I will be finishing school in November; I am currently wieghing the pros and cons of going into medicine or finance, but since this is the money forum I won't be asking about med. So anyway, is it better to do a finance degree if I want to get into banking or should I just do a degree such as advanced maths and then go from there?

What kind of banking do you want to do?

My degree is in Finance and I would suggest going with Medicine.

Well depending on what your personal skills are (whether you are better at math than chemistry, arithmatic than biology) you might want to think about medicine. There is more of a broad base with medicine (everything from pharmaceuticals to surgery) whereas finances and banking it's all basically math-stuff, with the exception of leadership ability for the higher-ups.

In any case, I'd say weigh your personal skills in either of those two catagories, as well as what you think you could do for several years on a daily basis (don't forget, this is basically a 5 days a week job!) and go from there.

SmartTart

Well I have some contacts in a couple of banks, for instance my sister is good friends with the daughter of the executive director of Investec in the UK and my friend is cousins with the people who actually started Investec, also my grandpa is on the board of directors for Nedbank in South Africa-so I think investment banking would be a good idea.

As for ability, I'm pretty good all-round, I get good marks in every subject so that's not really going to be an issue.

[This message has been edited by ararise (edited 08-10-2005).]

You have to think a little deeper than what kind of marks you get in school. With any career, you have to really be into it or you'll get bored and unhappy.

Ask your contacts if they could set you up with someone at Investec to follow around for a day, or even just have lunch with, so you could learn about the job. Don't let it get to your head that you know people in high places at this company.

This might be a really good idea MrWonderful. For your two decisions, maybe try to set up one day where you can like "appreticeship" the jobs you would be looking at, or just watch what they do. It should give you an idea of whether you would be be bored and upset with that particular job in 5 years, and with talking to the people who work in both situations, point you in the right direction.

Hope I could help

SmartTart

My uncle was a bank manager, and his degree was in chemistry.

Dandy

I worked at a bank for 9 months. It sucked.

Get an advanced degree in what interests you the most ... seems like your main interest is in earning money ... so maybe medicine is not your forte' .... Any further education is golden, so don't consider your present choice ever being wrong ... Even if you decide to change later on ... don't consider any choice as being permanent ... Always consider re-education as viable.

Where did you get that from? I'm not denying that it is an issue, but I think I would be quite happy on the ammount of money a doctor makes. The problem is I don't know which career I would enjoy more. But anyway, no one's answered my original question yet-is a finance degree the best way of getting into banking?