Hello everyone, I’ve been reading this forum for a while, ever since i found out about the CFA. Anyways, since all of you are or trying to become a “masters of the universe,” I’m hoping some veterans could give me some solid advice/commentary. I’m making a long term plan to try to break into analytics either in a bank or a research group/company. I come from a rather unorthodox background, I don’t have the solid Buisness degree, I have a degree in Economics and another one in Mathematics. I was originally planning to get into grad school, but I really burned out my last year and my major GPAs look something like Econ 3.4 and Math 2.7, with my culm around 2.7 - 2.8. Unfortunatly I had already wasted my money on the entrance exams and I did well, I have a 1500 on the GRE and 900 on the Math subject test. Anyways, these are worthless to me now since my GPA is so poor and I don’t have any money anyways. In any event, I originally wanted to get a phd to be a buisness economist. I’ve since put that as a potential long term goal. Right now I’m trying to just break into anything remotely relevent to analytics (either economics of financial). However I’m finding it’s next to impossible to find any positions (at least the way I’m doing it) by merely applying online. It’s been about 1 1/2 years since I graduated. I’ve started my job search a few weeks ago and am sending out apps 10 a day now. Does anyone have any advice at what type of positions I should be aiming at if my goal is to eventually become a quantaitve analyst or a buisness economist (in the long term)? I’ve have enough money saved for the CFA, but should I even invest this money in this or would it be worthless? Since I was originally planning to go from undegrad to grad without discontunity I have no actual experience, I’m trying to get some right now, but most if not all internships require you to be in school half time, at the least. It just feels like I really don’t have much options except look for some small masters program and try to get a masters degree to ameilorate my GPA. I’d love to get experience, unfortunatly, getting experience is something like a catch-22 in my case. I’m hoping anyone who knows the ropes would know if there is some ancillary industry related to financials and economic analytics (not exactly banks) that I may have a shot with admissions. I feel like i’m in a pretty deep hole here, so any light on a potential strategy would be much appreciated. Thanks again. Also, anyone knows of any Masters of Finance (quant or otherwise) programs that I could attempt to apply too? Thanks again.
yeah, with the job market so bad, and the fact that you have no masters yet, Id go to grad school.
^^^ Two issues is money and my GPA. Although my testing scores are good, I’ve been told my GPA undercuts the test scores, and they won’t even look at the app. Well this is with respect to PhDs anyways. Im a realist, and I think i have really no shot at any decnet masters at math. I’m thinking masters in quant finance also is unrealistic… but who knows. I’m hoping someone here can provide the key real-life insight. My only real chance is a masters in economics, but my friend toldme that economics masters may not be very advantageous into getting decent analytic jobs (he said MBA, more quant masters like Masters in Quant Finance and/or Math would be a sounder investment). In terms of money, I do have some moeny saved for the CFA, that could be allocated to masters, but then that’d only be 1 year max… i need at least 2 years. I’m trying to chart a plan to address these two issues, but I really hope to get some input from real-life people, who know the jungle and know which ropes are attached to strong tree branches and which are just attached to twigs. But yeah Daj224, I think if I had a clearer path to grad, it’d would certainly be the soundest option.