Fintech@Kellogg | About Us

FinTech@Kellogg is a student run organization that serves to bring together members of the Kellogg community that have an interest in FinTech. Our vision is to make Kellogg a hub for human-centered innovations in financial services.

We have compiled a list of questions we are asked more frequently both by alumni/prospective employers and current/prospective students.  If you don't find answers to your questions below, feel free to reach out to us.

Q:How can Kellogg alumni get more involved with FinTech@Kellogg?

We would love to get connected with our alumni. You are more than welcome to contribute in any kind of capacity! You can come back to campus as a lunch and learn speaker, or become a content contributor for our website blog and podcast, mentor students, become a board advisor for our FinTech@Kellogg club, or just come back and say hi!

Q:How can FinTech businesses engage with FinTech@Kellogg and reach Kellogg students more broadly?

FinTech companies can come to campus to do recruiting, or place job postings on Kellogg job board. Companies can also send representative to do speaker events either on campus or virtual.

Q.I thought Kellogg was a marketing school. Why is FinTech getting big at Kellogg?

Kellogg is uniquely positioned to serve the needs of the FinTech community with a strong finance faculty, culture of innovative design thinking, and deep connections in the tech community. It's certainly a misnomer that Kellogg's only strength is in marketing! In fact, over 30% of full-time students accepted job offers with Tech firms in 2021, and this number continues to grow.

Q.How many Kellogg students enter careers in FinTech?

We're proud to report that the Kellogg Employment Report now represents FinTech as an industry. In 2021 students either interned at or accepted full-time roles at major companies and players in the FinTech industry including CreditNinja, NerdWallet, Stripe Inc., Coinbase, SoFi and Plaid. 6 students from the class of 2022 interned in FinTech, and 8 students accepted full-time offers in FinTech from the class of 2021.

Q.What are typical roles that are available for MBAs interested in FinTech?

As in the broader technology industry, the roles and functions for MBA students in FinTech is varied; this, combined with the fact that role definitions can vary company by company means that there are a ton of unique opportunities for Kellogg students to work in the industry. That said, common roles can generally be bucketed into the following categories: Product (Technical or Business), Product Marketing, Operations, Strategy, Business Development, and Data Analytics. Again, these roles can vary greatly (and some roles even combine multiple elements, such as Strategy & Partnerships) - but hopefully this gives you a sense of the breadth of opportunity.

Q.What types of FinTech businesses hire MBA students?

Companies can vary from early stage startups, where you'll likely work directly with the company to define your own role, to multi-national corporations that may have innovation or corporate strategy groups. The structure of the hiring process generally increases with the size of the company as well. Some companies that you may have heard of that have hired Kellogg students in the past include Visa, Paypal, SoFi, CommonBond, Square, Personal Capital, Betterment, and more.

Q.How does recruiting for FinTech work?

Again, this varies with the size of the company - but larger FinTech companies generally recruit hand-in-hand with Big Tech (Amazon, Google, Facebook, etc.) and will start advertising open internship positions in late Fall / early Winter quarter. Younger companies (generally Series C and earlier) tend to wait until late Winter / Spring quarter, as their hiring needs are much more undefined until closer to Summer.

Q.How does FinTech@Kellogg support the career search and preparation process?

We're here to help! We're working with the Tech and Entrepreneurship / VC Clubs to make sure the respective Interview Prep Groups (IPGs) have sufficient content to prepare you for FinTech interviews. .

Q: Beyond FinTech@Kellogg, what are other Kellogg resources exist to support my interest in FinTech?

There is a growing list of resources at Kellogg that spans from academic, experiential, and many others. Below is an abridged list, but there are many other possibilities at Kellogg

Academic: STRT-461-5 Innovation in Financial Services Markets is taught by Professor Sarit Markovich, covering topics such as Bitcoin, Blockchain, Big data, Mobile banking,  and crowdfunding.

Experiential: In 2019 we led a FinTech trek to companies such as Betterment, Commonbond, Plaid, and Visa

Others: Garage - Northwestern's incubator allows you to work on your big FinTech ideas and meet up other start-up founders as well as VC investors and coaches.

Q: How can I take advantage of FinTech resources in Chicago?

There are multiple ways to engage with the broader Fintech community in Chicago!

FINTEx: Member driven organization connecting industry leaders and innovators in financial services and fintech. Members can share best practices and industry insights, gain access to events and share stories.

FinTank Chicago: FinTank connects corporates to latest innovations in Fintech, provides resources to entrepreneurs, brings in investors and gives students the opportunities to connect with peers and exchange ideas. FinTank events include the Blockchain Summit, Women in FinTech panel, AI and Machine learning panel etc.