Investment banking vs Petroleum Engineering?I live in Canada and Im in Grade 12 This is really important and I want to make a wise decision. Please help me out. If you are an investment banker or petroleum engineer reading my question please answer all the questions honestly. This is very long so if you have time then read this and answer. If you dont its... |
Although a top investment banker can make a good deal more money than a petroleum engineer, I would give the edge to petroleum engineering because, if the jobs dry up in that area, there is the possibility of moving into chemical engineering or some other engineering branch with only a small amount of additional training. Also, in investment banking, there's perhaps too much value in WHO you know as opposed to WHAT you know. A corollary is that if your family actually has connections in investment banking, you will have a better chance of getting your foot in the door than most other people will have.
I don't see a problem with using a Canadian degree in the US. "Everyone" knows that the US educational system is inferior to the Canadian system, although the top US universities are certainly just as good as (or better than) their Canadian counterparts.
As to the MBA, it will be best to seek a job immediately after receiving a bachelor's degree. If an MBA is needed or useful, your employer may be willing to pay for it. My expectation is that both of the professions you mentioned are going to get increasingly crowded over the next 5 to 10 years; that's a good reason to be employed as soon as possible.
Dude, do what you love. Are you really interested in investment banking? Do you find yourself engrossed in news stories and reports about the world of finance? Are you constantly curious about what happens in the world of banking? Do you go out of your way in your spare time to learn and read about it? Then it's probably right for you.
Same goes for petroleum engineering.
Which one of them would you go and tell your friends about the latest development, and be like 'this is really awesome man, you won't believe this news', and most other people will be quite uninterested. That is the thing for you. That's what being passionate about something means.
Do the thing you're passionate about, not the one that MIGHT give a higher starting salary or last until you're 65. If you are really interested in it, you will follow it with passion, you will do extremely well, and everything else will fall into place from there. If you follow one path simply because of the salaries that you'll get out of them, you will not do well, you will start to feel apathetic, and then you'll end up actually being far less successful than if you just do the thing you love.
