Changing careers and the internship/Job hunt

Question

Hello all, I am curious to hear your stories about what kinds of internships/jobs you all find when making large career changes. For instance, I will be changing from technology to marketing/strategy (I hope). So, lets hear the stories of your BIG career changes, and what you did to ensure a successful transition!

Thanks!

Thanks!

westsider · Answer

Ok, I will take stories of *smaller* changes as well =) I'm just looking to see what sort of things are likely to be possible!

toDoorNot · Answer

I am also looking to change careers.. from technology to banking.. how easy is that

westsider · Answer

I used to work in i-banking technology. If you are looking to work no a trading desk, you had better be very comfortable with technology. I had 2 friends switch from technology to the business side (I also had the option presented to me). If you are willing to make a "softer" transition, there are some trading desk positions that are about 50% tech - but of course without all the annoying "process". Lots of heavy-duty spreadsheets to be created, databases to be updated... etc.

sam77sam7 · Answer

Also very interested in career changing opportunities.. coming from a non-traditional background, how hard is a transition into banking/consulting? How difficult to procure internships/FT offers?

rhyme · Answer

These questions are so hard to answer. "How hard" --- depends on where you set your goals and what you consider hard. Its sort of like asking "How hard is it to get into Kellogg?" -- its hard, everyone knows that, but quantifying it in any kind of meaningful way is sort of futile. People do it, and people do it successfully all the time.

If one of you has something a bit more specific to ask, I can try to tackle that...

If one of you has something a bit more specific to ask, I can try to tackle that...

westsider · Answer

Not really looking for specific questions answered, just curious to hear other people's stories :-D

squali83 · Answer

I do not think changing careers is all that difficult as long as you demonstrate capacity for the position and a love for the company and the function you are interested in. Changing careers is probably the single most cited reason people go to B-School. As for career changing stories, I think I have witnessed them all, from marketing to IB, vice versa, finance to consulting and so on. I even witnessed a high school teacher turn into an I-Banker! Basically, it can be done, you just have to work harder for it than someone who already has experience in the industry. Hope this helps a little.

PEtoMBA · Answer

Thanks for the reply.

I'd definitely be interested in hearing any more career change sucess stories as I'll be trying to pull off a transition from civil engineering to hi-tech starting next fall.

lepium · Answer

I'd suggest the opposite, i.e., transition from finance into technical fields. There are several studies showing how engineers are (and most importantly will remain) in short supply around the world for decades to come.

L.

L.

westsider · Answer

The problem is that more and more "engineering" jobs, particularly computer-related simply consist of what I call "being a factory". It seems after 20 years of fantastic growth in the industry, they decided that all this success MUST mean they are doing something wrong, and decided to go with a manufacturing model to the jobs. I always had thought this would happen to the industry someday - just not quite so quickly. I could go off on a long monologue about why attempting to isolate the engineer from the business case is a bad idea, and why intentionally making individual tasks smaller and smaller and more specific is in fact a bad idea, but I've done it so many times already I just don't have the energy. Put simply, Computer jobs are quickly becoming mindless jobs where a human is needed to do something that for various reasons can't be automated. Don't fool yourself, however. In 95% of these jobs, You are nothing more than a factory.

Changing careers and the internship/Job hunt

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