My friend Clint, on behalf of his little brother Conner, who is apparently trying to get some idea of a direction to go in school, asked me about my choice of major - International Relations - especially why I chose to study IR when I really want to be in finance anyways. I wrote this and thought you might like to know why I chose the path I have.
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I've known for a long time that I wanted to be in business - but I wanted to do internationally-oriented business, and the IR major sounded fascinating, but I admittedly also had some misconceptions about the business school that pushed me away from a more traditional track.
First off, an IR major is, in essence, a dual Political Science and Economics degree. There are several emphasis's - most related to areas of the world, like the emphasis in East Asian politics, but there's one that's an outlier called Political Economy which has a lot more econ classes (and fewer Poli Sci classes - which to me is a very good thing) that focuses on the relationship between a country's economy and its government.
The IR major really is fun and there's a lot of cool classes, with neat discussion. It's greatest weakeness is also its strength - its super broad and not deep at all. It's entirely up to the student to tailor your education to the direction you want to go and do stuff outside of the major to get there.
To do that, I'm getting the business minor and also pursuing the global management certificate, which essentially requires foreign language ability, a study abroad, and a couple high-level business classes with an international outlook. With those two additions to my major I've been able to tailor my education towards international finance.
That said, doing it like that has its drawbacks. One, I've had to go out of my way to meet recruiters, network, and make myself look even semi-competitive against real finance gurus like your brother. Secondly, I'm truthfully not competitive against those finance gurus - I haven't taken the dozen classes they have on different finance classes and I never could - so I need to convince firms of my worth through other ways, and without a clear title like "Finance Major" to back it up. That makes things hard and kind of frustrating.
I also must admit that one of the big reasons I didn't do a business degree was because I thought business students always had to wear suits to school and that their classes were boring. Their classes often are boring - at least the entry level classes (my international finance class is fascinating), but they don't need to wear suits every day - it just seems like it because there's always a recruiter in the building.
So that's that. All in all, I'm still happy with the direction I've chosen, but I admit it's harder than taking a more clearly defined path. But hey, maybe I can market that as something that differentiates me. :)
--------------------------------------
I've known for a long time that I wanted to be in business - but I wanted to do internationally-oriented business, and the IR major sounded fascinating, but I admittedly also had some misconceptions about the business school that pushed me away from a more traditional track.
First off, an IR major is, in essence, a dual Political Science and Economics degree. There are several emphasis's - most related to areas of the world, like the emphasis in East Asian politics, but there's one that's an outlier called Political Economy which has a lot more econ classes (and fewer Poli Sci classes - which to me is a very good thing) that focuses on the relationship between a country's economy and its government.
The IR major really is fun and there's a lot of cool classes, with neat discussion. It's greatest weakeness is also its strength - its super broad and not deep at all. It's entirely up to the student to tailor your education to the direction you want to go and do stuff outside of the major to get there.
To do that, I'm getting the business minor and also pursuing the global management certificate, which essentially requires foreign language ability, a study abroad, and a couple high-level business classes with an international outlook. With those two additions to my major I've been able to tailor my education towards international finance.
That said, doing it like that has its drawbacks. One, I've had to go out of my way to meet recruiters, network, and make myself look even semi-competitive against real finance gurus like your brother. Secondly, I'm truthfully not competitive against those finance gurus - I haven't taken the dozen classes they have on different finance classes and I never could - so I need to convince firms of my worth through other ways, and without a clear title like "Finance Major" to back it up. That makes things hard and kind of frustrating.
I also must admit that one of the big reasons I didn't do a business degree was because I thought business students always had to wear suits to school and that their classes were boring. Their classes often are boring - at least the entry level classes (my international finance class is fascinating), but they don't need to wear suits every day - it just seems like it because there's always a recruiter in the building.
So that's that. All in all, I'm still happy with the direction I've chosen, but I admit it's harder than taking a more clearly defined path. But hey, maybe I can market that as something that differentiates me. :)
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