Help with college curriculums for IB jobs

[ace550]

<p>angryelf & astonmartinDBS,</p>

<p>Thanks for the insights. Your red flag is right on the mark. He has his own channel of learning the system. However, I am an engineer with middle-class income, and since I may have to shell out up to $100K for his college education depending on where he goes, I would need to do my due diligence. </p>

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Ibanks actively recruit at many schools that do not even offer finance or accounting courses.

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You don’t need a finance degree to get into investment banking. Also, unless your son attends a school like Wharton that has a very strong finance program, most of what you need to know to get the job you will have to self study outside of class.

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<p>I am concerned that his ability to analyze the income statement/earning projections of a company may be lacking if he does not take any advanced accounting courses. Does it not concern a future employer if he must teach new analysts all these skills from scratch? </p>

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Although they are both technically finance, investment banking programs will target econ majors straight out of undergrad where as quant positions by and large look for math or physics phds.

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Programming classes are not useful for investment banking, but would be for more quantitative trading firms.

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<p>Do finance professionals from these two areas talk to each other? Would they need to discuss if the quant team’s predictions were validated or require further improvement? If he has an indicator he would like to be included in the sophisticated quant model, how would he be able to convince the quant team to try it without having some in-depth understanding of what they do? </p>

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There are very few positions (if any) that require anywhere near the number of hours that investment banking analysts and associates work. Before you start, it’s hard to imagine the toll that working a month straight without a day off or pulling back-to-back all nighters takes on your body. It is not a decision to take lightly.

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<p>He is aware of the demanding schedule. He will have to figure out whether he can handle the pressure and survive the “residency”. I hope that he can enjoy the work, learn the system, and maintain healthy quality of life going forward if he indeed gets into this field. </p>

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International and legal classes are also not relevant for most finance jobs.

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<p>Both of you advised above. I am just wondering if there are cases that an analyst would be involved in a deal with a foreign company, which will require substantial knowledge about the local market and even the language. Engineering teams in my company have weekly telecon with major domestic or foreign customers to go over items of concerns. In some cases, we will need to work with suppliers to make sure they have any difficulties of delivering exactly what we want. Would the analysts need to have frequent teleconferences with or even visit some foreign companies? In the era of global M&A, would this be very critical?</p>

<p>Additional advices are very much appreciated.</p>