Stepping off my current path in Physics to pursue a career in Finance?
Hello WSO! This is my first post here, and I’m a bit lost when it comes to career path.
Background: I’m going to be a junior this year at the Polytechnic Institute of NYU with a 3.6 GPA majoring in Applied Physics. All my ECs at the moment based on activity in our Robotics, Physics, and Bioengineering clubs. I spent the summer after Freshman year volunteering at the local office of a Human Rights Organization based in China, and my subsequent summer was spent doing research on particle physics at my current school. Up until about two months ago, my path in life seemed pretty straightforward until I realized just how hard it is for even the most brilliant scientists to get funding for what they wish to research.
So that leads me up to my current problem of transitioning into a career in finance until I have a good nest egg to work off without bureaucratic constraint for scientific research.
Fortunately enough, I have found value investing and company evaluation to be a hobby ever since my Senior year in high school so I already have my toes warm to an infinitesimally small portion of Finance after committing classic value investing texts such as Graham’s and Lynch’s to heart . With what bits of knowledge I have obtained regarding security valuation, I have managed to grown my meager $2000 investment to the ~$8000 range in one year trading undervalued small caps. The problems I’m facing right now are that I have no experience in the form of a formal working financial environment (internships), and very little networking to speak of. I’ve signed up for 9 of the 15 credits required for a minor in Finance, and plan on getting a master’s at NYU-Poly in Finance&Risk Engineering (Quantitative Analysis) afterwards.
My questions basically boil down to this: What should I do from here if I wish to pursue a career in finance? My end-goal is to accumulate enough financial assets to start and fund my own tech company or research lab, but I have no idea how to make up for lost time and break into the world of finance
Do you really fucking care about "Human Rights" in China? Who gives a fuck what they do in their country?
Hothiel - you're actually in a very similar position to where I was in UG. I did physics as well and realized about the time I started my 3rd year that I didn't want to work in a lab, and started to consider options in finance. It's definitely doable, but I'd strongly recommend you hit the ground running and find an internship for your last summer this fall (remember, all finance recruiting will basically be done by early Nov.). I found most firms respect hard science majors because they know you'll be able to pick up the analytic side pretty quickly, but def take some econ/finance related classes now if you can to signal that you're serious. Not sure what type of internship you'd be most interested in, but certainly you should have plenty of networking opportunities living in NY. It's a bit weird and your physics buddies will think you're strange for suiting up all Fall to attend recruiting events, but in the end it will be worth it. After you do an internship next summer, you should be in a much better position to evaluate which tracks in finance interest you most (banking, IM, valuation shops etc.) and also what is realistic. Try to get involved in the school's investing club or Student Managed Investment Fund if they have one. And keep your GPA up - it'll be a tough couple years but it's doable, and somewhat necessary. I think most firms give you some credit for taking a relatively harder major, but realize that most of the pure business/econ/accounting ppl you'll be interviewing with will have GPAs of 3.8+. Good luck man!
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