Quote:
Originally Posted by dream4real
Hi unregistered, care to share what is the skillset that allowed you to get into banking? I'm also interested to get into banking, where I've identified my interest in credit management. However, it seems to me that the industry is only willing to accept people with a degree in finance, so I'm kind of stuck. I possess a degree in Computer Engineering, and have been working in the IT industry for around 5 years now. But I realise that is not what I really want to do, and at the same time I want to achieve my personal goals.
I am contemplating getting myself a degree in finance, but in the meantime I will also like to seek some advice on whether there are alternative methods of getting accepted into the industry? Would you be so kind as to offer some advice?
Thanks.
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I'm not "Unregistered", but I can share from my personal experience and observations.
You can try getting a finance degree, but you will face stiff competition from fresh graduates who are cheap to hire and full of energy and bright ideas. This route is possible, but there are opportunity costs and risks.
Alternatively, you can get a finance + IT/Maths hybrid degree, such as financial engineering, and you'll get a better chance getting into quant related type of jobs in a bank, working in the front office. You'll suffer less pay cut, and things can be promising. If you are good and lucky, you can even make it to be a trader or work in a hedge fund. You have to prove your worth early, since age is catching up.
The third option I can see is to just get into the IT division of a bank and move laterally until you find a suitable role. I had similar background as you and I took this lowest-risk route. I was lucky to find someone willing to hire me into IT. I tried and I got in. I'm now doing front office development and pay is a comfortable low 6-figure.
All said, I have to manage your expectations. It's extremely tough to do very well given the extremely talented competition you will face. Academically, I was among the top 0.1% in my cohort, but whether it's lack of luck or experience or skills, I'm still struggling to achieve a "breakthrough". Further, you'll notice that the mid to senior management in foreign banks are always the "foreign talent", with a handful of "occasional" locals making it to low middle management where admittedly the pay is a quite comfortable 200k and above.