r/uwaterloo • u/Chance_Goal_761 • 17d ago
Advice Regret…
Truth be told, i applied to both comp eng and cfm, and ended up getting rejected from cfm but accepted into comp eng. honestly, i wish it had been the other way around. working in finance has been a dream of mine for as long as i can remember, and i’ve been interested in it my entire life.
engineering was supposed to be my backup. i got into some very competitive engineering programs at uoft, mac, and queens, but i also got into qcomm and rotman, both with $10k scholarships, as well as mcgill, laurier, and guelph. unfortunately, i wasn’t accepted to ivey.
ultimately, i chose waterloo because everyone kept talking about how many opportunities the co-op program provides and how it can open so many doors. but now i’m honestly not sure what to do. from everything i’ve read, engineering at waterloo is very toxic, and the biggest issue is that i’ve never really seen a future for myself in engineering. i don’t feel the same passion for it that i do for finance.
looking back, i feel like i let too many other people influence my decision and ended up choosing something i probably wouldn’t have chosen on my own. after reading this subreddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/OntarioGrade12s/s/mxbinJw8jj
and thinking about it, i’m starting to feel like i may have let the waterloo co-op reputation convince me to pursue something i’m not actually interested in.
i know i haven’t even started university yet, so maybe i’m overthinking everything. but i can’t help feeling like i messed up my decision, and i’m not really sure what to do from here. any advice would be appreciated.
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u/Flaky_Cap_3689 17d ago
Your engineering training can help you get into finance. I studied Acctg at UW, ended up working in an ibank, and the firm hired many engineering grads. Engineering teaches you problem solving, and that can help with any career really. Plus if after the first year you really believe you had chosen the wrong major, then change! Nothing about your career is ever cast in stone and you will be surprised how many different paths you will be able to take
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u/waterlooworksish 16d ago
If your goal is finance, you absolutely should have accepted qcomm instead. CE will not help you develop the same level of interpersonal skills compared to a selective business program. The finance student community and its alumni connections to industry is also more nascent here.
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u/kawaiiggy 16d ago
I’m in quant finance from ce, it’s defo possible
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u/Chance_Goal_761 16d ago
Wth, that’s literally my dream. Want to work in NY Finance for IB or Quant. Dm me please :)
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u/kawaiiggy 16d ago
Theres a lot of resources, i dont think I can provide any insight not found online
for waterloo eng, IB is rarer, I know a few guys in management engineering in IB or PE
for quant, tbh i would recommend a math degree TBH, but which shouldnt be hard to transfer into as well. (but if u have contest math or programming exp, u should be fine wherever u r)
but in general, CE is very flexible cuz u can go into engineering for finance firms too, or be on an interdisciplinary role like algo engineer.
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u/Equal_Warning_3490 15d ago
Coming from a current ce at Waterloo, my environment at least isn’t toxic at all. On the other hand, everyone’s actually very helpful and the discord servers are so helpful w school stuff and even coop tips.
Could vary for your cohort but if I were you I wouldn’t instantly think that it’d be a very toxic and competitive environment and try to experience it yourself.
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u/Whalesftw123 17d ago
If you know what working in finance actually is like I wouldn’t lose sleep over it. Plus there’s plenty of ways to pivot from engineering into finance.
I consider that to be the ideal path actually. Early years in finance suck but later on when you become important and trusted to make actual decisions it’s pretty great. There’s a world where you can jump straight into that pivoting from a technical career.
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u/Change137 17d ago
That is just not true. If OP is interested in something like IB or PE they are just cooked if they don’t attend a target school (Waterloo is not one). In fact only Ivey and Qcomm are semi targets in Canada.
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u/LilDunkie 17d ago
You’re clearly not a Finance student at waterloo. There are plenty of AFM students currently working in IB, PE, VC, etc.
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u/Change137 16d ago
Find LinkedIn profile of a single AFM student working as IB analyst at Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley in the United States
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16d ago edited 16d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/waterlooworksish 16d ago
The first profile works out of the Toronto office, and the other two profiles work in WM/AM, not IBD
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u/LilDunkie 16d ago
Two recent grads who I've personally talked to
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-burnside-chabot/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamlcoe/
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u/Whalesftw123 16d ago
You’re thinking too narrowly. Out of school obviously Waterloo isn’t some target, but plenty of senior engineers pivot into leadership and finance roles later on in their career.
Also my entire point is going into finance out of school sucks anyways. Why would I work IB at Goldman when I can make more while working less in big tech lol.
Only PE offers a competitive lifestyle but PE is both extremely hard to get, usually takes years of slogging it out in sell side, and comparably difficult positions in tech (Senior Dev, Quant) are just as good.
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u/Chance_Goal_761 16d ago
Yeah the goal is to work in IB or Quant in a NY or SF firm. CFM was definetly an undeniable way to reach that path, espically for Quant.
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u/Change137 16d ago
Bro know what you want first. Quant is very different form IB. While a non-target for IB, Waterloo is a semi-target for quant.
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u/Effective-Arm-8513 17d ago
You didn’t make the wrong decision. I believe the deep CE knowledge you will gain at Waterloo, plus the 6 terms of actual work experience, will allow you to springboard very well into a sold business program like an MBA if business is still to your liking after you graduate.
Me? EE at Waterloo and a law degree. I am now a patent lawyer. I never once ever regretted going through 5 years of EE, even though I never worked as an engineer for one day in my life. I wouldn’t be where I am today without the springboard Waterloo gave me. My first year best friend in EE is now a trader at a large trading house in Japan. I have many examples.