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A view on Transition from Academia to Finance

Andy Nguyen

Andy Nguyen

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An article by Catherine O’Neil on AMS. Catherine O’Neil was a quantitative analyst for the D. E. Shaw group from 2007-2009.
I have been asked to write an article describing the transition from academia to finance, an advice and mentoring essay for the sake of mathematicians who may be thinking of making this switch and graduate students who may be considering finance as their career path. I feel the best way to convey this information is in a question and answer format. Below I have responded to questions I frequently get regarding my new job at the D. E. Shaw group. Before I get to those questions and answers, I would like to briefly say something about my background and myself. After earning a degree in math from UC Berkeley in 1994, I went to Harvard as a graduate student where I studied number theory under Barry Mazur and graduated with a Ph.D. in 1999. I then went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a Moore instructor and then a second postdoc; during my time at MIT I had two children. I solved my “two-body problem” in 2005 by getting atenure-track job at Barnard College. I started working at the D. E. Shaw group in June of 2007.
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First of all, the article is dated: things are different now. Looking at her linkedin profile, she is no longer with DE Shaw and moved to a "client facing" role more recently.

Secondly, I would take anything written in the Notices of the AMS with a large grain of salt: Its their propaganda publication.

There are some nice bits in the article, but
... many mathematicians who talk to me about moving to finance are genuinely worried about the potentially corruptive power of money ...
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Yeah, right. Many mathematics are so corrupt when it comes to getting their hands on government funding, it would make most bankers blush with shame.
 
I'm surprised Notices published this: it could be a brochure for DE Shaw. And some of the essay sounds pretty silly:

Finance is a huge and rapidly growing, sexy new field which combines the newest technology with the invention of mathematics to deal with ever more abundant data. It is the essence of modernity, and paired with New York City’s infinite energy, I found it extremely attractive.
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Got the link to that article today via a newsletter so didn't realize it was so outdated. Glad I didn't copy her @deshaw email address in the post. Some poor souls probably would have tried to contact her for job leads ;)
That said, when people get employed by a financial institution, you are not going to see a post like this unless they get corp comm clearance or until they move to the next job. By then, the nuts and bolts detail are pretty dated. It's just how quickly the industry changes.
 
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