Seeking Advice For Jobs In Finance Sector
 

Hi, may I know how can an engineer enter into the finance industry? What are the possible requirements in order to enter into this industry without prior experience in finance?

I'm interested in finance because of my interest in investment. Looking at business metrics and analyzing financial data always excited me. Probably influence by friends who are business owners and investors.

Secondly after 4 years in the engineering field, I have come to the conclusion that I have lost every passion in it and it seems the financial industry seems more rewarding both in career and also financially.

Since I'm not in the financial industry, it will be great if someone can provide some advice.

It helps if you know people in the industry. Start in ops. Though pay is miserable, it's a start anyway. But I doubt your passion will last, cos you'll be wondering why you can't be the CEO. :)

But seriously, there are thousands of engineers like yourself, so first you have to fight off the competition.

Everyone can ******** about passion. Some can do it better than you.

one of the options - get a MBA from a world-class biz school to boost your competitiveness

... and that will cost you 200k upwards, but it comes with no guarantee of success. I have friends who don't get anything tangible in return. They will tell you oh they get to know people and enhance their knowledge, but when it comes to dollars and cents, they're still in the same old jobs. They'll tell you "it's not always about the money you know..."

Why is it that every engineer likes to claim to have passion in investments and analyzing financial numbers because people around them have investments and therefore they want to enter banking sector?

Want to join banking just be upfront and admit that you love money and wish to pursue a field that lets you reap big material rewards instead of a low paying engineering job.

There's no need for this standard BS about being passionate in Finance, people who are really passionate in analyzing financial numbers can join any MNC as risk analyst, business analyst, sales intelligence support or even pursue a career in teaching & coaching in finance.

Nothing against TS, it's just that as an interviewer I have heard this same old story from so many people from non-Finance (usually engineering) background in the past 2 years that I sometimes wonder if there is some engineering professional body that teaches them to say the same thing.

100k is sufficient if you do it in Asia (HKUST/CEIBS), somemore there are still scholarships for you to apply. Of course success is not guaranteed just by a MBA, but i believe investing in yourself is much better off than investing in any other things.

The most bizzare story I heard was this young girl in late 20s from logistics background, said she wanted to join because she "manages" her parent's retierment funds so she found her "passion" in investments.

I probed a bit and she told me her parents gave her 400k their retirement nest egg for her to play stocks and she made some money because she entered at low point of 2008. Knew nothing about investments or businesses or trading technques, just happen to enter market in 2008 which most people on long at that time would probably have made a lot.

I pity the parents, can tell from the yaya attitude that this ignorant girl going to loose all their coffin money.

Hi, thanks for the reply and insights. It will be great that someone will share more about the life of a business analyst, risk analyst in a mnc environment.

I believe that if one is to have a job for the long term, it is one that one really enjoys and likes. So working is like playing. No need to be motivated but self-motivated.

At least I know something, an engineer's job is pretty routine. In fact, I found most jobs in the engineering field does not require a degree qualification, in fact through my experience with 4 different companies, I do find that the job scope do not require one with a degree qualification.

Anyone can fill that place with the in-house training.

For me, I am a creative person and always eager to learn new things. That explains why I constantly looks outside of the academic and attend seminars to upgrade.

I believe the financial industry provides what I'm looking for. However, as I have never been in the finance industry, I will be glad if someone will highlights the pros and cons of the jobs as described above based from personal experience.

It will give insights if it is a career that will give me job satisfaction.

Still, you are no different from any trader banker wannabe.

Most jobs don't need any paper qualification, unless you're an academic or scientist. Btw, Nick Leeson said the people in his bank were idiots.

Hi Jerry,

What kind of finance job are you looking at?

1) Bankers?
2) Traders?
3) Insurance Agents/ Financial Planners?
4) Brokers?
5) Financial Analyst?
6) Fund managers?
7) Accountants?


Finance sector is wide. Perhaps you would want to scale down the area of your interests.