When should an IIT UG, going into his 3rd year start preparing for a long and successful career in finance?

Stick to basics man!!

As a philosopher said .. "Hurry  up ... You are already 2 years late "

Focus on basics...You must be able to demonstrate a keen interest in finance. Taking courses in finance and writing exams like CFA testify your commitment to building a career in finance and proves to recruiting organisations that your interest in finance is not an over-night thing...Realistically you can target the global bulge bracket banks in India. All of them look for people with high aptitude. Thus CGPA becomes an important filtering criteria. I would rate the above discussed things in the following order of importance: 1. CGPA (as it is the filtering criteria) 2. Interest in financial markets and knowledge of current affairs 3. Ability to draw quick conclusions based on macroeconomic data points 4. Quantitative aptitude 5. Formal training (coursework, CFA, FRM etc.) So, here's what you should do: 1. Start reading Economic times, Reuters and the wall Street journal. Don't worry if you don't understand most of the stuff. Gradually you'll learn. Use investopedia as a reference manual for things you don't understand. 2. Plan for writing CFA level 1 examination in your penultimate year if you have the financial means to go for it. If not, no problem at all. The key is to learn, so read books to build your knowledge. I'd recommend Corporate finance by A. Damodaran and Options, Futures and Other derivatives by JC Hull 3. Focus on CGPA 4. Try to intern with fin companies And that's about it...At the end of the day, everybody wants to hire smart people so focus a little on soft skills.

Get a good cgpa no matter how disinterested you are in you core stream. It would be very difficuilt to defend low cgpa. U will realize this next year during your placements and might haunt you for a long time....

Start building your interest through Data Interpretation problems as these would help you analyse the status of market. You should have a strong command on basics of trading and finance. Though companies will be concerned with your analytical skills only,yet you should try your hand on trading and understand the situation of market. If you start now, you can grasp every aspect of trading and finance comfortably while doing that next year will only put burden of learning it fast.