Hi! I’m a second year university student who really wants to be a “giant professional” in the banking and financial sector. Currently, I’m pursuing an under graduate degree in Bachelor of Commerce. In fact, I’m torn apart in settling on whether to undertake a second degree in Economics or Finance in the near future, as part of my career planning. I’m humbly requesting for your expert advice. More so, I’ll be pleased if I can be linked to a “big time” professional in my chosen field.
Yours sincerely,
Wisdom
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Wisdom,
Your choice of major is only one factor you will want to consider as you begin to map out your career strategy to be a “giant professional” in finance.
While academics can certainly help you gain a greater understanding of financial markets, it’s also important to learn how to apply the relevant skills necessary for success in this field. Your Projo doesn’t tell us much about you (which I’m sure is high on your priority list to complete), but one way of looking at the difference between studying Economics and Finance is whether you prefer to understand the history behind economic cycles or basically how money works.
Ultimately, your success as a candidate will depend on how well you market the relevant skills you developed through your work and school-related experience, so make academic and extracurricular choices that provide opportunities to expose you to the kind of work people do in the field.
Join a finance-related club, become treasurer of a student group, or take a course that involves quantitative work of any kind. Most importantly, make sure you develop a history of choices which, over time, support a demonstrated interest in the field. In all the years I’ve worked with students who compete for jobs on Wall Street, that is the #1 factor employers consider in evaluating prospective candidates!
Lastly, I’d suggest that you broaden your search to include finance opportunities of any kind. Look at any path which involves some form of managing financial assets.
For more about careers in finance, check out http://www.ocs.fas.harvard.edu/students/careers/finance/learn-more.htm (NOTE: this page is in the process of being updated).
Finance related clubs: http://www.ocs.fas.harvard.edu/students/careers/business/business_studentgroups.htm
Student Groups & Organizations:
http://www.college.harvard.edu/student/organizations/list.html
BobC
YSN Chief Career Guru
LUV B. COHEN’S RESPONSE TO THE QUESTION. AM A FINANCE STUDENT IN KENYA.WISDOM IF YOU HAVE A PASSION IN MONETARY FUNCTIONS N MANAGEMENT THEN ITS FINANCE N IF YOU LOVE PLANNING FOR THE ECONOMY THEN ITS ECONOMICS
Thanks for sharing this, man. Your blog is so cool, really should feed your blog posts.Good day.
Fantastic the EU shows stability again.