Alternative career paths for MFE grads

[Andy Nguyen]

I have asked a similar question in the past but I couldn't find it anymore. So with the technical skills and knowledge you learnt in your MFE degree, what else can you do, wish you should.

Would be interesting to hear from grads of MFE programs about what fields outside of finance they like doing. It's always good to think/plan ahead.

1) Open a business
2) Join a tech startup/pharm/biotech/etc
3) Teach

 

[helpteye]

I am not yet an MFE grad since I am still completing my doctorate, but I am mostly interested in whether or not the skills used in quantitative finance can be utilized personally; the deeper issue is what sort of capital is required to implement such techniques? I recently read a post in which one guy described prop trading and stat arbitrage where he implied that it is quant trading done with one's own money. I find that profoundly interesting; as well as HF trading, and even more,the application of AI in personal trading. I see the program at Baruch to be relatively cheap enough for me to take that risk in the near future.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

If you are VERY good, you can pitch your system to investors to get funded. But in almost every case, people would like to see you trade with your money first to have a track record before they want to scale.

But I like to see the non-finance career options if any. I have a fellow MFE who just started an LLC that does iOS apps. I asked him to write what it likes to be an iPhone developer from a financial engineer.

 

[Lyosha]

The skills that you learn for an MFE are easily transferable to other occupations as well, given you don't stray too far from coding (especially if you used C++ or C# in your program). Most C-derived languages are essentially the same (this is easily realized by comparing them to prolog for example...), and learning time going from one to another is often minimal. With a solid foundation a week is often sufficient. This opens a world of opportunity in that department.

 

[helpteye]

If you are VERY good, you can pitch your system to investors to get funded. But in almost every case, people would like to see you trade with your money first to have a track record before they want to scale.

But I like to see the non-finance career options if any. I have a fellow MFE who just started an LLC that does iOS apps. I asked him to write what it likes to be an iPhone developer from a financial engineer.

While that transition is impressive, I do find it troubling. Why do a 12 mth program costing $50K+, to apply to another field like software apps design? Would a degree in those other areas not suffice? There is no logic to it as far as I am concerned. Doing an MFE, I believe, should mean a career in finance fields otherwise there are other much more flexible programs out there. A PHD in Physics, or maths or comp Sci should be worth 1000 times more than an MFE out of the Finance arena. With a PhD one needs only to improve, possibly their programming skills, to work in other fields. MFE seems to be like an MBA, payment for contacts in the field.

Its just too expensive to not apply in an arena where you can get your returns.

 

[TraderJoe]

CMU estimates the total cost of the MFE (including living expenses) at $120K. I would be genuinely puzzled if someone spent $120K on an MFE and 18 months study and then decided that they wanted to be a poet.

Of course it is a different issue if the person cannot get a job in Finance or cannot get visa sponsorship for a Finance job.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Becoming a poet is an extreme example and inappropriate. If one wants to become a poet, money isn't what they are after anyway.
Who is to say that you can't get an equally lucrative career in bio, data mining and whatever that a technical acumen can bring.

 

[euroazn]

An exaggeration, possibly. But if you want to be a developer, a BS usually suffices. There is no point to waste your time and money otherwise.

 

[TraderJoe]

It is an interesting issue none the less. The universities are producing hundreds of MFEs each year. I am sure that the majority of them do not get jobs in Finance. It would be interesting to learn what jobs they ended up doing and how they managed to pay off those huge student loans. I thought MFE was narrowly focused on Finance and if they could not get jobs in Finance they were in deep trouble.

 

[olgenue]

Hi Andy,
working as an actuary in a reinsurer at the moment. Not exactly alternative. The math and programming skills learnt in MFE definitely help especially when the company is planning to get into weather derivatives.

 

[Joy Pathak]

I have heard of people going to go work for Google and Amazon previously after working on wall-street as a quant.
The quants, especially engineers can always go back to working in the engineering profession.

 

[jason mellone]

not a career path but fwiw:

languages like php, mysql (aka sql) and javascript (aka dummy java) are so similar and php is so immensely cookie-cutter for doing anything a little tougher than the easiest of tasks that they are a breeze to pick up for anyone who codes. dont know if i would call things like css or html "languages" as this community uses the term for things much more involved.

picked them up for fun on some slower days. have helped some friends with websites and picked up a nice bit business doing it.

after a brief stint realized definitely not a path i want to pursue outside of the handful of projects, but that being said, definitely not a bad thing to pick up!

definitely would not be able to have had such an immensely easy time with it had it not been for the masters.

 

[ericlans]

Why suddenly univrsities start offering the MFE online, is it because they have shortage of students?