Morning Coffee: The 12 month course that will get you a $144k banking job. How you know it's time to leave GS

Last week we brought you news of the $75k quantitative finance courses that probably won't turn you into a designer of trading algorithms. This week, we bring you news of a $102k Masters of Finance course that's open to students straight out of university, and should land you a job paying $144k when it's all over.

The course in question is the Master of Finance at MIT Sloan. Lasting between 12 and 18 months and costing between $77k and $103k (in fees alone - living costs are extra), the MFin at MIT Sloan ranks top in terms of pay on the Financial Times' list of Masters in Finance courses for students with no prior experience.

The FT says MIT Sloan's MFin lands its students average pay of $144k when when they leave. This is considerably more than elsewhere. At France's Edhec Business School, which tops the FT's ranking overall, students 'only' earn $105k when they graduate. Bottom of the ranking for pay is the MSc in International Finance at Glasgow's Adam Smith Business School, where graduates earn an average of just $35k each.

What makes MIT Sloan's course so lucrative? The FT doesn't say, but it might have something to do with the fact that its students are each earning an average of $80k before they start - suggesting that they're not exactly 22 year-olds who just finished a bachelors degree after all. When they leave, MIT Sloan's own figures suggest 60% of its students stay in the U.S. and go into investment banking or investment management. Another 22% go into consulting. 9% each go into technology and diversified financials. Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Capula Investment Management and Bain & Co. are among MFin students at MIT Sloan's biggest fans. It's not clear what MIT Sloan's students are doing at these employers, but their high starting salaries suggest they might go in as associates rather than analysts - as is typical for Masters graduates.

Separately, you might know that Fred Ehrsam - the Bitcoin entrepreneur who founded Coinbase, used to work in G10 FX trading at Goldman Sachs.

Ehrsam has been conversing with Khe Hy, the ex-Blackrock MD who quit finance at 35 and now blogs at RadReads. Ehrsam tells Hy he knew he had to get out of GS when he looked around and asked himself, "Did I want to be any of these people in the next ten years? - The answer was no." One of the problems with banking, says Ehrsam, is that "the majority of the interesting stuff already happened - it was extracting rent rather than innovating."

Most of the excitement in FX trading happened in the late 1990s,  Ehrsam  elaborated. Nowadays, efficiency in FX trading means shaving another "basis point off trades," he says. "- The work has already been done."

Meanwhile:

Jamie Dimon phoned Jes Staley to complain about all the people Jes Staley was hiring from J.P. Morgan. Jes Staley allegedly spoke to J.P.M's Daniel Pinto and promised not to poach any more. If this was the case (Barclays is denying it), Staley could be in trouble with U.S. antitrust laws. (Financial Times) 

Richard Gnodde at Goldman Sachs says Brexit means GS will “very probably” at least double staff numbers in the German city, where it currently employs 200. (Bloomberg) 

Although HSBC indicated last week that it might not move 1,000 staff out of London after all if Brexit is "soft," most banks are still preparing to shift staff anyway. (Financial Times) 

If you want a job in Hong Kong now, you'll need to speak Mandarin. Expat bankers are being frozen out as a result: "On a weekly basis I get quite a few senior bankers that 15 years ago would have picked up a job straightaway, but today they’re really struggling.” (Bloomberg)  

Citadel just hired Bisser Filiov from Scotiabank to its London office. (HFM Global) 

Interviews at J.P. Morgan are very predictable. Interviews at Google are totally random. (Business Insider) 

.@jpmorgan and our employees will donate up to £65,000 to @BritishRedCross for the Grenfell Tower fund. Our thoughts are with you #London.

— J.P. Morgan (@jpmorgan) June 18, 2017

Yoga can reverse molecular reactions in your DNA. (Scienmag) 

Power rots your brain. (The Atlantic)

“I already do 80% of my shopping at Amazon and Whole Foods. I am beginning to get worried.” (Marginal Revolution) 

Contact: sbutcher@efinancialcareers.com

Photo credit: Escalator by Jon Wiley is licensed under CC BY 2.0.