What uni course do I want and where to get into finance?

[m1spw]

I'm sure someone on here will know this. I was talking to a good friend last friday, and after a long chat he reckoned I should go into either sales or business management. So if I wanted to work in the City in finance (sorry, not exactly sure what exact job yet), what kind of courses should I be looking at for university? And are there any uni's that have a better reputation for finance degrees than others? (I'd like to go to Edinborough, but they don't seem to do much in the way of finance)

Thanks guys

[plasticpig]

The London School Of Economics is one of the most well thought of. It has a very good international reputation as well as UK. They do an accounting and finance degree.

>> Edited by plasticpig on Thursday 2nd March 21:09

[lewistintin]

I at kings college london at moment. And pretty much everyone on the business management degree has applied to a job in a finance. Many have been succesful. We have two people at citi-group, another at Lazzard asset management. It's a pretty good course for getting into the finance sector, and the lectures have very good contacts. i got an interview with JP Morgan in next couple of weeks.

[sebo]

Just in case you do not have the grades for the LSE (Would have liked to have gone there myself) I can recommend Bournemouth. Most of the courses are Sandwich based so you get a one year work placement (often resulting in a graduate job offer from the same firm).

Within my peer group we have worked at IBM, Intel, Reuters, JP Morgan to name a few.

Admittedly I am a final year student on a Business Information Systems Management Degree and so slightly bias towards that.

However I am not so naïve to think that top City universities wont open doors for you

Seb

[m1spw]

Only thing is, if I want to go into business I'll probably spend most of my time in London, so I'm not sure if I want to go to Uni in London. LSE is obviously the best place to go though.

Sorry I can't be more specific with the details of what I want to do

[lewistintin]

London is a very big place... i am from manchester. And you will never visit any of the places that you wil do when you go to work their. I have been there 3 years, barely visited anywhere in london, which is a bit sad, but there's just no need. I live in Chelsea, my course is at Waterloo, (LSE is at Euston area i think.)Plus, there are loads of good places to do finance. Apparantly Edinburgh is very good, with a much more relaxed atmosphere. I have never met a more focused bunch of people as on my course. They fight, and play such political games to get a job. Some of the societies "leaders" spend your subs money on lunching people from the city in the hope of getting themselves a job. Its really cut throat, and as such, you are required to put a stupid amount of effort in, because if you dont, someone else who will, takes your place.
Thats just my experiance anyway of 3rd yr life at Kings.

PS LSE is a bit boring... much bigger social life at Kings, and the guy who got the citi-group job said the interviewer wasnt keen on LSE students as they think they know it all!!(bias but i have some friends who would back me up at LSE).

[rico]

lewistintin said:

PS LSE is a bit boring... much bigger social life at Kings.

So true. I'm a Kings grad and whenever we went to the LSE union we were bored in about 5mins. Their student bar is like an old folks home... just no atmosphere. Tutus is the place to be! Having a London based degree does make it easier to get into the city. It's also damn good fun going along to their graduate evenings and having a free bar

[rico]

m1spw said:

Sorry I can't be more specific with the details of what I want to do

If thats the case... do economics or a similar generic degree. You'll then learn during your course what aspects you like best and can go from there. Don't shut any doors at this early stage.

[m1spw]

Sorry to bring this up again , but can someone give me a list of the big finance houses (and their websites as well if possible) in London so I can have a look at the recruitment section to see what courses they want from graduates?

Thanks

[pdV6]

In other news, m1spw graduates from asking the PH-massive to do his homework and moves on to asking us to do his job market research and generally plan his life for him...

[edc]

Get onto the Prospects website, get their directory, and if you have one your Careers people will help a lot (or should lol).

[m1spw]

pdV6 said:

In other news, m1spw graduates from asking the PH-massive to do his homework and moves on to asking us to do his job market research and generally plan his life for him...

Sorry . I'm under pressure from someone to work out uni courses, and to be honest I don't have a clue what I'm doing . I'm going to talk to my UCAS referee tomorrow, and we have some big centigrade thing on friday which will give us some example courses and uni's.

Thanks for all the help so far

[touchingcloth]

The way you are speaking comes across as very non-specific at the moment (not a criticism, I didn't have a clue where I was heading at your age); unless you have a dream job already in your mind then I would hold back on feeling like you have to pinpoint one and then choose your degree course to match. The fact is I have a load of friends in the city who got there on history degrees and the like, it is more to do with an aptitude to learning; the guy who did the economics stuff ended up as a journalist!!

It is surely more important that you follow through your education within a field that will stimulate and interest you. Doing something that you feel is right, for a job which your friend said might be good for you, but that you know little about seems folly to me. By going with what you enjoy you will set yourself up with a far higher chance of coming out with a good result which you can then use to take stock and decide the next move.

[jimmyd123]

Hi, I'm a final year student of Money, Banking and Finance at Birmingham Uni. I can recommend the course as I was like you and didn't know what I wanted to do. The course is pretty varied, finance, economic, accounting, etc. Admittedly I still don't know what I really want to do and I graduate this summer.
Birmingham's a great city too. Loads of things to do, NEC has a few car show things a year guess that might interest you. Night life is great both at the uni and in town. If you want to know anything else just PM me.

Don't want to hijack your thread but...............

If anyone is in a position to help me get on a graduate scheme in finance or accounting, or just a job that offers professional training. If you got let me know that would be great and most appreciated.

James

[Simon Pullan]

Hi,

Just an attempt to put you at ease a bit. I work at a pretty big investment bank but when I graduated last summer, in engineering, I had almost no idea what I wanted to do. So don't feel that you have to choose a financial degree to work in finance. Keep your options and broad as you like unless you are really sure where you want to be in 3/4 years time, which it doesn't sound like you do to me.

[pmanson]

sebo said:

Just in case you do not have the grades for the LSE (Would have liked to have gone there myself) I can recommend Bournemouth. Most of the courses are Sandwich based so you get a one year work placement (often resulting in a graduate job offer from the same firm). Within my peer group we have worked at IBM, Intel, Reuters, JP Morgan to name a few. Admittedly I am a final year student on a Business Information Systems Management Degree and so slightly bias towards that. However I am not so naïve to think that top City universities wont open doors for you Seb

Hi Seb,

I'm down here in Bournemouth studying BSc Hons Business Information Technology. Nearly over! The sandwich year was a great opener and gave me some good real world experience!

Do you know a guy called Chris Garvey? (He's my housemate)


Phill