Engineers break into Investment Banking (IB)

[Jayanthan]

I am trying to break into investment banking with engineering degree! Anyone have any idea? Thank you so much

 

[IlyaKEightSix]

Cold call.

 

[Jayanthan]

Cold call who? Banks? Like Goldman sachs??

 

[darth]

Cold call who? Banks? Like Goldman sachs??

No...... FBI , CIA , and NYPD or you could try apple's I-banking

 

[Jayanthan]

You are funny Mr.Darth

 

[Joy Pathak]

lol That was funny.

It is hard to get in with just an engineering degree since all your competition will have an additional finance related degree.

 

[Prashant.Kumar]

Haven't looked much into breaking into IB.
Try these on for size:
http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/getting-a-finance-job-from-engineering/
http://www.ibtraining.com/

I love Mergers & Inquisitions. There's a blogger that isn't scared to be brutally honest, and the blog touches on a lot of IB topics. Seeing as quant is more my interest, I've stopped reading M&I and now keep up with just Quantnet.

 

[Jayanthan]

Thank you Joy, & Prashanth.
I've looked at that site. I haven't got anything so far.

Are you guys international students too? I am planning to do MFE. What about the placement after graduation for international students?

 

[Joy Pathak]

Do you mean investment banking .. like banking? M&A.. etc?

 

[Jayanthan]

ya, That's what I meant. My ultimate interest in HF world though.

 

[Joy Pathak]

I don't know about how to get into that area of banking with just engineering degree. Most of them have finance/accounting backgrounds... or engineers with MBA's.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

You may want to look at MBA from a top business school. MFE is a technical degree where you deal with a lot of programming, data cleaning, math, stats, etc.
IB side is where you do a lot of spreadsheet, pitch book, deal evaluation, cash flow modeling, etc. Not really comparable.

You may want to pick up a few books on Wall Street culture and what IB is about. The websites that Prashant list are good starting point.

 

[bullion]

Define "break into" investment banking. Most BB IBs follow a very well-defined recruitment path to create a "fair" recruitment system at the analyst and associate levels. So if you're not a fresh grad from college, then it will be extremely difficult for you to get a job at those two levels.

But not all hope is lost. Depending on the type of engineer you are, there is a growing trend in the US of experienced engineer turning into angel investors who are dominating the VC scene. VCs also have less math/corporate finance requirements and the success of your investments will depend heavily on your technical experience and industry knowledge. You can find a few friends together, act as their syndicate, conduct due diligence (basically, is the company telling the truth + is everything legal), and invest together while you retaining your engineer salary (normally higher than most other professions). Once you've made a few investments and shown that you have the ability to make deals happen, it will be much easier for you to move into IB with a track record at the higher level.

 

[Alexander Krosky]

wallstreetoasis

 

[Jayanthan]

Thank you all for your information. I just graduated with aerospace engineering degree, but I have an around 2 yrs of internship experience in the industry. I am planning to do MBA after I get some experience in the banking or HF sectors.

I kind of have an idea about MFE programs. I looked at Princeton Mfin program, it appears to be very different compare to Baruch MFE program ( Baruch program is more technical and lot of programming as Andy said).
Does anyone have any idea about this, because Princeton Mfiin is very well known and discuss about it more frequently here? What does Princeton program have to do with quants?

 

[NSelectrical]

How does one get into Finance with just an engineering background ? I see its quite hard to even get into a good MFE course with just engineering studies...

 

[Jayanthan]

How does one get into Finance with just an engineering background ? I see its quite hard to even get into a good MFE course with just engineering studies...

Yes, It is possible. If you go to the major bank's career website, you will find those info. You may need ivy league degree (it can be history too). I am not 100% of ivy league business, but I've tried but, nothing happened so far.

 

[NSelectrical]

what if i have an indian engineering degree(non IIT) but with a work permit in the US ?

 

[Jayanthan]

what if i have an indian engineering degree(non IIT) but with a work permit in the US ?

You've got to try. I am still trying to get in, so far no luck. If I get in, I will give an update about the process

 

[NSelectrical]

i see from your profile that you are an aerospace engineer, did you happen to take any finance courses during your undergrad ?