What are my chances - arts graduate looking into finance

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  1. #1

    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Posts
    52

    What are my chances - arts graduate looking into finance

    I'm a graduate from a top liberal arts college in the US with a 3.97/4.0 GPA and summa cum laude honours... but I majored in English and Music, which don't seem to be the hottest subjects in Hong Kong outside of teaching. I'm genuinely interested in a career in finance, but have zero work experience in the field. How hard (or impossible) would it be to find something that's not pushing insurance over the phone?


  2. #2

    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Hong Kong.
    Posts
    1,355

    Boils down to the following:
    1. Do you speak Chinese?
    2. For investment banking: How good are your quantitative skills?

    Most banks (investment and commercial) generally do not care too much about undergraduate majors for their graduate/management associate/analyst programs and happily hire from liberal arts colleges. However, investment banks will limit/focus recruiting to the top schools like Williams, Amherst, etc. and will require some minimum quant skills.
    Either way, for positions in Hong Kong you will require competency in Chinese.


  3. #3

    Join Date
    May 2009
    Posts
    21

    Finance is an extremely broad field.. any idea what business you want to focus on? trading? commercial? m&a? market risk? Undergraduate majors don't necessarily matter but a previous internship in finance goes a long way in making you stand out. Do you have any banking connections? If you are able to get your foot into the door to interview and impress them with your enthusiasm and knowledge of finance, you might have a decent shot.

    Without classes like corporate finance, econometrics etc, and no experience you'll have to really demonstrate you know what you're talking about. Having some knowledge of stocks, company valuations and such wouldn't hurt. Disclaimer: if your genuine interest to get into finance amounts to "i want to make tons of $$", you might want to rethink lol.

    If I was to be realistic though, I would say its a pretty slim chance right now given the current market and competition for so few spots. you'll never know if you don't try though so good luck! just have a plan b

    Last edited by fooze; 19-08-2009 at 10:39 PM.