Is finance a good field with good job prospects...

Is finance a good field with good job prospects? I'm thinking of going back to school and I'm interested in working with stocks or commodities.

If you aren't going to an elite target school in the North East and you're over the age of 19 then it's already too late

meme or serious?

no, he's a faggot.

serious-ish

Assuming your already over 25 no one wants to hire a 25 year old IB analyst. your best bet will be working in corporate finance.

These.

If my "going back to school" you mean you're over 24-25 then don't bother. you'll be 30 when you graduate and you really won't look good in favor of brighter prospects.

If you want to get into Finance maybe try going the Accounting route. Accountants are in huge demand and many people in Finance started off with accounting. Would probably be a lot easier to break in

no, stop basing your career goals on hollywood movies.

The main reason for everyone saying you're too old is that you don't appear to have the ambition to succeed in the market. If you have that ambition and you're not withholding a bunch of wrinkles you can get there. It's not like there's never been a situation where someone developed ambition later on, and always withheld the potential to succeed in the environment. That situation just isn't as common.

I believe most would have a prejudice against older folks especially in such a cutthroat industry as Finance where the vast majority of Analysts are finished in no time at all

There's just a lot of competition and the best of the best is wanted, so when you have a major issue that screams "Probably not too competent" such as being very old it's not going to be much in your favor.

No, fuck off.

Sure, I think this is accurate. Perhaps prove yourself in areas that others haven't, to show that you have something else to offer? Separate yourself in a positive light. Don't follow the same resume steps of people with lower ages, you probably won't win that way. It's not like all of finance comes down to working at wall-street with the wolf. People do seem to make that assumption frequently though.

That's why I made the suggestion of Accounting for him.

It's in a lot of demand and it looks amazing to have an accounting background in just about any area of business. He could even get into Finance later is desired, that's pretty common actually.

I have nothing against OP but his best bet isn't going to be going down the traditional IB path. Of course he could have success in other types of Finance, starting his own fund using leveraged capital, But getting a analyst spot is almost out of the picture. you have to remember the BB gets thousands of applications so they quite literally get to to chose the cream of the crop and nothing screams incompetent then going back to school to finish what a 21 already finished.

I'll tell you a little story. Once when I was still in college, I was interning at a small finance SAAS firm. After being there a little while I was put in charge of the intern program and had to recruit, interview, and manage the interns. Well one day I got a normal looking resume, called the guy for an interview, nothing out of the ordinary. This was for an unpaid, 10-week internship position. Well the day of the interview, I walk out to greet the guy and there's a fucking full grown man waiting in the lobby. Bald head, beer gut, you know. The works. And here I am, fucking 20 years old about to interview this motherfucker. Needless to say it was very awkward.

Although I can respect anyone who has the drive to look for a new job, it's a MASSIVE red flag for this field. It immediately makes people think, "Ok great you're 30, what have you been doing with your life that you're 10 years behind your competition?" There are teenagers who are probably more qualified than you, and that's no exaggeration.

The biggest exception to this that I've seen is in trading. There are a lot of older guys who have built up a bankroll over the years and now that they're comfortable or retired, want to trade full-time. Of course the shop will take anyone with a pulse and a checkbook, so these guys are welcomed with open arms.

What would be your exact education work/advice for someone like OP, because I'm definitely not in the same exact position myself. Imagine OP took 0 time off of school, but instead joined the army and spent four years there, finding himself at a current age of 24, in a community college, finishing the remainder of his associates in business, which was delayed because of a switch in ambition from statistical science/mathematics. Also imagine OP is currently collecting financial aid and working through work-study + a weekend retail job (making under a certain cap to maintain full FA benefits).

Not really sure, I'm not an expert here. If your ambition is working in Finance then I'd probably suggest some other specialized forum like wallstreet oasis or something where they'd give you much better advice.

well depends on what you want to do. you should be fine for most fields.

Wallstreet oasis would just ask his GPA and where he was going to transfer to.

Thank you, I'll check that out. What do you do btw? If you don't mind sharing.

I am an accountant cuck at a big 4, kek

Can you list your education and work history? I'm interested in accounting and finance, and would love insight into how you got to where you are.

It's not very extensive and I'm not very far.

Got hired as a junior accountant at a big 4 after College. Nothing more to it, it's nothing impressive, you work really hard in the beginning. Make sure to do internships, clubs, network etc while in College and get a good GPA. Everything else just falls into place

Ultimately I would like to work in finance/accounting within the markets that focus on currency. I'm not the knowledgeable. I love spreadsheets and efficiency as well as mathematics/statistics. My GPA is 4.0, but I'm currently enrolled at a community college and it's pretty easy going, regardless of my class load. I have completed 1.5 years worth of it college education at the CC. It'll take me 2.5 to graduate with my Associates in Business from the institution and I plan to transfer to a school in state while accruing the least amount of debt possible. I'm attempting to save up for the debt I will ensue upon transferring to another school in search of an MBA, focusing on Finance/Accounting. I'm essentially looking to do anything/everything I can to better prepare myself now for a future career.

Thank you for your share of experience/information. I really hope I can manage to have things fall in place for me as well.

another exception is IT. If you have skills, you'll get a job.

Do any of you people personally know non-british europeans working at finance firms in the US?

I'm a 23 years old guy from Finland, just wrapped up my Information Systems Science bachelors with a Finance minor. I'm the sort of guy who is placed between the "sales" people and so called "IT nerds". Know a bit about IT and a bit about the business side. Good GPA but of course, all finnish schools are neverheard-tier overseas.
Do I have any chance to get employed in the US? I spent my 3 month exchange on the east coast and really liked it.

By the way, should I even mention my finnish mandatory military service experience on my resume/linkedin?

>should I .... mention ... military service.

Why the hell not?
Sure would be of benefit to an employer to know that you know how to get up in the morning.

Would also be good to have there instead of a gap in the CV.

This is true. I switched over from finance to IT at 24 and nobody cares. Of course 24 isn't that old, but in finance it seems to be.

Ok, I was just thinking how employers in the US would take it, since you don't have mandatory military over there.

Question...how would these people even know your age? I've never heard of age coming up in any sort of interview. I'm slated to graduate right when I turn 26, and I'm 25 now. Everyone who looks at me thinks I'm no more than 20.

Keep in mind I'm not looking for extremely competitive IB jobs on Wall-Street, just anywhere in the range of corporate financial analysis to something a little more biased towards IB.

Brother graduated at 25 and he got IB analyst position offer before he graduated.

If you love math/stats you should major in that.

You have no idea how valuable they are to every single finance industry from commercial banks, to IB's to trading firms.

A math professor of mine went to work for a bank, cousins mum has a stats degree and works at a bank doing risk analysis.

Maybe actuarial science/studies is for you? Alot of them end up in buy side finance because math+stats+finance+prestige of the degere makes you very very useful