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advice from quants

engineer

Joined
8/25/08
Messages
2
Points
11
Hi I'm new to this forum.

I'm looking for some career advice from quants. I'm a PhD in EE from a top 15 US university, with a focus on digital signal processing and wireless communications. I have 4 yrs industry experience which had a heavy emphasis on algorithm design, statistics, simulation and modeling. I used matlab as the main development tool with some C++. I have been thinking about making a switch to quantitative finance for some time and have studied a couple of books, Hull and Bjork, on my own.

I'm probably a month or two away from being prepared enough to interview for quant type jobs. However, I recently got a very good engineering job offer at a startup. A good salary (150K+) and a significant equity position. The role will also have lots of interaction with venture capitalists since its an early stage company raising funds.

So my questions are:


  • Do I take the engineering job now and possibly delay a move into finance a year or two?
  • Will age be an issue when starting a quant type role? I may be 35 when I consider making a move.
  • What are typical compensation packages that entry level quants receive? How does this ramp up with experience?
  • What are the markets currently like for entry level quant positions? With the credit crunch affecting many hedge funds and banks, is it wise to make a career change in this environment.
  • Is there any value to heavy interaction with VCs?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 
If I were you, I would take the job and run away with it. There are many uncertainties in the job market right now and it would be foolish to throw away the sure money. You may not get a job paying better in finance.
There are no rules when it comes to wall street compensation. It has to do a lot with timing and luck. If end goal is to make lot of money, now is not the ideal time to thinking about Wall Street.
Take the job and revisit this thread a year or two later. Maybe things will look differently then.
 
Thanks Andy,

I appreciate useful feedback. I also approached 2 others that I know on Wall St. right now and they both said pretty much the same thing.

Thanks again.
 
Do you want to make 150K now or do you want to make 100K to 150K two years from now when you graduate?
 
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