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Guys/Gals I need your help, the investing virus has bitten me and I've got it BAD!
I'm only 22 years old and still trying to find my way in life. I'm really starting to love investing, the only problem is that I have NO idea what kind of jobs are out there in the investing world, how to get one and what university programs I should enroll in to "get there". When you watch CNBC or Bloomberg and they show you Wallstreet and you see all these people screaming on the market, and it's amazing to me because I wonder what these people studied and how they land these jobs. I look at stocks and see its insider holdings and I wonder, who made these decisions to invest in that particular stock? I don't know ANYthing about the kind of jobs that are out there in the investing world. In my country there's a big college of economic studies in Brussels but I haven't found any courses that aim specifically on investments. We have programs like economic sciences, trade engineering, trade sciences, but they're not specific enough for investment jobs (they're VERY general) and they're 3 years each (bachelor, one more year for the master program) so I want to know what I end up with before I start any of these. I still wouldn't know what to do afterwards, who to turn to, etc. I'm ashamed to say I know absolutely nothing about how to get there. I like to think big and I know I can do much better than flipping burgers at McD's (although I only have a high school diploma so I think that would actually be the kind of jobs I would qualify for lol, BAH!)
I invest money with inheritance money now and it's going well but I want to do this on a professional level, have a steady income with job benefits and all that, that's what it all boils down to.
I've lived in the States for a while but at the time I was there I didn't really know much about investing so I didn't look around for information. I know things are probably different over there but if anyone can tell me what kind of jobs are out there, where to send your job applications, what university degrees are needed, it would help me a lot.
I'd REALLY appreciate your help because I'm going to be honest, I'm desperate LOL I hope someone responds
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I live in the US, so I can only help you with what I know about purusing a job over here in the finance/accounting world. Your best bet to a degree is finance or accounting. After your bachelors, if you want a decent job and a chance to move up, you will absolutely need an MBA. With those degrees, you will be able to be looked at by Banks, Investment banks, smaller brokers ect. Even with the masters, you are still not guarenteed a job, you might have to get some experience with a smaller company first. One thing that will honestly make your life easier, is getting to know the people who work at these companys. Most schools have "clubs", or classes that will allow you to meet the people you need to secure this kind of job.
Im currently kind of in the same situation as you. I am 22 and will graduate with my bachelors of accounting this spring, and go on for my masters. I am looking at a job with either a large investment bank, or one of the big 4 accounting firms. Let me know if you have any more questions, I will try and help as much as I can. I have done quite a bit of research and would be glad to share what I have learned
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Hanibull...The Fiancial field is very competitive. To land the top jobs that you're refering to, you need an advance degree from a top school...Mabey even Harvard Business School. It's also a stressfull life. I'm young, too. What I'm traing for is to be a firefigher in Tampa. You work for 1 day on then 1 day off, or 2 days on 2 days off. I'm just gonna daytrade on my days off. The top salary is almost $70k now and you can retire with 75% salary after 25 years. Plus the last 3 years they help boost your salary wit OT and stuff, that way the pension is higher. Not Bad for an exiciting and rewarding career! It's probably the same deal with a Police Officer. if you have a $60k pension, you can take more risks with you investmets.
Also if you mary someone with a pension, it's even better. You can both retire earlier than most, and have a 6 figure income.
But if you do decide to go in the financial field, You should get a job with the city, county, of any form of government. Better Benefits, security. Plus you get a pension. I live in tampa so I can go to the city of tampa web site and see all the gov jobs for the city.
Even if you don't have a college degree, you can get a decent job if its throught the City Government. Like a customer service rep, or a mechanic or something.
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Hannibull, After i graduated with a degree in finance, i looked into this field. I decided it wasnt right for me, and instead went into business on my own... however, i do know many people at top firms, and they let me know, the best way for people in your position would be to get into the IB field is first, you MUST have a degree in finance. While in school, it would benefit you greatly to try to get into a summer internship program with an investment banking firm (Bear stearns, merrill, or Goldmans if you go ivy league). The internship program is their main recruiting tool. A good family friend is a partner at Goldman Sachs, and this is the answer he gave me when i was thinking about it.
However, if you do go into IB, you should be ready to work, work, work... 80-100 hours/week. These are the hours most analysts at big firms work. Thats the reason i decided against it, wasnt right for me, but may be right for you.
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Hannibull.. why not consider being a stockbroker? ... You are in Belgium so I do not know what the licensing is like there but here firms sponsor you for series 7 and such... no real degree needed... You can always move up from there.. while making good $$ if you become good at it...
-------------------- Let the world change you... And you can change the world.
posted
These are all good insights and what they stated proves true about the investor career. I am also 22 as everyone else that posted here haha. I just graduated with a Finance degree at UCF (Central FL) with a 3.7 GPA. I mention the gpa simply to state that you can get good grades and feel like you know nothing about investing when finishing.
I just started getting involved in stocks here and still feel I know very little about the REAL world of investing, even after going through a decent finance program. I honestly feel if you do it yourself, you do not need a finance degree. I feel if you read 3 or 4 good investing books, you will understand more than what they teach you in universities. I wish I knew I wanted to be in finance/investing earlier so I could focus on going to an Ivy league. By going to a state university in FL I basically sealed my fate as far as ever working in a big time firm. Good thing I don't want to do that anyway.
My friend knew from the get-go and got into Penn Business School (Ivy League). The course load is more intense from the education I received, but he told me that the firms don't even care what you learned in school. They train you completely, all they care about is that you are fairly smart and came from an Ivy League school.
They are right about the careers though, you work 60,70,80 hour work weeks. Any investment job is real tough but the rewards later on monetarily can be huge. You have to figure out if you want to give up your life to make big bucks. It is completely stressful. That is what steered me away from jobs like that. I want to start my own business and do investments on the side with my own money.
Underoath what kind of business are you in for yourself?
I hope this helped some and this is my opinion, some may dissagree with some of what I have said.
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ShiftMr2t, Major companies in Financing field or even engineering or architecture...Care more about where you went to Graduate School. That's where you develope your style or philosphy about your field.
So..since you have a high GPA, you would have no problem getting into an IVY business school for your graduate degree. That is what big firms will look at. Plus you saved yourself a lot of money by going to UCF. That's what a lot of poor people do. They go to state universities for their B.A to save money, then go to a BIG university for their Graduate degree, where they get scholarships, grants, or even paid to go.
I would go to the Business School Websites, and see what the requirements for their graduate programs are. Here are the top 2007 top 10 Business Schools...
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Thanks for the graduate info Spades. That is some good stuff. You are right, they like your graduate work. My post focused more on the undergrad finance degree. Moreso than GPA however, they like a good GMAT score. GPA helps but standardized testing has seemed to take over the admissions process.
And just for the record I did not go to UCF because I was poor. It did help with tuition though as mine was free with a few scholarships I had. Going to a state school is an excellent way to get a degree and not pay too much however. It's actually a great up-and-coming school with a lot of state money being pumped into the programs.
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Yikes! I just looked at some of these schools and they seem to charge over $35,000, sometimes $45,000 tuition a year for international students, and many times since these schools are private schools they charge the same for American citizens That's just tuition, it doesn't include living costs or anything else. I know these are top schools but with those price tags how on earth do these schools find students whose parents (or themselves) are willing to pay those insane amounts of money? What is the purpose of school, you go to school to get a good job, a good job pays good money, yet from the start they expect you to put $200,000 on the table for 4 years of schooling, and that's assuming you pass in each year, I'm shocked
I might start studying the Bachelor of Business Administration program in Brussels for 500€ a year, from then on I can still do my masters degree (perhaps in the States), and should I change my mind in those 3 years at least I would have a bachelor degree in my hands and study something else or see from there, but at least I'm busy in the meantime. As shiftmr2t said, the real training happens at the company, not in school. In school you get the basic knowledge package and your degree is a good entrance ticket to the company.
Underoath, yeah those seem like long hours. My best friend is a crane engineer at the harbor in Antwerp and he works up to 20 hours a day sometimes, the remaining 4 hours he sleeps. I look at him and he's losing all his hair from the stress, he lacks sleep, he's always tired and he doesn't always look too healthy. I admire his strength and he's doing it to "retire young", he gets up to 7000-8000 net per month after taxes, but at the expense of his youth (he's 25) and his life in general. I know I can be a workaholic when I do something I love, but working as many hours as my friend is doing I don't think I could do that lol.
Cpeed, the MBA seems like a great thing to have from what I hear. We have a Bachelor of Business Administration program in Brussels, the program is in English (universities here are in Dutch and French) to prepare the students for the international market, and this is the curriculum for all three years http://www.ehsal.be/inhoud.asp?MenuID=708&language=E I'm glad you're willing to share what you've found out, when I have more questions I'll definitely send you a PM. Good luck with everything!
Ace of Spades (great Motorhead song! ), that seems like a great work/life schedule, that would be a dream for me personally to work the job I want to do AND daytrade when I have time off. I've always wanted to be an airline pilot (I'm actually deciding between doing that and starting a business major in school). If I were to study for that instead of a business major in school I would do the same thing you're doing. Pilots don't fly 24/7, although one of my pilot friends flies a lot and he works at Ryanair, a low-cost airline, so his busy flying schedule has more to do with the company itself I think. From what I've seen it all depends on what airline you end up with I know in the States you guys have colleges like Embry Riddle University in Florida (great school for aviation) where you can combine aviation and business into one program, that's definitely worth looking into (just thinking out loud here hehe) good luck on your firefigher training!
Machiavelli, can you elaborate a bit please? I'm not quite sure what you mean by broker, the idea behind this would be to play with other people's money and keep a percentage, correct? At this point I wouldn't know how to start something like that but isn't it so that in the States the most random people trade stocks? It seems so much more mainstream over there than it is here so there probably is a good market for that over there. There's a beach town about 15 minutes from here where the richest people in the country live. I know there's lots of investors there so I've thought about opening a daytrader center, however the the question is would something like that survive here, I have no idea.
I appreciate all your responses, I keep looking on the internet for information in the meantime
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SHiftmr2t, I have a real estate investment business. Renovate low income housing... either flip it or rent it for cash flow. pretty good business, and it provides nice housing for more needy people. got a start by borrowing money, paid them back the first place i did, then it was all profit for me. Now have a crew doing it for me, which lets me trade all day. Also starting a new business now managing Platinum metals for engine manufacturers. Looking to maybe find someone who can help me start a small brokerage firm so that we can hedge Platinum on behalf of engine manufacturers
Hannibul I think machiavelli meant getting a job as a broker. It is fairly easy to get a job here as a broker... you just have to start off as an assistant broker or something like that, but you dont need degree in finance or any experience.
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That's just tuition, it doesn't include living costs or anything else.
