College Major-Down to work hard

Originally Posted by limester816

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You'll make the most out of college with an undergraduate business degree in finance.

Highly doubtful unless you went to an excellent school.

Originally Posted by limester816

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You'll make the most out of college with an undergraduate business degree in finance.

Economics or Accounting if you actually want to work in finance outside of making sales calls.

The most prevalent job for undergrads with a finance degree is 100% commission based financial consultant. You'll be lucky if you can get into one of those jobs where you work inside a bank and customers mostly walk in the door to speak with you.

If you end up at a Northwestern Mutual or similar its a tough job and you can expect to go a few years with little/no pay.

Some of these guys make very good money toward the end of their careers, but the first few years are a nightmare.

Econ and Accounting majors can work in a variety of back-office financial jobs, investment banking and corporate finance.

The key to getting a good job is to secure good internships at large companies. Dont worry about the pay-rates, take a good no-pay internship over a lousy one that pays well.

Originally Posted by SkinnyGoomba

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Economics or Accounting if you actually want to work in finance outside of making sales calls.

The most prevalent job for undergrads with a finance degree is 100% commission based financial consultant. You'll be lucky if you can get into one of those jobs where you work inside a bank and customers mostly walk in the door to speak with you.

If you end up at a Northwestern Mutual or similar its a tough job and you can expect to go a few years with little/no pay.

Some of these guys make very good money toward the end of their careers, but the first few years are a nightmare.

Econ and Accounting majors can work in a variety of back-office financial jobs, investment banking and corporate finance.

The key to getting a good job is to secure good internships at large companies. Dont worry about the pay-rates, take a good no-pay internship over a lousy one that pays well.

I'm not a Finance major, but all of my friends are Accounting, Finance, and Econ majors at Boston College undergrad business (top 10 program). This is pretty consistent with what they're saying/doing. It seems like a pretty cut-throat program.

Originally Posted by limester816

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I'm not a Finance major, but all of my friends are Accounting, Finance, and Econ majors at Boston College undergrad business (top 10 program). This is pretty consistent with what they're saying/doing. It seems like a pretty cut-throat program.

I have a hard time believing BC is top 10 in anything...I also don't think "business" is a legitimate undergraduate major even at schools like Wharton.

Words of caution:
Most undergraduate degrees in the sciences and engineering(math physics bio chem almost all engineering) are not sufficient to progress in their fields. You will need a Masters or a PHD to find work in these fields. I would also venture to say some soft sciences/humanities (soc, philosophy, history,english) are not sufficient without a PHD if you want to stay in the field.

Going into medicine requires that you take certain courses (more or less a pre med track). Going into Law school mostly requires writing ability, a high GPA and LSAT scores. B school generally requires experience.

That being said, if your goal is to become something specific and not all too technical then usually a related field is sufficient.

Originally Posted by IUtoSLU

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Now-a-days humanities majors are mostly worthless without grad-school follow-up. We are no longer living in the times when an average employer will look at your history degree and think, "Now THIS guy is a critical thinker with an ability to write well!"
Yeah, I'm learning that now. That said I don't regret my major at all.

Originally Posted by Valor

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I have a hard time believing BC is top 10 in anything...I also don't think "business" is a legitimate undergraduate major even at schools like Wharton.

http://bwnt.businessweek.com/bschool...te/10rankings/

...?

I'm in New Hampshire, going to the University of New Hampshire. What I've learned while being at school is this, social networking is key. Making friends and opening relationships with others is what is going to get me a job. Granted, it may not be a professional job, but it will be a starter job where I could be earning a decent amount of money. I don't really know. I'm scared for my future and everything I see shows me that to actually do well in this world you have to give up on either a social life and be a nerd who makes a lot of money, or just be a very driven person in all sorts of fields, social life included. Sorry if I'm ranting. Thank you for all the help everyone, it really has made a difference.

Also, if you can combine programming with accounting/econ I think you'll find there are alot of positions available for you.

A lot of large financials, especially those with proprietary trading systems are in need of people experienced in both. Then of course there are companies like Reuters and Bloomberg who are heavily IT oriented.

Computer Science, IMO, creates the most options out of school these days for big money. This includes big money in the financial professions.

Of course, you have to actually like the subject, and you've got to be comfortable with the numbers. Do you actually dislike math, or is that just something that someone has told you at some point in your life? A lot of teachers and even parents will try to discourage subjects in which they don't think you're a good fit. But you have to know yourself better than they know you.

If you actually do hate math, well, that's a different story. But a high-paying life is going to be hard to come by in that case, unless you go into law or specialized medicine.

Originally Posted by Arrogant Bastard

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Computer Science, IMO, creates the most options out of school these days for big money. This includes big money in the financial professions. Of course, you have to actually like the subject, and you've got to be comfortable with the numbers. Do you actually dislike math, or is that just something that someone has told you at some point in your life? A lot of teachers and even parents will try to discourage subjects in which they don't think you're a good fit. But you have to know yourself better than they know you. If you actually do hate math, well, that's a different story. But a high-paying life is going to be hard to come by in that case, unless you go into law or specialized medicine.
More or less spot on.

Originally Posted by limester816

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http://bwnt.businessweek.com/bschool...te/10rankings/ ...?
Was a joke, calm down.

Originally Posted by SkinnyGoomba

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Also, if you can combine programming with accounting/econ I think you'll find there are alot of positions available for you. A lot of large financials, especially those with proprietary trading systems are in need of people experienced in both. Then of course there are companies like Reuters and Bloomberg who are heavily IT oriented.
These firms have very very high expectations. Any prop trading firm will only want the best of the best (unless they suck in which case they will go out of business). Programming skills are useful on a lot of jobs. Probably should be at least familiar with programming if your job requires any analysis.

What about communications? That seems like it could be too broad of a degree to get a specific career. Comments?

Originally Posted by IUtoSLU

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Now-a-days humanities majors are mostly worthless without grad-school follow-up. We are no longer living in the times when an average employer will look at your history degree and think, "Now THIS guy is a critical thinker with an ability to write well!"

Of course, there isn't a lot of value in most undergraduate degrees, including a lot of the business sort. Maybe for some entry-level jobs, but my finance prof said there was only one undergraduate finance degree that gave any possibility of passing out of his Fin 1 class.

So which is better-- taking a worthless undergrad degree and having to do a master's to get any long-term value from it, or first studying something you're actually good at and deciding later where you want to do a master's?

Originally Posted by suited

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Highly doubtful unless you went to an excellent school.

Granted.

Originally Posted by Valor

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I also don't think "business" is a legitimate undergraduate major even at schools like Wharton.

While I wouldn't disagree that there is a difference between Wharton undergrad and a Wharton MBA I will offer some very anecdotal evidence to the contrary. At least 3 of my friends with undergrad business or finance degrees from Wharton have very high paying IBD jobs at bulge bracket firms, or working for hedge fund/PE shops all within 2 years of graduating.

Originally Posted by SkinnyGoomba

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Also, if you can combine programming with accounting/econ I think you'll find there are alot of positions available for you.

A lot of large financials, especially those with proprietary trading systems are in need of people experienced in both. Then of course there are companies like Reuters and Bloomberg who are heavily IT oriented.

Originally Posted by Valor

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These firms have very very high expectations. Any prop trading firm will only want the best of the best (unless they suck in which case they will go out of business).

Good points re: prop trading. You have to be very careful to set yourself up with the right credentials to avoid getting stuck as just "the IT guy".

I would advise against anyone straight out of college looking to work for Bloomberg. I interviewed there at the end of college and was not impressed with the personnel and the pay was crap. I felt I had a stellar GPA, engineering degree from a top 15 school, etc. and got turned down for a job that I later found out was basically answering phones. Now within 3 years I'm making 3x the salary they were offering with infinitely more advancement potential and great credentials for bschool.

Originally Posted by Lizen

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What about communications? That seems like it could be too broad of a degree to get a specific career. Comments?

Noooooooo. Don't do it. This is probably one of the least-respected majors, at least in most business and finance circles. My roommate is interviewing at real estate investment funds and even with a pretty stellar grad school record he has been running from his communications undergrad ever since. He gets told "Undergrad communications? Seriously? Ouch." during networking/interviews on a regular basis.

I'd advise against following what the people in this thread advise, look at how boring the life of the average law/finance/it monkey is, do you really want that for yourself cause you'll have a better starting salary? Unless you have a real passion for these fields (it happens, I know people like that and they're HAPPY not just well paid) stay the **** away from this mind-numbing life. I know it sounds like a bunch of counterculture bullshit but being lured into an unhappy life by a decent salary isn't what I'd call a good plan. Disregard this if, like I said, you have a real passion for one of these fields (say you love programming by all means become a programmer).

Originally Posted by Lizen

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What about communications? That seems like it could be too broad of a degree to get a specific career. Comments?
No offense to any Communications majors here, but Communications is the major I probably see on every hot, dumb, blonde chick's resume. I don't think it's taken very seriously in many fields. Even in journalism or media, a "harder" humanities major like English or History would probably be a better choice. A semi-reliable litmus test is to ask "Would this major appear on the course listings at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, or Stanford?" If it isn't a major offered by the best schools in the country, it might not be a totally legitimate major. Obviously there are exceptions to this rule of thumb, particularly in the specialized sciences. But in general, there's some merit to it.