I, a doctor candidate, major on organic chemistry, is trying to find a job in i-banking. the reason is simple, equal time, more money. however, most of the companies requires experiences in financial related fields, or the economics background. as to me, without both of the states above, how could i success in a sum of people inclduing the much more “professional” students from “department of economics” or other? i am now wondering whether should i take the cfa exam as the turning stone, or should i keep stay in this chemistry field? as to the health problem, i don’t like to go on doing chemistry jobs, though some of which offer much more money than other fields. in the other hand, they say, that i-banking and related one, such as accounting, or consulting, are also very busy and they might be more critical than oganic chemistry. that is why i am now confused. as a freshman, i would like to hear from you. i do know many of you are indeed from non-economics fields, and many of you have taken cfa as the storn to open the door to the investing banks, could you please tell me, what should i do? thank you so much! my email is “indol@126.com”
“equal time more money”??? Did you do any research on this? I-banker might make $200k a year but they work 100 hours a week. 
BTW, I-bankers don’t want CFAs. They want you to come from a top university and/or your daddy is well-heeled.
our state of academia is in shambles
If you are truly interested in becoming an i-banker be prepared to devote yourself to your career. You will be expected to pull long hours (100 a week, or so I hear.) I’m not sure where you plan on working as a Phd in organic chem and put in 100 hrs/week and receive 200k+. I would recommend pursuing a career that will complement you technical knowledge in sciences. Working at a Venture Capital firm may suit your interests and talents. As an entry point in one of these firms you will be doing due diligence, investigating probability of success (the science), building financial models and working with the partners to structure deals. Sure this sounds great, but getting in is very difficult. I have had a chance to meet quite a few VC analysts, associates and partners. Most have a combination of strong work experience in iBanking, entrepreneurship, research and development, with credentials such as MBA/Phd and a few had the CFA designation.
Frank, this guy’s clearly not a native English speaker.
Troll…this guy cant be serious. Just trying to get a rise outta everyone. If you are serious: #1 You dont know squat about the vast world of the financial markets and finance, so you cannot have a general interest in working in this field. #2 I dare say you seached your way through the internet to find a career that pays the most amount of money while being the most obtainable to a person that is 21 yrs old. #3 Why the hell would you come to a place called “ANALYSTforum” to ask about I-banking. The CFA and Ibanking do not go hand in hand. Check out wallstreetoasis.com but be warned that the ibanking analysts are going to be much tougher than I. #4 If I were in your shoes…and I felt as if I didnt want to be following the route I (you) are following…I might re-evaluate what is important in my life and what it is that I want to accomplish. If you have made it to the pt where you are a doctoral candidate in chem…I would like to think that you have a genuine interest in this field. You dont have to go work for Pfizer, Teva or any other pharma company…or other typical routes. You can take your knowledge and apply it to other fields. There are a large number of Pharma analysts who come from you background. But they have been in your field for a number of years before making the transition to this side of the fence. My advice to you: Become an expert in that in which you study…no matter what it is…and I can guarantee you that there will always be a place for you in this world (that world being…finance, capital mkts, investments, etc).
Reply to ymc ““equal time more money”??? Did you do any research on this? I-banker might make $200k a year but they work 100 hours a week. BTW, I-bankers don’t want CFAs. They want you to come from a top university and/or your daddy is well-heeled. :P” I have to admit that I do not have a comprehensive research on the subject, what I have seen and heard of is nothing but all about money…… I do know that I-bankers are very busy, however, as a scientist, 100 hours a week is not surprising. I have been doing my research from 8:00AM to 24:00PM day by day for 2 years! Reply to bartok “Sure this sounds great, but getting in is very difficult. I have had a chance to meet quite a few VC analysts, associates and partners. Most have a combination of strong work experience in iBanking, entrepreneurship, research and development, with credentials such as MBA/Phd and a few had the CFA designation.” As to be a doctor candidate, could I go to get a Master of Business Administration? I do not know whether I do have the courage to do that. However, thank you all the same! Reply to HoldSideAnalyst “Frank, this guy’s clearly not a native English speaker.” That is right. I am not a native English speaker and I do not live in English speaking countries. My English is a little poor and I hope I can clearly express what I want to say. Reply to jbisback THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR REPLY. To be honest, I am serious. But I do not know how and what to do, that is why I post here. #1 I used to work for a stockjobber for 5 years, however, this could not be involved in my resume in the future as to many complicated reasons. I used to handle thousands of dollars per day in stocks, and other paper. Departed from that job, I am now verdancy in the financial market; I do pay attention to the economic situation every time, as well as the business affairs. However, it seems to be totally new to me when confront with something complicated like butterfly warrant. You might not believe that I used to be one of the best in math in my hometown, but I have turned out to chemistry now. #2 I do have searched all the information from Internet. Frankly saying, I get to know I-banking several years ago, but I have never dreamed to be one of it at that time. I just wanted to have an equable job, far away from economics when i quit. I started to look for the I-banking last year and I got to know some excellent stories about those who have earned much money. Though being a freshman now, I still want to be in again. I do not know how much I could get, I just want to earn money. #3 I started to prepare CFA exam this summer and when I was looking for the CFA notes, I found this website. I do know that many of the guys in the forum are in capital market and I want to know whether a certification of CFA might be helpful to be an I-banker or related jobs. #4 I am very grateful for your advices. I do not know why I am still learning chemistry and working on it. It might not be interest, but diploma, I think. I just want that paper, the degree, I mean.
“As to be a doctor candidate, could I go to get a Master of Business Administration? I do not know whether I do have the courage to do that. However, thank you all the same!” Of course you can. However, work experience is required to get in top MBA programs. If you are not in top MBA programs, no I-bank will hire you. "I want to know whether a certification of CFA might be helpful to be an I-banker or related jobs. " The answer is NO. Now you can go somewhere else.
Ok. This is a post I found in another forum. It is a layman’s overview of what I-banking is about. It should be helpful if you can manage to land an I-banking interview. Good luck! -------------------------------- Investment banks (I-Banks) I-Banks do not take deposits or give out cash/money, they are theoretically not a “bank” per se. Have you ever seen a GS or a MS branch office around the corner taking cash deposits? The cash handling part of Jumping Moron or S"h"itty is actually independent to their investment banking business. The term investment banking broadly speaking refers to the business of banking “investments”. Imaging walking into some retail bank round the corner of your street with some share certificates and ask the bank teller to deposit them… (I wonder what he/she would say!!) Retail/Commercial banks are not allowed to do this - hence the existence of investment banks (ibanks). Investments that you can bank on with an ibank usually refer to shares (both public and private companies), bonds, debentures, options, warrants etc… basically any kind of investments that is not handled by the retail bank, big enough to create complexity or liquidity problems to cash in/out, an investment bank can help you with (with the exception of pure play real estate properties which you will get a real estate agent to help you with). A) Investment Banking / Corporate Finance (IBD) 1) Equity Capital Markets (ECM) A good way to explain what investment banking actually does is to start with ECM. We all know that ibanks deal with investments or securities now. Now consider: If you have enough shares in an unlisted company, i.e. it’s YOUR company, then you can actually “bank” the entire company too. It’s kind of like depositing your company with the bank and getting cash out, although technically this is NOT exactly true, but it’s a good way to think about it. This process is extremely popular in recent years and is known as an IPO. Banking a company, or any other non-monetary assets can be an extremely complex process. I mean, when you deposit $100 dollars into the bank, the bank will just increase your account balance by $100. But if you deposit 30% of your company that makes $100 million a year in revenue, and that revenue is growing by 25% each year, then how much should the bank give you? Investment bankers can help you out with that. The division that handles this is referred to as ECM within the Corporate Finance division, also known as Investment Banking Division or IBD. 2) Merger and Acquisition (M&A) Another big group in IBD is Merger and Acquisition (M&A), these are the bankers that deal with takeovers (acquisition) or mergers of companies. Imagine you own 45% of a $100 billion dollar company, and one day someone comes alone and say, I want to TAKEOVER YOUR company, I want to take control of it and I want to run it, sell it to me. Often the owner might be very happy to sell if the price is right, sometimes they are not if it’s part of their family business. M&A bankers are experts in this area, they know all the process, legal issues for takeover/merger, and they can work out how much to pay and where to find the money to pay for these acquisitions. Sometimes, they can actually buy a company even if the owners don’t want to sell!! This is called “Hostile Takeovers” - very exciting stuff! B) Sales and Trading (S&T) Image, if you “only” have 1,000 shares in HSBC, and you want to cash out of it, the sales and trading department can help you turn that 1,000 shares into cash by either: 1) buying some of those shares with the bank’s own money; or 2) finding some other investor(s) who wants to buy shares in HSBC, it might be 10 investors buying 100 each or 1 investor buying the whole of 1,000 Now image, if you have 1,000,000,000 shares in HSBC, and you want to cash out … I will leave it to your imagination. Now the issue is, what price should those shares be traded at? This is based on supply and demand of the shares. There are a ZILLION things that can change supply and demand of an investment and I will not get into that topic here. The divisions that handle this is referred to as Sales and Trading, also known as S&T. There are usually 4 separate S&T departments that handle each of the following products separately - 1) Equity - shares 2) Fixed Income securities - debt, bonds, currency, 3) Derivates - options, warrants 4) Hybrid - combination of anything above (this is usually part of Fixed Income) C) Research Division These are the people that literally do the research for the industry groups or shares that they cover. There are research people in both Equity and Fixed Income division. They are known as Research Analyst. Research analysts are (usually) people who know their industry groups VERY WELL. They have usually worked in their own industry groups before and understand the background, dynamics and economics of those industries very well -to an extent that they can actually analyse and comment on what the outlook of the industry is like, how a company is doing, and what its share price should be trading at etc. CFA I think helps when you are in research. General Comments IBD works with private side information that is not released into the public domain. S&T and Research uses only public side information. The above information is only based on my best personal knowledge about what an investment bank does and I do not accept any responsibility for the use of above information. I shall not be liable for any direct or indirect loss or damages suffered by any person as a result of relying on any statements from above. So don’t blame me if your interviewer doesn’t like your answer of how an investment bank works. I welcome any comments if any part of the above information seems misleading or does not correctly reflect reality.
Forgetting that the CFA will not get you into IBanking will Only result in disappointment in the end. You get One chance in life so why not make good use of it and stop Lusting after money but instead enjoy life?
the thing i don’t understand is this, if you did a PHD in chemistry, why not continue that road? you’re within a few years of publishing something relevant so you should take advantage of that.
Because we all think the grass elsewhere is always greener? Isn’t that human nature? 
what is greener about ibanking if you’re already an academic? ibanking deals with trivial matters of day to day life while academics engage in intellectual adventures.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$…for equal amounts of work…
$$$$$ does not equal job satisfaction and achievement.