What degree's do employers prefer

tomhunter

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Hi

I was interested in a courier in trading and am currently studying my A levels.

Doing Buisness,Economics and ICT and was planning on doing maths AS next year in order to be ellegiable for the:

BSc International Securities, Investment and Banking at reading university

http://www.icmacentre.ac.uk/index.php?id=2

Is this the right path to getting a job as a trainee trader or would employers prefer a less trading specific course such as economics and econometrics from a more prestigous university than reading?

Thank You
All help greatly appreciated
Best Regards, Tom
 
I would say Maths, Physics or Engineering would be most useful. Anything highly numerate tends to be most sought after, although the class of degree and university they're from are equally as important. If your Maths is strong enough, you could look at doing a full A level in it?

tomhunter said:
Hi

I was interested in a courier in trading and am currently studying my A levels.

Doing Buisness,Economics and ICT and was planning on doing maths AS next year in order to be ellegiable for the:

BSc International Securities, Investment and Banking at reading university

http://www.icmacentre.ac.uk/index.php?id=2

Is this the right path to getting a job as a trainee trader or would employers prefer a less trading specific course such as economics and econometrics from a more prestigous university than reading?

Thank You
All help greatly appreciated
Best Regards, Tom
 
Depends where you want to end up, but if you're talking about trading in an IB then your second option is by far the better - something with 'hard' maths also goes down well: engineering, chemical engineering, physics, etc. Bear in mind the IBs will be recruiting for their City intake across Europe and the US ones will probably send some of their own grads over for experience, so not only are you up against the best guys from Oxbridge, LSE, UCL, Imperial , etc but you're also up against their equivalents in France, Germany, Italy... I'm sure Reading is a nice university, but if you have the choice...
 
tomhunter said:
Hi

I was interested in a courier in trading and am currently studying my A levels.

Doing Buisness,Economics and ICT and was planning on doing maths AS next year in order to be ellegiable for the:

BSc International Securities, Investment and Banking at reading university

http://www.icmacentre.ac.uk/index.php?id=2

Is this the right path to getting a job as a trainee trader or would employers prefer a less trading specific course such as economics and econometrics from a more prestigous university than reading?

Thank You
All help greatly appreciated
Best Regards, Tom

I've got my Econ degree from Reading University. Good choice.

Essentially, Reading was the best University for International Econ. at the time. There was a Prof Dunning who was an international figure for Multinationals and their practices benefits & cons etc. Trip down memory lane - He tore my dissertation which I presented on "The Rise & Fall of the British Empire and Investment Based Analysis", to pieces in a seminar. With due respect he got it wrong as I witnessed my recommendations and predictions come to fruition but that's life for you.

Also, Economic Integration and EEC was big at the time.

Finally, Reading is/was renoun for their Land Management Development and Food Science courses (I think it might have been the only one in the country).

I think you might find it was also part of Oxford University about a hundred years ago and became a Univ on it's own right. Avoid Wantage hall and all the law students. The Art department used to have the wildest parties ending in orgies. It's one of the more established universities rather than the new crop that came were established for the post war baby boomers.

Coming to your question, I would agree the study of international economics with banking would benefit you. I would agree Mathematics and in particular econometrics with lots of maths and statistical analysis would help you. I would add accountancy in there too.

The markets are all about analysing stats adn trends and digesting figures. Hence, International Econ, Econometrics, Money & Banking and Accountancy would be all good steps forward to your dream job.

Good luck and on your bike to your courier service in trading... :D
 
I studied Physics and Maths with intention to become an astrophysicist. Then I realised what it was like to be really skint so I accepted a trading job.
 
IMHO Physics is the best preperation for the financial world. Physics followed by some good financial training.
 
TWI said:
I studied Physics and Maths with intention to become an astrophysicist. Then I realised what it was like to be really skint so I accepted a trading job.

Very true excellent advice.

I wanted to be an international money lender and ended up working for McDonalds when I left Uny. Wimpy turned me down. I remember thinking how I had wasted what little money I had on the bus fare getting to the interview. I also remember walking to the McDonalds interview.

The economics did help though as after the quick job at McDonalds I went for the highest paid jobs and ended up in IT. That's what you call applied economics. :)
 
I did the McDonalds thing in the evening and weekends while at School, it taught me that if there's time to lean, there's time to clean.
 
Is your A level actually called "Buisness" ?
Very seriously, you need to ensure there are no typos or all the other mistakes you've made in your post on your Personal Statement or you won't stand a snowball's chance in hell of getting into Reading, much less a job where accuracy matters. They like people who are literate.
 
Atilla said:
I've got my Econ degree from Reading University. Good choice.

Essentially, Reading was the best University for International Econ. at the time. There was a Prof Dunning who was an international figure for Multinationals and their practices benefits & cons etc. Trip down memory lane - He tore my dissertation which I presented on "The Rise & Fall of the British Empire and Investment Based Analysis", to pieces in a seminar. With due respect he got it wrong as I witnessed my recommendations and predictions come to fruition but that's life for you.

Also, Economic Integration and EEC was big at the time.

Finally, Reading is/was renoun for their Land Management Development and Food Science courses (I think it might have been the only one in the country).

I think you might find it was also part of Oxford University about a hundred years ago and became a Univ on it's own right. Avoid Wantage hall and all the law students. The Art department used to have the wildest parties ending in orgies. It's one of the more established universities rather than the new crop that came were established for the post war baby boomers.
Jack o'Clubs said:
so not only are you up against the best guys from Oxbridge, LSE, UCL, Imperial , etc but you're also up against their equivalents in France, Germany, Italy... I'm sure Reading is a nice university, but if you have the choice...
Atilla said:
I wanted to be an international money lender and ended up working for McDonalds when I left Uny. Wimpy turned me down. I remember thinking how I had wasted what little money I had on the bus fare getting to the interview. I also remember walking to the McDonalds interview.
Q.E.D. :LOL:
 
Mr. Charts said:
They like people who are literate.

I know I'm taking Richards quote out of context ....;)

The best traders I had the pleasure to work with had a common trait of mild dyslexia...A few had some form of Higher education gained form past/others careers . The Most gifted Trader had come from a car sales back ground :eek: ..

None had been molded into traders by doing so called "trading friendly" degrees...
 
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I've just reread the post taking in other people's comments and seen a host of errors:

- incorrect apostrophe
- courier instead of career
- Buisness instead of Business
- ellegiable instead of eligible
- prestigous instead of prestigious

It might seem we're nit-picking and admittedly some errors might be typos but take heed of Mr Charts' post. If I received an application full of errors it'd go straight in the bin.

Good luck.
 
Jack o'Clubs said:

Considering I was the only one from my school to get to University and so it was a considerable achievement from where I came from and where I got. My parents were poor but very hard working with bundles of love, affection and joy.

I was represented my school in the under 21s and under 16s Badminton Middlesex County championships. We won the under 16s and come runner up in the under 21s. I trained with the England players at Ryan Hall at Stamford Bridge.

I won the King Seitz Memorial prize for being an outstanding student and got £35 in book vouchers which meant the world to me.

Like my hero Atilla I have come from far away places and risen up the ranks to look down on snobs like you and mighty civilised Roman empire that crucified Christians and fed them to the lions. Atilla took the Romans on at their height and defeated them.

The difference between people like me and you and our thought patterns is that inept people are hired for their breeding and the way they talk rather than what was established in Atilla's army based on ability and skill not blood line.

I'm proud of my background and mopping the floors and cleaning surfaces at McDonalds. Their hygiene standards are very high and renown for offering same quality controlled foods all over the world.

So you can take your Q.E.D and laugh with your rear.

Snotty snob!
 
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Atilla said:
Considering I was the only one from my school to get to University and so it was a considerable achievement from where I came from and where I got. My parents were poor but very hard working with bundles of love, affection and joy.

I was represented my school in the under 21s and under 16s Badminton Middlesex County championships. We won the under 16s and come runner up in the under 21s. I trained with the England players at Ryan Hall at Stamford Bridge.

I won the King Seitz Memorial prize for being an outstanding student and got £35 in book vouchers which meant the world to me.

Like my hero Atilla I have come from far away places and risen up the ranks to look down on snobs like you and mighty civilised Roman empire that crucified Christians and fed them to the lions. Atilla took the Romans on at their height and defeated them.

The difference between people like me and you and our thought patterns is that inept people are hired for their breeding and the way they talk rather than what was established in Atilla's army based on ability and skill not blood line.

I'm proud of my background and mopping the floors and cleaning surfaces at McDonalds. Their hygiene standards are very high and renown for offering same quality controlled foods all over the world.

So you can take your Q.E.D and laugh with your rear.

Snotty snob!
Sorry Atilla, I had hoped the smiley might indicate it was meant as a joke, no malice intended, but nevermind. FWIW I was also the first in my family to go on to college and didn't even go to University - it was a Poly, so no snobbism here.

But honestly, if for example you had a child in the sixth form who was exceptionally able and wanted a career with a big IB in the City, and all options were open to them, would you really advise Reading ahead of Oxford, Harvard or the Sorbonne? Did the IB's include Reading on their milk-round? That's the point I was making...

The one trend I noticed amongst the traders of the big US IB where I worked is that there had been a big shift away from the streetwise 'university of life' barrow-boy stereotype towards people who had the same trading ability but who also had sh1t-hot academics. A few of the old guard were sharp-as-nails Eastenders with few formal qualifications, but all of the newer guys (and they were all guys...) had at least one highly numerate first degree from a world-class university, and there were a smattering of Ph.Ds among them. These weren't quants, but 'ordinary' traders. The bank's view was that trading was becoming so complex that they needed the intellect to be guaranteed and then could work on weeding out those who lacked the instinct for trading - they might end up as analysts or bankers or whatever. There's also the point that initially at least a lot of the trading would be 'flow' which is more mechanical, and that would give time for them to recognise those that had skills which might be useful in the sexier area of prop.

Of course there are other routes in, and no-one's suggesting a PhD in astrophysics from Yale is a necessity, but if someone's asking what would be the optimum strategy to maximise their chances of getting into a good IB, then you're allowing your prejudices to carry you away if you think that a degree from Reading is as impressive to an employer as one from the universities I've mentioned elsewhere. My old shop went to four UK universities on their milk-round and I can assure you that Reading wasn't one of them.
 
Now, now. Temper.

Atilla said:
Considering I was the only one from my school to get to University and so it was a considerable achievement from where I came from and where I got. My parents were poor but very hard working with bundles of love, affection and joy.

I was represented my school in the under 21s and under 16s Badminton Middlesex County championships. We won the under 16s and come runner up in the under 21s. I trained with the England players at Ryan Hall at Stamford Bridge.

I won the King Seitz Memorial prize for being an outstanding student and got £35 in book vouchers which meant the world to me.

Like my hero Atilla I have come from far away places and risen up the ranks to look down on snobs like you and mighty civilised Roman empire that crucified Christians and fed them to the lions. Atilla took the Romans on at their height and defeated them.

The difference between people like me and you and our thought patterns is that inept people are hired for their breeding and the way they talk rather than what was established in Atilla's army based on ability and skill not blood line.

I'm proud of my background and mopping the floors and cleaning surfaces at McDonalds. Their hygiene standards are very high and renown for offering same quality controlled foods all over the world.

So you can take your Q.E.D and laugh with your rear.

Snotty snob!

You. have to mature and avoid childish name calling. Take criticism as a form of kindly advice and avoid lashing out in a childish sulk if the advice is not what you hoped to hear. :|


'Did sombody say, McBypass?'
 

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neil said:
You. have to mature and avoid childish name calling. Take criticism as a form of kindly advice and avoid lashing out in a childish sulk if the advice is not what you hoped to hear. :|


'Did sombody say, McBypass?'

One of the reason why the British Empire declined is essentially because of snotty snobs name calling brilliant engineers - working class labourers. Studying the arts, music and latin were considered virtuous at places like Oxford and Cambridge. Engineering was considered a cinderella discipline. In fact the upper classes considered any work that was done using their hands to be a working class activity. So they all stood around with chins up in the air.

Most of the great inventions including Stephens rocket was financed by individuals working off their own steam. Borrowing money from friends and relatinves. Some of the best British ideas went to America because they could not raise capital to invest here in the UK.

By contrast Germany and Japan had 4 times the number of engineers as Britain. Despite the UK having the 4th largest defence industry & spending more than any other country on R&D couldn't turn any benefit into consumer products. The reason why the likes of Raleigh motor bikes, Massey Fergusson and British Leyland went to the wall was not because of the trade unions but stuck up management who played on their stuffy superiority which really only existed because they had a head start on everyone else. I'm sad to say our decimated manufacturing industry says it all.

The current period of fat cat payments and this old boy nettwork is still sadly with us. To the point that put downs of class and favouritism still exists. German & Japaneese engineers are still better than British ones as well as being greater in number. The best British inventions still go to the US to be developed. Unlike the German banks, British banks only look at short run gains. They certainly don't work with industry or the trade unions.

Perhaps now you may understand why from my proud working class backgrounds I consider being a snob is not a virtue but some old stuffy desease that led to the fall of our great industries.

Nobody likes to be put down or humilliated because they had to work for their pennies. So if I defend my opinions and achievements you conclude my response as...

immature ( I think I'm old enough thanks :cool: )
childish name calling ( you plonker :LOL: )
lacking in ability to take criticism as a form of kindly advice ( thank you for your kind charitable advice but no thanks I'll keep my opinions as they were. I'd advise you to re-evaluate your understanding and response. :!: )
lashing out ( not sure what to say to this one :rolleyes: You should try writing fiction! :LOL: )
childish sulk ( I'm not sulking - merely responding but not in the way you hoped to hear :p )

It seems you can read, have good grammer but fail to comprehend. I hope I have clearly explained my point of view to your good self.

Have a good day :)
 
Atilla said:
being a snob is not a virtue but some old stuffy desease

Hi Atilla,

Snob comes from Latin: Sine nobilitate=without nobility.

Indeed, a snob is a social disease.

J
 
Back at the playground

Attila.
I too am working class( and I can spell) but I choose not to sink to your childish level. Look and learn or continue to throw your toys out of your pram - the choice is yours since I no longer care. :rolleyes:
 

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