will be wide open to you if you return one day so why not go for it? That being said, taking an online class or a physical class nearby to test the waters before diving in definitely wouldn’t be a bad idea.
Thanks for the help guys. I have also considered doing an MBA full time instead of the Psychology degree. This way I can take a break from work and still do something relevant to business / finance. A few things I’d like people to comment on:
I understand an MBA is only as good as the name of the school. The schools I am looking at have alot of national prestige (top ranked) and are regionally renowned … however on a global scale, people will think they are average. As I have more or less decided SEA is where I wanna be, I think the national / regional reputation is good enough for me. The fees are significantly less as well.
I already have a BA in Accountancy / Management and the curriculum of the MBA looks very similar. Is it wise to go for an MBA when you’ve already studied a business degree? I guess the MBA has a different focus which is networking and developing people with practical experience into managers. So it seems there are other intangible benefits in addition to the knowledge gained (which would be a review for me).
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Hey why not?! as a matter I know a very succesfull individual at Carlyle who graduated in Mediaval History. I am one of those who think that graduating majors does not really matter to become a businessman (as long as we agree that finance is a businessman occupation). I actually think that having cultur is IMPORTANT, and I categorize psycholgy as culture: the culture of knowing our peer’s behavior sgnificance. In fact, the better you know who you deal with, the better you can deal with. So as long you can sell your ideas better, or with a better articulation , or understand better who you are dealing with… well you are on top of your game, just don’t forget to become knowledgeable in what really matters: that is the the numbers (among other things)!