A visual guide to how a Masters in Finance will help your career

Speak to any student who's opted to spend up to $50k on a Masters in Finance course and one thing is abundantly clear - they want end up in M&A and they want to work for a bulge bracket investment bank. But securing a job in IBD now is a nuanced process. You need the right connections, your grades will be impeccable and the vast majority of those getting the jobs are internship conversions. This is tricky if you're relying on a one-year post-graduate degree.

The reality is that most MSc Finance students do end up with a well-paying job. More large investment banks are hiring them for front office jobs, but graduates end up in a variety of job roles. The sector employing the largest number of graduates is accounting, according to our CV database that encompasses more than 1.3m finance professionals. M&A, meanwhile, employs 7% of total MSc graduates. And, of those ending up in front office jobs in big banks, our data suggests that HSBC and Bank of America Merrill Lynch are biggest employers of MSc Finance graduates. Goldman Sachs employs 5% of the total - one of the lowest rates among the large investment banks.

The sectors below are the top ten, but it's also worth noting that just under 3% of candidates also work in capital markets roles and 2.6% are in private wealth management. 2% end up in trading and 2% in technology roles. Meanwhile, despite ongoing demand, just 1% of MSc Finance graduates on our database work in compliance.