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Old 11-18-2005, 08:34 PM
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Default Re: Question for business grads out in the real world.

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1) I wanted to ask some of you who are already out in the real world how crucial you think corporate finance is to jobs that people would get with a business major? I'm told that for stuff like day trading and MGMT consulting you don't really have to understand the actual computations of stuff like Supernatural Growth Formulas, Dividend Growth, IRR/ARR's, etc.. since alot of what you need to know is learned on the job anyway. 2) My second question is.... if I were to switch majors to Small businesses and Entreprenuership, would certain job opportunities be open to me as they would had I majored in finance? I guess im asking, if I major in small businesses, would this mean all I can do is work on starting my own business... or what other opportunities come with this concentration. What type of person would this concentration be ideal for? If I want to get into possibly real estate, investing, my own business, etc... would this be an ok major? I assumed finance was best for this type of thing, but wasn't sure what jobs are only open to finance and if i'd be interested in those jobs anyway.

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Basically, it appears that you don't have a strong aptitude for applied maths. Fair enough, I don't either. To math wizzes the forumlae you listed in your post are elementary. The fact that you suggest switching your major also suggests you might not have that special interest in finance.

So to answer your questions...
The level/complexity of maths and importance of financial formulae depends on the specific job you have. You are correct that daytraders do not need to know this stuff. That said, you can make trading as mathematical as you want it to be(i.e. a lot of engineers who become traders will do a lot of stat analysis/backtesting with highly complex maths derived from quantum physics, fourier series, wavelets, etc etc)
Mgmt consultants won't be doing this stuff though I believe they do some surface level stat analysis.
If you are working in investment banking, yes you'll need to know this. Equity research too. Derivatives desks you'll need good maths too.
Marketing, advertising, real estate sales, no.
Anyway, aside from this, your main concern should be what you want to do. It sounds like you are still very undecided and just have a general interest in business, not finance. I know it's tough to figure this out and you'll probably change your mind lots of times. It makes it even harder since you have no idea what each profession is really like except for some recruiters giving you a trashy powerpoint presentation and hearing about your frat brother working 120 hour weeks at Merrill making bank.

Majoring in finance is good if you want to land a job in the field, but not a must. Majoring in small businesses doesn't rule out the possibility of getting a job in finance, and it doesn't mean you are going to be consulting new startups either. Your major won't make or break you but clearly it can help you along the way toward a certain career.

So yeah, I suggest you do two things. Think about what you want to do and take courses that are fun and interesting to you. Once you have some general ideas of what you want to do, think about what courses you could take that would have a significant impact on your ability to succeed in that field. So, let's say you are very interested in trading and decide you want to pursue it as a career. Then, you'd benefit by taking some courses in programming and statistics.
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