I’m an F-22 pilot separating from the Air Force soon and trying to break in to finance as an entry level ER analyst or along those lines. For any analysts/managers/etc in Phoenix who are interested in aviation, I’ll be flying a couple Raptors to the Luke AFB airshow this weekend and will gladly trade a look at the plane to talk business and commiserate over the CFA exams. Just shoot me an email: thalerr16@hotmail.com. Cheers- Ray
If you have a great Air Force track record then go to business school. I work with an ex-navy seal that went to Wharton.
Yeah definitely go to a good, I repeat good, b school, that’s a sure fire way into the industry. Wharton > HBS > Kellogg > CFA > UofPheonix
You are way better at networking than EVERYONE IN THE WORLD. Good luck guy.
Better position to enter finance than 99% of this board. Good luck brah
The original post should be made a sticky. Hired!
You probably still need good test scores to get into a good business school.
Agree with the majority here. Top tier B School. Spending your effort on good GMAT, great essays and talking to people at these schools will be a better way to start than just signing up for CFA. Top schools dig people with background like yours.
I don’t live near Phoenix, otherwise I possibly would have taken up the offer. Funny, I actually know an older guy (met him when I was starting out) who was a PM and used to fly fighters. He told me his pilot experience acclimated him to the rises and dips of the stock market.
Danny Boy Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > If you have a great Air Force track record then go > to business school. I work with an ex-navy seal > that went to Wharton. ohai Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > You probably still need good test scores to get > into a good business school. ^ I’m sure if he’s flying F22’s to public air shows he’s got a stellar track record and test scores. Wish I could take you up on the offer man. Drop another line on here if you’re ever on the east coast.
You have an interesting background, so that is a leg up. As many have said, if you score well on the gmat and made decent grades you would be appealing to top notch b schools. I assume you are fairly sharp since those planes cost hundreds of millions to build and require a ton of math and engineering skills. When you write essays concentrate on how your experience has taught you to be a leader and have poise under pressure. That said, I think taking the CFA would help show an interest in finance since it is not in your background. I would expect you to get some “how do you know finance is for you” type questions and saying you are in the CFA program and enjoying the material would stop that question dead. Good luck and thanks for your service.
HappyGilmore Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > Good luck and thanks for your service. +100
Good stuff man. Props for your service. As others have pointed out, a top MBA would be a better choice than the CFA. After the MBA, if you have even a half-decent written resume, you can bet that would go to the top of the pile.
Wharton has a strong background of picking up military officers so you could look at them, but really you should be looking at any of the top tier’s that interest you. Just to be clear, we’re all talking full time MBA, they’re given much more prestige within the industry and will give you better career and placement ops if you can afford the time off the work force.
military has shown well on ‘The Apprentice,’ too the cfa curriculum is a great source to guage your interest in the material as many colleges base their’s off of it. it should even help you to determine a specialization if you so desire. best of luck
If this is legit, you got a good chance. They don’t let just anyone fly the F22’s
About that. Do you have to qualify for the F-22 specifically, or is anyone eligible to fly fighters eligible to fly the F-22?
Ray brings a good lesson for those wondering how networking works: - have a good attitude - bring something interesting to the table–anything, even ability to listen works if you can’t fly F22s. And avoid: - talking about how passionate you’re about Finance. - mentioning your superhuman intelligence
I’m sorry, but how does a fighter pilot become a better financial candidate for a career in finance over say an engineer or finance graduate (I know it wasn’t specifically mentioned)? I do wish you well my friend but the deferrence on this subject is a tad overbought in my opinion.
I suspect military training can be good for trading and risk management type roles. Keeping control over your emotions, or, specifically, making sure that you can continue to act rationally and on mission during times of high stress is likely to be extremely useful in things like prop trading, portfolio management, and risk management. The key is to make sure that confidence and rationality doesn’t turn into overconfidence. So military training is often very good for investment styles that require disciplined application of a strategy (which is most styles). Flying an F-22 doesn’t help with this issue specifically, but military types are often good for giving presentations. I personally tend to find the military style a bit dry, but in institutional investment environments, many people like that matter-of-fact call-a-spade-a-spade style, and there is definitely something to be said for that.