Do Engineer And Computer Science Grads Trained at Better Critical Thinking Skills Than Social Science Grads Are? (degrees, school)

[knowledgeiskey]

I have heard instances of how engineer and CS grads are recruited in finance and other fields outside of their respective field of training due to their analytical skills that got them passed the curriculum of intense courses.

[lkb0714]

The title of this thread is literally unintelligible. Then the OP itself is only slightly more so.

Are you asking if finance firms are more likely to hire tech and engineering grads than other majors?

I suppose its true compared to say a poli sci major but they are still going to prefer a finance major with experience from a good school.

[historygrad]

He must be a Cs grad and i think the grammar of the post answers the question

[user_id]

I don't think its that common to hire Engineering grads in finance, but Computer Science grads are hired in finance, but not necessarily because their general "analytic skills", instead because modern finance relies a lot on automation and algorithms and computer scientists understand and study both of these topics.

I don't think you'll find many traders, analysts, etc with computer science degrees. These people are working in areas that are directly related to what they learned studying computer science.

[GeorgiaTransplant]

Originally Posted by knowledgeiskey

I have heard instances of how engineer and CS grads are recruited in finance and other fields outside of their respective field of training due to their analytical skills that got them passed the curriculum of intense courses.

There *is* recruiting of computer science types into finance, because modern finance is absolutely dependent on automation. The ones I have met were not recruited to be traders or financial types, it was to plan, implement, maintain, and secure the information systems that modern finance relies upon. ESPECIALLY secure...nobody wants financial systems to be hacked.

I have worked with several refugees from that exact scenario. Universally they described it as high pressure, because systems failure without a solid backup plan-and sometimes WITH a solid plan that doesn't work out as well as thought = being fired.

[user_id]

Originally Posted by GeorgiaTransplant

The ones I have met were not recruited to be traders or financial types, it was to plan, implement, maintain, and secure the information systems that modern finance relies upon. ESPECIALLY secure...nobody wants financial systems to be hacked.

You are mixing IT careers with careers in finance, computer scientists can be found in both. The careers you are mentioning are IT and are going to be part of the institutions IT department, but they will also hire computer scientists outside of the IT department as well. They hire them to work on financial models and algorithms, this is mostly theoretical work and is very detached from building and maintaining the institutions technological infrastructure.

The IT jobs at financial institutions are really no different than other IT jobs.

[hsw]

Maybe 15 yrs ago, Goldman prop trading desks and major hedge funds in NYC would prefer to hire smartest Wharton Finance undergrads for entry-level jobs on trading desks

Back in that prehistoric, pre-Net era, most smart, ambitious kids chose the finance route to riches, as tech was an often less lucrative, less predictable route

In 2011, suspect smartest kids are Stanford CS undergrads who are in top 5% of CS class (and Wharton is fairly irrelevant)...and such smart kids can either go to Google, etc for $200K/yr jobs as new software engineers or $100K/yr jobs at Goldman as new traders...and Manhattan rents are 2x SF rents...and one drives a new Mercedes to office in SV, without enduring the archaic, smelly, unsafe cabs of NYC

And a talented engineer has similar/superior odds vs a talented hedgie of achieving independent wealth by age 30...guess where top talent will flow...

Explains why Wharton finance, NYC and hedge funds are arguably second-tier, Luddite choices in modern era vs Stanford CS, PaloAlto and software engineering for kids of today...real world judges and values one's alleged thinking skills or economic productivity in form of one's wages and liquid personal net worth, adjusted for one's age (time value of money/consumption)...youth of major figures, wealth and daily std of living of PaloAlto area vs Manhattan reveal much abt relative economic productivity/innovation of regions and industries

[DrJoey]

For the data nerds

Center on Education and the Workforce -

Gets into career crosstalk between majors, 10 year wages/salaries, etc...

Not that any of this is really an indicator that critical thinking is major specific.

[MassVt]

Originally Posted by hsw

Maybe 15 yrs ago, Goldman prop trading desks and major hedge funds in NYC would prefer to hire smartest Wharton Finance undergrads for entry-level jobs on trading desks

Back in that prehistoric, pre-Net era, most smart, ambitious kids chose the finance route to riches, as tech was an often less lucrative, less predictable route

In 2011, suspect smartest kids are Stanford CS undergrads who are in top 5% of CS class (and Wharton is fairly irrelevant)...and such smart kids can either go to Google, etc for $200K/yr jobs as new software engineers or $100K/yr jobs at Goldman as new traders...and Manhattan rents are 2x SF rents...and one drives a new Mercedes to office in SV, without enduring the archaic, smelly, unsafe cabs of NYC

And a talented engineer has similar/superior odds vs a talented hedgie of achieving independent wealth by age 30...guess where top talent will flow...

Explains why Wharton finance, NYC and hedge funds are arguably second-tier, Luddite choices in modern era vs Stanford CS, PaloAlto and software engineering for kids of today...real world judges and values one's alleged thinking skills or economic productivity in form of one's wages and liquid personal net worth, adjusted for one's age (time value of money/consumption)...youth of major figures, wealth and daily std of living of PaloAlto area vs Manhattan reveal much abt relative economic productivity/innovation of regions and industries

No one cares what you think, especially when you can't construct a simple sentence.

[user_id]

I think hsw must be some AI that someone created out of boredom, its a total broken record.