Sean Armstrong studied history and now works in investment management. He describes some of the initial challenges for graduates from non-mathematical degree disciplines who are interested in a career in the City….

What happens if you like the idea of a career in Finance, yet haven’t studied a quantitative subject? Maybe you have spent your time at university reading Shelley, or writing a thesis on the Boer War. Then you decide that you want a new challenge, and the City grabs your eye, but you haven’t done maths since A Level or even since GCSE….

It's possible!

It is certainly possible to start in a graduate position in a financial firm when bringing a qualitative degree background. Many firms do insist that they want graduates schooled in quantitative analysis (scientists, mathematicians, engineers etc), and fair enough. But many do not – and the latter list includes most of the top investment banks. ‘You just have to be bright, and enthusiastic, and we’ll train you up’ seems to be the message from such companies. But just how accurate is this? To what extent is the lack of a quantitative degree background a hindrance? And how can it be overcome?

Own experiences....

Let’s start with question one – some anecdotes from my own experience help weave together an answer. I studied history – and hadn’t done maths since GCSE. I decided on a career in finance as I wanted to do something different, and challenging, and to work somewhere where I would have to learn and learn quickly. I didn’t want a job where I could do everything perfectly on my first day. So I explained this at my first interview, at a hedge fund in the City. They were impressed with my credentials and asked me back for a second round interview and short test. This involved some calculations and graphing on excel – a programme I had barely used before. I took ‘too long’ on this project and was told that this was the reason why I would not be hired. But I was buoyed by their initial interest in me, and by the fact that the test was hardly ‘rocket science’ – if the only thing standing between a history graduate and a exciting hedge fund was a bit of excel know-how, things were looking positive….

Further applications, however, met with a blank. Two similar investment companies replied to my CV saying they would need someone with more suitable and ‘relevant’ skills, even though this had not been mentioned on their vacancy posting. I was wavering as to whether the ‘it doesn’t matter what you have studied’ mantra was really true – until I had a call out of the blue from a major investment bank, saying that my CV had been picked out of their database (it wasn’t recruitment season) and that they would like to interview me for a position that had recently become vacant. When I met with the bankers in the team concerned, one said that it was he who had picked out my CV – a 1st in history had really marked me out, he said. ‘You and I must see the world in quite different ways…’ he offered, before grilling me about recent financial news items. Another said that I wouldn’t be expected to know too much before starting, and that they would train me up. In the end I got to the last two applicants, and was informed that I would not be given the job because – apparently – I had not come across as interested enough in finance. This was frustrating – I had been reading the FT every day and mugging up as best I could from books, and speaking to friends in the industry. Yet once again it seemed that having a history degree rather than Maths or Physics would not in itself be a barrier to gaining employment in finance. Soon after I got my first job offer – from an investment fund who appreciated my degree and language skills, and who had confidence that I could learn and adapt on the job.

Some conclusions....

From these experiences the following conclusions can be reached. One: that having a qualitative background is not in itself a hindrance - unless they specifically say, it shouldn’t stop you getting the job. But it does mean, two, that you perhaps have to demonstrate an interest in finance even more than a mathematics or economics graduate would. ‘So why do you want to work in finance?’ was the genuinely interested question common to all of my interviewers. Similarly, three, you do need to be able to cope with mathematical tests – both verbal and written – as these formed a part of many but not all of the interviews I took. Only one – the excel project at the hedge fund – presumed a degree of prior financial literacy and knowledge of that programme. Others, for example at the investment bank, were essentially common sense questions that tested how you respond to problems, and whether you can think logically and apply some basic financial principles to a problem.

This leads then onto my third issue: how can graduates from a qualitative degree background best prepare themselves, to give themselves the best chance to secure an interesting financial graduate role? Certainly being able to convince interviewers of a genuine interest in finance is key. I thought I was at a level where I could do this, at my interview with the investment bank, and the discussion we had about everything from hedge fund trading strategies to credit derivatives would have been impossible for me a few weeks before. But even that wasn’t enough – I didn’t know enough about the markets, they said, proving that you can’t do too much research and preparation. Reading the FT each day should be a given – its amazing how you actually start to understand some of it after a while. Also it is wise both for yourself – and for your chances of success – to research into particular roles that may particularly suit you. Some practice of numeracy tests is also advisable, as it helps to get the brain thinking in terms of numbers again. Again, progress can be quite quick even if this seems daunting to someone who has been dealing only with words for three or four years!

Be confident!

So you can be confident that there is a City job out there for you, if you want it, and pleasantly surprised about how recruiters in the industry can value a degree in an apparently unrelated subject. Oxbridge degrees do seem to still carry some weight. But bear in mind the need for genuine interest – to convince both yourself, and any interviewer, that it makes sense for you to start your career in the field. The more research and interviews you do, the easier it is to generate and demonstrate genuine curiosity, and to pinpoint the areas and roles to which you will be best suited.