Pursuing a finance career? Use your past experiences as a springboard.
Welcome to the latest installment of our new series, “The Industry Ahead,” in which our faculty share the latest trends in hiring across a variety of career fields. This time we’re exploring the wide world of finance with clinical professor Jose Liberti, who teaches MBA courses at Kellogg and has extensive experience with financial services businesses.
“When students tell me they’re thinking about finance,” Professor Liberti says, “I ask them two questions: where are you coming from and where do you want to go?”
Liberti is the right person to ask. Before becoming a professor, he worked as a financial advisor for Citibank, and now consults with a range of financial services businesses including private equity firms, financial advisory services and others including involvement with Point 72 Academy, an investment analyst training program.
He uses his experience and insights to help students and others interested in finance careers aim for rewarding paths that make use of their past experience, whatever it may be.
Diverse paths and destinations
Liberti sees a lot of diversity among students interested in finance. “It might be that they have a background in finance itself,” he says. “Or something quantitative like engineering, or a mix of finance and consulting. It helps to know what they are building on.”
While quantitative experience makes for a strong finance foundation, Kellogg students from all backgrounds successfully pursue and land finance jobs, including those with military, teaching, or nonprofit experience.
No matter their background, students interested in finance must think about the industry and role that suits them best. “What are students attracted to?” Liberti says. “It used to be mostly about pursuing banking in New York City. But interests have become much more divergent in the last 10 to 15 years. The past hyper-focus on pursuing high-salary jobs within the industry has diversified, and people are more interested in finding the right fit.”
That’s evident in the wide range of targets for Kellogg students pursuing finance, as Liberti notes: “It might be corporate finance like M&A inside Boeing or Cisco. Or middle-market private equity. Or working with owners of a family enterprise to make investments after they sell their business.” Some students even learn how to raise funds to purchase and run a single business, including managing all finance activities.
A strategic, specialized field
Liberti sees finance as an increasingly strategic, specialized field.
“Some people are surprised by how strategic finance is,” he says. “In the first year of the MBA program, students begin to understand how much logic there is to it and become interested in learning more about what makes it work.”
What makes it work, these days, seems to be specialization. “Demand is increasing for finance specialists,” Liberti says.
The good news is that most people pursuing finance can use their past to shape their future professional role, including specialization. “It’s about levering up what you’ve already done,” Liberti says. “If you were an oil-and-gas engineer or worked in the music industry, for example, you can come to Kellogg and dial your focus on corporate finance, which would allow you become a very hot commodity working for a private equity firm that invests in oil or the music industry.” In a similar way, students with past roles focused on climate, policy or sustainability can focus on impact investing at Kellogg to shape their post-MBA career.
Finance is a popular destination for Kellogg students, and incoming MBA students wanting to switch into this industry can start their learning journey even before they arrive on campus. The Career Management Center offers a wealth of programming and resources, including a summer alumni panel just for the finance industry, interviewing and an in-depth career training via the Launchpad pre-MBA course.
“Don’t kill your past,” Liberti advises. “Use your expertise to increase your finance job prospects.”
The Kellogg advantage
Kellogg enables anyone pursuing finance to gain key skills and career opportunities. Among key finance-related offerings are:
- The Advanced Private Equity Experience. This cohort-based program invites a select number of students to participate, based on their prior experience and commitment to the industry post-graduation. Offerings include 1:1 industry mentorship from senior private equity alumni; a tailored, accelerated PE curriculum including an advanced deep dive course; and academic mentorship from Kellogg faculty.
- A dedicated finance major. Kellogg offers many majors and pathways in its MBA programs. The finance major is tailored for students wanting a fundamental knowledge base and practical tools that are essential for careers in the field. Students combine these classes with other essential coursework in data analytics and negotiations to create a powerful foundation for finance careers.
- Specialized finance pathways that let students go deeper into specific topic areas, including venture capital and private equity, asset management, and growth and scaling.
- Experiential learning opportunities offering hands-on experience outside the classroom. Kellogg offers a wide variety of experiential courses in many subject areas, including finance. Lab courses in PE, VC and asset management immerse students in a client project with a real company, and the annual PE/VC Conference.
- Student-led clubs that bring together peers interested in finance careers and connect them with companies and alumni. Groups at Kellogg include the Investment Banking and Capital Markets Club, Corporate Finance Club, Fintech club, Private Equity Club, Investment Management Club and many others.
- Case competitions, which let students take their hands-on experiences in finance even further by working with a team of classmates to solve a challenge. Kellogg teams participate in and win top competitions, and a Kellogg group took first place this year in the Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC), the world’s top VC competition for MBAs.
- A deep and broad alumni network that invests in you. Many Kellogg alumni work in finance roles, with the highest concentrations in Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Of those, a large segment work in private equity or venture capital.
- Career guidance tailored for you. The Career Management Center offers unlimited one-on-one coaching to students, a dedicated research specialist to help you chart your professional path, and resources that extend even after graduation. For students particularly interested in careers in finance, clubs and the CMC offer workshops and learning tools just for finance interviewing. Students can also go on company treks to firms in PE, VC and investment banking.
Read next
Curious about what an MBA in finance at Kellogg can do for you? Follow the links here to read about students and alumni in finance and discover the latest research from our finance faculty. Or, explore our degree programs to find the right fit for you.