[rgaurav]

Hi,

Please help me with your suggestions. I am in IT sector since last 5 years with one of the best companies in India. Though my job profile has been mostly support projects, no development and the technologies are also old.
I have a lot of interest in finance. I'd like to move to finance area. I know it is quite late even now, and I can join only in 2008 because of personal reasons. So I'll have 7 years exp when I join MBA. Can I change my stream after 7 years of experience?

Also, which one would be better, ISB or PGPX-IIMA? PGPX is a generalized one (no specializations) right?

Regargs,
Gaurav

[TheVishy]

check out my thread ...
http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/career...-go-about.html (CFA for engineers - How to go about ?)

i believe MBA is the option most people chose to change the stream . it is possible to change the stream , but the disadvantage will be ur lack of experience in the field .

if u can get an mba from a good college and willing to toil hard , i think u can make it possible . that said ur it experience can help you in join the fin dept. of a good IT company , so ur experience is not irrevelant ... but might prove lacking ...

nothing is impossible if u have the will to do it...

godspeed
nishant

[Psychodementia]

Whenever you want to enter *any* field you need to bring in 3 qualities:

(a) Education - It matters. Simply put you need to be an MBBS to treat sick people and you need to have a CA/CFA to do accounting. Period. However this is not set in stone, but crucial. Anything allied is fine too i.e. Engineers getting into IT.

(b) Experience/Skills - What do you bring to the table? Do an elevator pitch and tell me in less than 5 sentences why a Finance firm should hire you. Don't BS stuff like "leadership potential" etc. Put it in plain simple tangible skills.

(c) Natural Flair - Even an MBA from Kellogg and a 2year stint with P&G is not going to help you if you cannot talk in marketing. Simiarily, you need go beyond the mere text-book stuff in Finance and bring a great deal of innate intelligence if you were to succeed. You need to be a guy who dabbles with numbers, someone who has a perpetual window open on his PC doing online trading. Get the drift?

Given the above parameters ask yourself this question: What do I want to do in Finance? Just like IT is a vast field. For example, if someone were entering IT you would probably ask him questions like what interests you ? - is it software or hardware or firmware? Is it applications programming or systems programming? Is it ASIC programming or chip designing?

Similarily come up with something concrete in Finance you want to do. Age and experience won't allow you the luxury to pick and choose and spend time debating. Once you have that level of clarity go to the next step - ask people in that domain what it takes to get a foot-in-the-door and you should do good.

HTH,

Arun

[TheVishy]

cool , nice view point

[orca]

Originally Posted by Psychodementia

(c) Natural Flair - Even an MBA from Kellogg and a 2year stint with P&G is not going to help you if you cannot talk in marketing. Simiarily, you need go beyond the mere text-book stuff in Finance and bring a great deal of innate intelligence if you were to succeed. You need to be a guy who dabbles with numbers, someone who has a perpetual window open on his PC doing online trading. Get the drift?

The one factor that very few ppl consider when they talk of a *career shift*. Developing marketing strategies might sound very cool but u gotta dirty ur hands on the field for atleast 5-6 yrs before u get to do that. Are you ready for that ? Are you aware of what a typical day goes like for an S&M guy or an i-banker before u aspire to be one ?

IMO this shud be the most important factor in deciding what u wanna get into after ur MBA. I have seen many cases of IT work ex guys coming in with a so called *Fin* orientation to B-skools and 2 months down the line they are convinced that IT is the best thing for them

Given that u have 5+ yrs work ex, give it a very very serious thought before u even think of doing an MBA. Talk to as many current B-skoolers with a profile similar to urs/ex B-skoolers/gyaani folks like psychoD And yeah throw all those B-skool placement reports into the nearest dustbin

[rgaurav]

Thank you Nishant, Arun & (Orca?) for your insights...

Nishant -
"nothing is impossible if u have the will to do it..."
I believe in this. So far with God's grace, I have got whatever I had determined to get. Thank you for the inspiration.

Arun -
The qualities
a) Education - MBA will the the main education relevant to Finance. I can read a few more books in the next year, but for education, I don't think I can do much now! Can I?
b) Experience/Skill - Again, my only experience is in IT. Though my client is an insurance company and I support their Real Estate Investments division. To get some business knowledge I had taken two small certifications (I know it won't count towards education!) - FFSI level 1 from LOMA & Certificate in General Insurance from AICPCU. Apart from my natural bent/passion towards Finance, I can't give any reasons why a Finance company should hire me (as of now). Can I build my case given I have an year before I apply for B-schools?
c) Natural Flair - I feel I have a natural flair for Investments/Financial markets related stuff. I have given trainings/presentations to my techie friends on basics of stock trading. Also I gave a presentation to the higher managers in their meeting on Technical Analysis of Stock Markets. And I do invest in stocks and trade derivatives.

My interests lie in the securities markets. Derivatives pricing, portfolio analysis etc interest me a lot. I am good with numbers too. As per your suggestion, I will find out more about the available fields in Finance and see which ones interest me.

orca -
I understand your point. I will find out more about the fields as well as the job content of the people really working in those fields.
Regarding Fin orientation, I don't really know about others, but I'm sure about myself.
And regarding Gyan, I think I have found the correct place to get it! :-)

Thanks once again for the answers!
Gaurav

[MartianOnEarth]

Have you considered non-MBA options? For instance, if your interests lie in investing, a capital markets oriented course might be more relevant and enjoyable vis-a-vis an MBA where you'll be studying subjects like Operations, HR etc as well, in addition to finance related courses. If you want a broad-based degree, MBA is the way to go.