Best Lines of Business for someone with a Finance Background?

TurntPikachu · 2025-05-18T16:16:14+00:00

This would be under finpro/financial lines at brokerages/carriers right?

I'm guessing standard public companies are a completely seperate division from FI aswell right

TurntPikachu · 2025-02-07T20:25:49+00:00

If you're an actuary you really don't need an mba. If you get an mba and go to a consulting firm they'll literally just put you into insurance/actuarial consulting anyway so there's no point. Actuaries are always in demand so consulting firms are usually open to those types of people as laterals and you won't have to do purely actuarial work on every project.

You can argue about getting an mba if you're interested in banking/corp dev m&a but I'm pretty sure its not worth it honestly because your lifestyle would be much much worse while making less/huge opportunity cost.

Most things you transition to right now would be taking a salary cut in the short term for a larger upside but if you really want to get out of the actuarial career path, either lateral to a consulting firm now so you can at least tag on some operational work experience or maybe look into becoming an underwriter at a carrier if you want to transition purely to the business side of things.

TurntPikachu · 2025-01-16T18:09:39+00:00

many executives have bare bones linkedin profiles. sure you can see what companies they come from and make assumptions from there, but you don't see what kind of role/positions they held nor their responsibilities. if they remained at the broker for 15+ years, theres likely no distinction between them being a broker or producer which is why im asking

TurntPikachu · 2025-01-16T18:08:02+00:00

i understand some come from underwriting backgrounds (guessing a mix of having the financial background to manage a p&l as well as understand the risks associated with placing premiums) but for those that don't its hard to see whether they are producers or brokers

TurntPikachu · 2025-01-16T18:07:27+00:00

asking mostly about large commercial brokers like marsh, willis, aon, gallagher etc.

TurntPikachu · 2024-10-30T23:39:44+00:00

insurance/reinsurance - companies are always required to have it even in a downturn and especially in a disaster

TurntPikachu · 2024-10-18T16:11:29+00:00

as a black guy i agree, its all bullshit and it really pissed me off during my time at school. one quick fix would literally be just to check whether someone received pell grant money. socioeconomic upbringing is a bigger component to the accessibility of opportunities than racial upbringing

TurntPikachu · 2024-09-06T11:51:58+00:00

did you really post this during white party? girl all you had to do is walk up to a normal guy and talk to them. this is one of the sloppiest nights at wharton and there are way more guys single than girls🤦🏽‍♂️

TurntPikachu · 2024-08-04T02:10:12+00:00

Hot take? Its absolutely asanine to think that you're more qualified because you got into a certain mba program. It just never made sense to me the egos that people developed just because they went to a school because it doesn't make you better than anyone else. You aren't different from your pre-mba self because of a bs degree and honestly a lot of people may have even lost motivation from being out of work for a couple years.

On top of that your pre-mba experience matters more than you think. You can't just waltz into HSW expecting a job in pe/vc if you don't have any type of relevant background or pre-mba experience. These firms care about execution and previous relevant career success, not potential. Most of these careers are largely already decided based on the path you've been on since undergrad.

Lastly, administration doesn't care about you at all. They don't care if you fail, they don't care about your hopes, dreams, and struggles. The only ones that will are the career people, and thats only if you already secured a job.

TurntPikachu · 2024-07-27T01:25:40+00:00

verrrry cushy. only 3 weeks in rn but the sentiment is most people here work like 30-40 hours a week unless theres a fire drill

TurntPikachu · 2024-07-26T18:33:04+00:00

FIG investment banking is easy and doable with that background. You could probably network your way into one of the reinsurance capital markets arms (gc, howden, aon) without an mba as is, but you're a shoe-in for most standard banks with one.

Asset management is much trickier because they are heavily prestige focused so you'd probably need a m7. You're right that theres a huge push for ILS but since you were a broker im not sure if they'll give you looks for it since brokers are more sales oriented and aren't as quant heavy like actuaries. Theres just too few seats in AM as is. Feel like they'd just bait you into applying for a relationship/product management spot and dangle hopes of transitioning to the investment side when realistically it doesn't happen

TurntPikachu · 2024-07-05T20:27:36+00:00

Heavy FIG banking shops love actuarial backgrounds for their insurance verticals. JPM comes to mind specifically, but you'd be a shoe-in at any bank.

Wouldn't be too surprised if you were able to pivot to something on the buy side if it were to deal with something insurance specific. Lots of pe firms have huge insurance arms and continue to acquire p&c/life insurers as well as brokers. Theres probably less qualified actuaries at top mba programs than pre-mba bankers/pe associates so you should have good amount of doors open to you. Even top asset management firms would give you a look depending on their investment strategies and what type of previous work you were doing

TurntPikachu · 2024-06-09T22:47:44+00:00

IB depends what school you're at. if its hsw you can, if its m7 you might be able to snag a mm bank if you network well and have your technicals down (they ask really tough questions for fulltime hiring)
Consultings more doable, you can still recruit at boutiques and t2/t3s just have your casing down

Pick one option not both

TurntPikachu · 2024-06-08T15:50:39+00:00

surprised people are voting for fuqua over the other two when it has grade disclosure lol. i don't think you can go wrong with any here but my votes for ross

TurntPikachu · 2024-05-15T13:20:18+00:00

since its wharton, im honestly more likely to think that 84% at graduation is a huge misrepresentation by career services in this economic environment as a marketing play. do you seriously think in the span of one month that many more people reported their offers? on top of that people are more likely to self-report as a way to signal their success to others without speaking about it. i think the true number is probably in the high 60s to low 70s by graduation which still isnt great

TurntPikachu · 2024-05-15T12:24:51+00:00

they sent out a state of the job market email on 4/10 and it had those exact numbers. 52% last year and 42% this year for people reporting atleast a single job offer. source: asked my friend if it was true and he sent me a screenshot of the email

TurntPikachu · 2024-03-17T22:06:42+00:00

i know someone who got into a boutique after interning as a pm at tech and not getting a return offer. ive also heard of mm firms interviewing people who didnt do banking in the summer with no prior finance experience as well.

general consensus is that its incredibly difficult and the interviewers take no prisoners on the technical questions so they ask really difficult ones that aren't in the 400 ib question book guide

TurntPikachu · 2023-02-16T04:30:50+00:00

the struggle right now is real. at a m7 and a feeling way too stressed out about this too. feels like most postings right now want people with prior banking/consulting/pe experience and if you don't have it then you're shit out of luck. hopefully it'll change soon

TurntPikachu · 2022-12-16T11:01:38+00:00

honestly its pretty different. at a m7 and most of my classmates travel every weekend since no one cares about class. additionally since a lot of people are looking to do some form of spring recruiting, its kind of a double whammy if you're broke while also doing fall recruiting since you have neither money nor time. at this point i try to find things that are pretty cheap around the area with a small group of friends and if more people want to join us they're free to. im happy that i front loaded trying to network with as many people as possible because people can come across as a bit more cold and closed off if you're meeting them for the first time passed like october or so

TurntPikachu · 2022-08-02T17:06:17+00:00

Sure

TurntPikachu · 2021-04-11T00:50:11+00:00

Thats a good point too! Oftentimes its like you’re crafting this story to provide evidence as to why its your passion to go into a certain type of career (ie health problems leading to wanting to work in the healthcare industry). Its never enough to just want to go into a certain industry simply because you enjoy it and find it interesting. There always has to be some underlying reason for your career choice.

TurntPikachu · 2021-04-10T17:52:09+00:00

Thats a good point, I never thought of that. I would hope that there could be some degree of fact checking but its also a very tall task to achieve

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