Lawyers, Doctors and Everyone Else, Your Input Needed!!!

Parent Cafe
61

<p>Minoring in Spanish with a more marketable major was the point I was attempting. But as corranged said, it is the internship, as well as going to a school that has good placement opportunities, whatever the degree, is often crucial. </p>

<p>You have a good head about this, in terms of future employability. Around me are many new college grads that did not think in terms of jobs, and seem to be foundering a bit. But my S, probably in that unemployable catagory with a poly sci major, found that he has ok job opportunites, right now, with benefits, because he speaks Spanish. He has chosen other roads, but the Spanish is really his ace in the hole in our high immigrant area.</p>

62

<p>I don’t know about the 'majoring in English & going to work for Morgan Stanley" or whatever thing…(personally).</p>

<p>If I was going into a field (say, business) I’d like to have some substantive courses that explained how the market works, principles of accounting, etc. before I went to work w/a bunch of people who knew those things already (no matter how good the training!).</p>

<p>I say that, because as a former Eng/psych major, I knew next-to-nothing about business (fortunately it didn’t impact my career [& was not at all an interest of mine] but there would have been a glaring gap had I sought to work at Goldman Sachs, etc…)</p>

<p>Just a thought!</p>

63

<p>corranged, you’re right. I visited both McKinsey and Morgan Stanley’s websites, and neither company states that a particular major is preferred. In fact, both boast to have employees of very diverse professional backgrounds. Please look at the link below, and see if you notice a “trend.” Notice that a very large portion of the people profiled (of course this is just a set group of about 30, 40 people, not the whole company) have some sort of Business/Finance/Economics/Accounting/Marketing degree, and if it isn’t one of the aforementioned, it is either science-related (biology, engineering) or mathematics-related (math, statistics, the mathematics of finance, mathematical economics, computer science). </p>

<p>From Morgan Stanely “Recruitment” section: </p>

<p><a href=“Careers in Finance and Investment Banking | Morgan Stanley”>Careers in Finance and Investment Banking | Morgan Stanley;

<p>Look to the farthest left where it says “Our People” and under that “Featured Profiles.” You will see numbers (1,2,3,4) and underneath that, photos of people (you can still check out people’s profiles w/o their photos shown). I would say I looked at a majority of these people’s profiles and here’s what I’ve concluded: most of these employees (not all) have at least some sort of degree which is quantitive/scientifically-analytic/financial/managerial in nature. Some people even have History, Government, and Foreign Language degrees <em>with</em>, get this, degrees in something finance-related too ! But don’t get me wrong - some people do not have majors in anything remotely related to the financial/banking world. That’s fine. </p>

<p>Of course the company needs to diversify, meaning that if an applicant with a B.A. in English is enthusiastic, business-minded, articulate and entreprenurial, then there’s a high change s/he will be hired. Such diversity makes the company multi-faceted, which is a good thing, of course. HOWEVER, I have a few “objections,” if I may:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Speaking from a career perspective, were I to work for such a firm I would like to have some sort of pre-requisite experience/background. You see, both McKinsey + MS have training programs for their Analysts and Associates anywhere from 3-5 weeks. Wouldn’t it be nice during the training session to say “Oh ya, I remember this from Economics 41 with Professor Doe!” rather than “Hm, this is interesting, but how am I going to soak this all in and apply it when I begin work next week?” </p></li>
<li><p>Second of all, let’s say I applied to work for the Private Equity division of the firm. In the interview process, how would I, Applicant A (Sociology major), fare against Applicant B (Mathematical Finance major), if we BOTH have the same great, desirable qualities ??? </p></li>
</ol>

<p>I think these companies like diverse employees, and are willing to take a certain number of people who don’t have degrees that’re finance-related. BUT, for the most part, I think firm recruiters actively scout out people with business/math/economics degrees THAN people with other degrees. Just my $0.02, although in all fairness, anyone with at least a BS/BA can get a job at one of these financial corporations. </p>

<p>I should also mention here that one of my aspirations in terms of a career is that I would enjoy working abroad. I feel there are greater chances of working abroad for a financial firm, than for a law firm. Law firms do have branches in other countries, but probably not as many as a large financial corpration (for obvious reasons).</p>

<p>In that case, great lakes mom, having a language fluency would be an appropriate and quite fitting complement to my major. I wish the best of luck to your son, who I would think with a Poli Sci. major and fluency in Spanish can land a really good job working for the government (and private) sector. </p>

<p>Corranged, you’re right about internships, etc. Let’s say I pursue English Lit., but during my college summers intern with various finance firms. Who’s to say I won’t be knowledgeable about foreign markets, regional economies, and the stock market? </p>

<p>Jolynne, I think you and I are on the same page here, with the same viewpoints concerning qualifications, experience, etc. </p>

<p>As always, thanks for reading!</p>