<p>Okay call me biased, but I kinda always felt that science and engineering people could easily do finance … we just chose the harder path. I see finance people complaining about how hard their exam was, but I look at their study material and am like, “nowhere near as difficult as that thermodynamics exam I just took!” </p>
<p>There are some interesting crossover positions … but it would be basically me aggressively pushing it (and I want to push it the right way without turning off people); I’m interested in sustainable green industrial-scale chemistry. Some of these companies boast about their diversity of their clients: NGOs, startups, big pharmaceutical firms, etc. Anyone familiar on how to do a good crossover app? Is it even possible? I’m not switching fields, I’m just looking for a different experience (the economic/finance side of chemistry and not just say, lab synthesis and workup) and am looking for different options. (Okay arrogant mode over – I mean I’m really curious but don’t know how to approach such apps. Like what parts should be highlighted on a resume?)</p>
<p>The finance industry agrees with you. You should see the MIT career fairs. I always half-expected to get grabbed by some investment bank or consulting rep and dragged over to the finance wing of the fair if I paused too long. Not to mention all the events where the finance folks try to recruit the physics PhD students.</p>
<p>I haven’t done this particular crossover myself, but I’ve done cross-field job apps before. The key is to talk about how your experience in your home field makes you a better candidate. For finance, I expect that you’d stress the quantitative and analytic skills that your chemistry studies have given you, and possibly your ability to understand the unique issues of the scientific/pharma sector.</p>
<p>My friends son (Yale engineering major) has had 2 finance internships.
The major investment groups recruit (or you can apply). They train you for everything so it doesn’t matter what your major is.</p>
<p>Do you refer to the finance-ish internships the same as ibanking internships?
Anyway, my daughter was called for an interview to a finance-ish(non-ibanking) internship. One of the few places that response back to her. The guy who runs this place has a degree from Wharton. Both of her majors are non-science related.</p>
<p>I would have thought these folks are too far gone to fit into the finance world. Or are they counting on the fact that academia may no longer be attractive or an option for some?</p>
<p>Indeed. It was the guys who were supposed to understand probability that missed the potential for mortgage and other markets to do what they did.</p>
<p>Their model couldn’t handle the volatility and they blamed IT for the risk system failue(must have been a bug). Of course, upon further investigation we showed them the system behaved exactly as it should have - but garbage in garbage out. Maybe the concept of using historical information to predict future should be reconsidered.</p>