Have any unrelated (to finance / accounting) degrees or skills?

CFA General
#1

Do you have any unrelated (to finance / accounting) degrees or skills? i.e. Art degree —> now a CFA

#2

i have a b.s in b.s. :wink: we actually pull a lot of psych/econ and liberal arts kids into the analyst program. i believe michael lewis was art history…

#3

michael lewis also was very 1983

#4

Economics for me

#5

Mathematics all the way

#6

Linguistics and literature univ.degree, classical piano skills. I was quite good at math at high school, now all forgotten

#7

What is a non-finance skill? If I have advanced programming skills, do those count as finance skills if I use them in my banking job? Likewise with math, economics, or any other non-useless academic material.

#8

Yep, like math is now quite related to finance. And in 83 I think it was high school certificate which was enough for finance

#9

physics undergrad. lots of liberal arts colleges dont even have business/finance/accounting classes or majors at all, my didnt

#10

.

#11

I consider econ and math to be related. I use the majors typically requested in job listings as a benchmark for finance / accounting. True dat to Mobius. Most liberal arts colleges don’t offer finance /accting majors. Mine didn’t.

#12

You could argue that any skill is a finance skill - “finance” is so multidisciplinary that there is a use for almost any sort of talent. Art history, for instance, teaches you to BS credibly about things that mean nothing to most people. This is like 80% of finance.

#13

^LOL I like your analogy.

#14

mar350 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > i believe michael lewis was art history… If I recall correctly from Liar’s Poker, he was resoundingly rejected by finance firms straight out of undergrad (Princeton). He didn’t join Salomon until getting a Master’s from LSE.

#15

I would suggest majoring in Poker to get a job on the Street.

#16

ohai Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > You could argue that any skill is a finance skill > - “finance” is so multidisciplinary that there is > a use for almost any sort of talent. Art history, > for instance, teaches you to BS credibly about > things that mean nothing to most people. This is > like 80% of finance. Agree wholeheartedly on the multidisclipinary point. So much of a first-round interview at a BB is fit. You’re being judged holistically, based on many factors, of which “finance” is probably the easiest to teach.

#17

I have undergrad in international relations- also got a culinary degree when I went on sabbatical abroad. Went to Lib Arts- but there were plenty of finance/ math/ econ courses. Robert Day and Henry Kravis make sure of it.

#18

bioengineering here

#19

You know what? I will modify my statement and say that even the completely useless skills help you in finance because they make you more interesting during job applications. If you are an amateur panda breeder, I would choose to interview you over an otherwise equal candidate just because I want to hear about the pandas. Furthermore, other direct finance skills could have no practical use. In my BSD-ness I have used the dividend discount model zero times. So, it might in fact be more useful for me to have panda breeding skills than fundamental equity pricing skills.

#20

Does political science count?