I'm really having trouble deciding what I want to do after I graduate.
Right now I'm at Purdue University going for my M.S.F. I earned my B.S.
in Economics in 2007 from Purdue as well. I applied for the MSF program
after I was laid off from my job as a claims adjuster last January, and
somehow got in.
Why did I choose to do graduate work in finance? Well, I started
following the markets and economy in general during college (and
subsequently began to invest when I actually had some money after
school haha). Anyway, began reading websites and watching CNBC just
about every day, just for the fun of it mostly. I just liked seeing how
all the different mechanisms of the economy and market worked together,
and liked to try to predict what it was going to do based on different
ideas. I really became involved when crude began its run 2-3 years ago.
I've always been interested in the potential effects of peak oil and
the 'energy crunch' on the economy, and human society at large. Then,
of course, when everything went crazy at this time last year I was
watching 3-4 hours of CNBC per day. It was better drama than anything
else on TV!
So anyway, long story short, I ended up back at Purdue. I had no idea
what I wanted to DO with my MSF, just that I like stuff that involves
economics and finance and going for this degree would make more sense
than just living w/ my brother in a small apartment living off of
unemployment haha
Well after a few months (we started July 20th), I've figured out
a few things. First, I'm not that bad at all this. I only got in like
the 55th percentile on my GMAT Quant score so I was worried that my
quantitative skills were lacking compared to my classmates. However,
they're average or even slightly better than theirs (Purdue is known
for its quant. and 70% of my MSF classmates are from
Taiwan/China...they know their quant. trust me). I'm not getting
straight As, but I'm looking at a 3.2 - 3.4 GPA with a third of the
credit hours completed (grades posted tomorrow). Second, I STILL really don't know what I want to
do and I'm worried about it. There are parts of finance I really like
and parts that are kinda boring and tedious in my mind. If I can't
figure out what jobs match with what I like and what I'm good at, I
might get stuck in one I hate. I'm just gonna list some things about
what I like/don't like/etc.:
I know I hate accounting. I think it's boring and tedious. I understand
you have to know how to come up with the numbers so that you can
understand what they mean and how to use them, but the last thing I
want to be is an accountant. I want to USE the numbers not punch em. I
also understand that as entry-level, you gotta put in your work and do
the tedious number crunching and stuff. That's OK for the short-term,
but I dunno if I'd want to do that for more than 3-5 years. My professor made a joke about accounting/finance people sometimes being LLFs...low level functionaries....I don't mind being one of those for awhile, but I want to try and move onto big picture stuff eventually once I've proved myself.
I'm not a huge fan of Net Present Value. Of course it's important and I
do like using NPV/etc. in analysis of certain things, but if my job
ever has to do with maximizing NPV ad nausem I think it'd be kinda
boring too.
I don't like working 70 hours a week. I never have, but I know I'd hate
it. I worked in a high-stress job for 40-50 hours a week for 2 years,
and that's about as far as I'll go. If I gotta stay late a couple
nights a week or come in on a Saturday once a month for a few hours,
that's cool. I'll work the 9-5, plus more if necessary, but I don't
wanna be working 12 hours a day, 6 days a week (or worse). I'm 24 and
single...I wanna have some time to go out and have fun...find a wife or
somethin haha you know, not be in the office all day every day. I know
that won't make me millions on Wall Street or something, but I don't
care
I do like economics. I didn't really want to go the research or
academic route, so I didn't ever consider a Master's in Economics.
However, I really think that Finance and Economics can complement each
other greatly in the right setting. I don't know what setting that is
really though. Some people have said asset management, some have said government...I'm sure there are other good possibilities?
I do like all things stock market, but I'm pretty inexperienced. My
options class is really cool, and we FINALLY get into portfolio
management next week. Still, I don't know if I'd be good at this
or not because I haven't really done too much of it. Options seems
pretty natural to me so far, Black-Scholes aint nothin haha but still,
I dunno. This is pretty much what brought me to the MSF program.
However, since I'm stuck in the Midwest, pretty much all recruiters
around here are for Corporate Finance, with a little bit of Commercial
Banking. Also, the problem with this is A) The recession just destroyed
this industry, so how am I to compete with all the people who just got
laid off and have tons of experience at hedge funds, etc. etc.? and B)
Is my only option New York City? Never been there...not sure if I'd
like it or not, I've heard mixed opinions and I'm kinda a country boy
haha
I guess long story short, I like history/psychology/politics/stock market/economy and how
they all interact, I'm decent at quant but certainly not a financial
engineer, I work hard and don't mind high-stress but won't work more
than 50 hours a week, and I'll relocate almost anywhere but I'm not
100% sure about New York. Oh yea, I also love to write and think I'm
pretty good at it. Don't take what I've written here as evidence
though, I didn't really try haha