Re: Job opportunities in US for MS Finance graduates
[#permalink]
28 Mar 2011, 09:42
TBH, I don't think they're great in this economy. I really think you'd need a summer internship in i-banking/PE before entering to have a good shot at it. Looking through the placement for numerous top programs at US schools, it doesn't even seem the top boutiques even look at MSF students. BB is still rare, but at some programs more common (usually a couple at the top programs).
Most of the MS finance programs in the US are semi-targets or non-targets at the undergraduate level and as a result, they don't get the top banks on campus for recruiting or if they do it is not for i-banking or S&T. MSF programs in the US are a new creation so they also aren't as on the radar for firms compared to Europe.
The exceptions seem to be Princeton, MIT, WUSTL (to a lesser extent). Also, for more general business programs check out UVA and Duke.
I also think an important thing to note is the difficulty international students studying in the US have in getting jobs currently. Not only is the job market very slowly recovering, but also work visas and sponsorships for foreign workers are very hard to come by; internationals have a harder time.
Also, consider that many programs are not clear about what divisions (PWM, S&T, IB, back office) places like BarCap, JPM, Goldman, UBS, etc hire for. They may use recruiting for the past three years (as opposed to just the previous year) to create a more impressive list of employers that hire MSF students.