Faster with a Masters?

If you haven't got a graduate training place, but are desperate to work in banking, will a Masters in finance help you get what you want?

YES, if...

You studied a non-finance degree. If you graduated (or will graduate) in English literature or geography, a Masters in finance or in a finance-related subject shows you're keen.

"We see quite a lot of students with Master of Finance degrees. Often they enroll because they feel their undergraduate degree didn't give them enough focus, or they might have got passionate about it and wanted more study in it,' says Emilie Everett, head of recruiting at UBS.

You have no finance-related work experience. "If you were, for instance, an engineering graduate trying to get into an investment bank, then a Masters in finance would give you a lot of leverage. MFins are great for career-change people," says Oliver Spiers, partner at recruiter Spierston Kinghorn. "If you had a non-finance first degree," says Nick Cowdrey a consultant at recruitment firm Carmichael Fisher, "then yes, a masters would get you an interview for a junior role."

You enroll in the right course. Where should you study? Macquarie University's Master of Applied Finance is regularly the first-mentioned degree. All major universities: New South Wales, Melbourne, Western Australia, UTS, Queensland, RMIT, Sydney and Monash offer graduate degrees in finance and applied finance. Macquarie has also recently teamed up with Bond University to offer simulated trading rooms to the uni's finance students.

"The University of Western Australia's Master of Finance is very heavy in mathematics, which is excellent," says Spiers. But it is the specialisation a student chooses to study that makes the job-getting difference. "Courses through FINSIA (the old Securities' Institute), though giving an excellent overview, are too general to qualify you for specific investment banking positions," he adds.

You want to work in a hedge fund. As small organisations, hedge funds don't have the training resources or graduate recruitment programmes of larger banks and are therefore keen on postgraduate students. "But even hedge funds are going to want to make sure your grades are good and that you have relevant experience," says Matthew Gribble.

NO, if...

You expect it to be an automatic passport to success. "A Masters would help," says Athena Chintis, a resourcing manager at Citi, "but they would still have to have the right kind of personality, attributes and background. We'd look at their involvement in their community, internships or voluntary work. They have to fit, no matter what degree they have."

You got a low 2.2 in your first degree. Most big banks will discount anyone without a 2.1 degree, even if they have a graduate degree in finance. "If you get a bad initial degree, the big banks just won't look at you. They have got the pick of the very best students,'' says Nick Cowdrey at Carmichael Fisher. And Athena Chintis at Citi says: "To be frank, even if students have a postgraduate degree, we would still look at their undergraduate grades."

But Cleo Higgins, head of HR at Rothschild, says: "We do tend to look for people who got top grades but we would look at someone who didn't do well in their first degree if they did exceptionally well in the second."

You're innumerate. It's no good doing a postgraduate degree if you have the mathematical aptitude of Paris Hilton (who may well be a whiz at stochastic analysis for all we know). But if your maths is that bad you may not get on to a Masters course in the first place.

You want to be a quant. If you fancy being a quant, you're better off going straight into a PhD. "Yes, our quants tend to have a PhD in a financial/quantitative discipline. The level of complexity of the work calls for it," says Citi's Chintis.

You plan to skip the first few years of training and come in at a higher level. You may have forked out many thousands of dollars and studied finance for a whole year, but after doing a Masters, most banks will treat you just the same as a graduate with a Bachelor's degree. It's a sad truth, but with banks getting dozens of applications for each analyst role, they have no need to treat postgraduate applicants any differently.

You're doing it as a filler and are not sure what you really want to do. "A Masters is a good thing to have, but of itself won't get anyone a job unless they had relevant work experience and commitment. But doing a Masters does itself support the idea that you are a good worker," says Matthew Gribble at recruiter Michael Page. Patrick Everest at recruiter Jon Michel says finance work experience is more effective. "Getting a Masters wouldn't be the differentiating point that gets you a job: it's experience that matters and knowing what you want to do."

But Su Hardstaff, graduate recruiter at Deutsche Bank, says: "While consistent results throughout the candidate's academic history are important, other competencies including interpersonal skills and communication skills are essential for cultural fit."

But, Nick Cowdrey says: "Don't leave it too long: a bank is not going to take on a 26 year-old when all the others are 20."