ADMIS time ...

Congratulations to all who have managed to secure an admit to the ADMIS Masters degree programme at LSE. Considering the bleak outlook of recession, the downgrading of UK’s economy by S&P , and the rise in unemployment figures - I can confidently say that this is a monumental decision you would have to take. To top it all we have the incapable British labour officials (who seem to be just as immoral, greedy and reckless as the bankers) making it extremely difficult for global workers to find employment in this tiny yet still significant Island.
A few of you have e-mailed me a set of concerns regarding taking up an MSc this year and I shall try answering them to the best of my ability. The questions have been around the some variant of the following themes: Required Work experience, MBA or an ADMIS, Average Salary, Job Prospects, Living expenses in London and career Paths post the degree.
First of all – I have one question – why do you want to do this course? Have you really researched this question? It is important to get this bit right as no one can tell you want you really want. This course should be considered as only a means to get you to where you want. And by no means will this course get you very far if you haven’t decided the route you want to take.

Some things you should check up on (in no particular order ) are
1. Are you planning to work in London/ England or do you plan to go back to India
2. How much is this course going to cost me? How can I make this a useful investment?
3. What are my alternatives?
4. How good are you?
Here is my take:
1. Career Prospects : I can perhaps give you an intelligent argument regarding the industry/career prospects in London, but by no means take this as the right answer – it is just my perspective. London is without a doubt one of the most important cities in the world and for the next ten years or so I hope it should still be somewhere on the top. Yes we do have the incapable Presidents and PMs of US and UK trying to increase taxes and drive the entrepreneurs and innovators and the financial think tanks out of their countries – but I am an optimist who believes that they would realise their folly before it is too late and would amend things (Richard Branson did give Brown a piece of his mind).
That aside –lets understand the current industry landscape in England. Once the heart of industrial revolution , today then manufacturing sector in the UK is pitiful and what is left is being bought out by Indian companies. But with regards to trade and investments – London is still the financial and trading capital of the world.
Once you pass out of LSE , you are most likely to land up with an Investment Bank or a Consultancy. The number of retail and mnf industries who hire out of LSE are few. We do have Aldi, P&G, Unilever , Johnson and Johnson and a few others recruiting a small minority of the students – but the numbers are truly insignificant. Many IT companies including several Indian IT companies have started targeting ADMIS candidates – but then visa is a huge issue and with the INDIAN passport having a No Entry sign to almost every country in the world things don’t look too good.
Guess the question you have to ask yourself are – the choices are limited – mainly consultancies (Deloitte, KPMG, EY ,PWC) and IBank (DB, GS, JP, Standard, HSBC, Barclays) . You would most surely get into their IT , Ops, Middle Office ,Risk and Legal or BackOffices.
Trading Floor – Difficult but yes it is a possibility – they don’t look for degrees – they look for smart asses.

If you plan to work in India- you would know better of the state of affairs there. Congress is back in power – SENSEX is going up – Does that spell green shoots of recovery –I don’t know – but I wouldn’t mind betting some money on it.

Costs vs Benefits
Fish ... this is an expensive course. 18,000 + throw in another 6000 for living making a grand sum of 24-25000 pounds. Ooops did I say pounds... Yes that is now becoming more of a joke currency. When I came to UK – the GBP touched 85. And today its fluttering around 70s (a huge 12 % discount without even asking for it. Plus with the bleeding recession – everything seems to be on sale – clothes for 2-3 quid to cheap food. The INR is expected to go up by 8% by the end of the year ( And i have a some money bet on this). Which means – pay you fee in two parts – don’t take the whole loan now. Take it in two or 3 parts. (Secret – you have till the end of the year to pay your fee – they will keep annoying you to pay for it but yea what the heck ) . Try and translate that into saving in INR – it is sizeable – about 4 lack worth of savings already.

LSE is a meeting ground for people and leaders from all over the world. And LSE is in the heart of London. The exposure you can get here is tremendous and LSE gives you a whole lots of leverage that you wouldn’t even get out of Cambridge or Oxford – only because of its location. In the past year here are a few people I have got to meet – Coffee with Gopalakrishnan (Tata Sons), dinner with James the CFO of Barrings Bank, cricket with Andrew Monroe – the youngest partner of KPMG, nets with Anshu head of Global Markets DB, Business Managers from Google, 3i investors, founders of WAYN, skype , linkedin, AIM,Skype a lot of budding entrepreneurs .... and the list is endless. This in itself is worth a lot more than money.
In my opinion, if you do want to do an MSc –this is a good time – the £ is weak, and there are hints of recovery of the economy (we are all just waiting for the politicians to stop screwing up)

The job scene in London.
As discussed – you are mostly going to apply to IBanks or consultancies. Things have been a bit slow. I was working with Lehman , lost my job last September and now working in Deutsche Bank. A lot of my friends in Lehman find themselves placed in many other banks or consultancies. It took 2-6 months for folks to find their second (or first job). There are a lot of them who are still looking or going back to their respective countries and trying their luck elsewhere. Agreeable , that things are looking better now and companies are recruiting, DB just took in 32 inters, and I heard the same with Barclays. The work of the economic shakedown is over. Those left standing are the winners and we can be quite optimistic that they would be able to tide over the recession.
A lot of people have lost their jobs in the last 6months (over 50,000 in Canary Wharf alone) So the competition is going to be very high. If you do want to get a job , previous work experience would be a great benefit. Confidence in your abilities, demonstration of your ability to work in challenging situation and good luck are of course a pre-requisite.
Avg starting salaries vary – a rough guide for graduates would be –
24-30 k at a consultancy , 30-45 k at IBanks.
Is that good enough to survive the high costs of London – yes and no. Depends on your lifestyle ;) But you will be able to find a way out. More is never enough... i find that London has a way of always keeping my bank balance in check... I have never been able to save anything here.... 

MBA vs ADMIS
The obvious questions is what do you plan to do after the course? MBA helps you start at an associate level –you cant expect to do that with and MSc. MBA opens our a lot more doors than a Masters degree – but then again it depends. An MBA from LSB, Harvard, or some of the other top BSchools open out a lot more doors than the MSc from LSE. But if you do plan to get an MBA from a 2 tier B School – perhaps it is not worth it.
Think of your degree as a currency. LSE is a high value currency in comparison to Aston or Machester or Warwick or Univ of Texas or NYU.
The roles you can get into with an MBA is more diverse than those with an MSc. But to get into a good BSchool you need 5-6 years of work ex.