• C++ Programming for Financial Engineering
    Highly recommended by thousands of MFE students. Covers essential C++ topics with applications to financial engineering. Learn more Join!
    Python for Finance with Intro to Data Science
    Gain practical understanding of Python to read, understand, and write professional Python code for your first day on the job. Learn more Join!
    An Intuition-Based Options Primer for FE
    Ideal for entry level positions interviews and graduate studies, specializing in options trading arbitrage and options valuation models. Learn more Join!

Applying for Job for 2 months no sucess

What types of jobs are you applying to? Have you had your resume looked over by another set of eyes other than your own? Depending on the size of the firms you are applying to, LinkedIn can be useful in that you’re able to look at the backgrounds of folks who hold positions similar to the ones you’re applying for. If your background seems different than the average one in some core way, you’re likely applying to the wrong kinds of positions.
 
What types of jobs are you applying to? Have you had your resume looked over by another set of eyes other than your own? Depending on the size of the firms you are applying to, LinkedIn can be useful in that you’re able to look at the backgrounds of folks who hold positions similar to the ones you’re applying for. If your background seems different than the average one in some core way, you’re likely applying to the wrong kinds of positions.
Software engineering jobs or rather C++ posisitions. All entry level on linkedin. I dont have a single official internship experience at software development company. That might be different but I have similar skills.
 
Last edited:
Software engineering jobs or rather C++ posisitions. All entry level on linkedin. I dont have a single official internship experience at software development company. That might be different but I have similar skills.
Welcome to the club.
You have got to hunt for those internships, trying to stand out without them is kind of a lost cause, but you have to stand out to get them. Kinda circular.
What is your background?
 
Welcome to the club.
You have got to hunt for those internships, trying to stand out without them is kind of a lost cause, but you have to stand out to get them. Kinda circular.
What is your background?
Graduate, I had almost 2 research experience for both summers. Dual major in Mathematics and Computer Science. I had to work undergrad about 30-35 hours a week to go to school. Taking C++ course that is hosted by QuantNet. I am currently doing their advance course.
 
Completely within expectation given the current climate. Personally I'm 6 months out of a job. My credentials are decent. PhD in maths, Oxbridge graduate (first), four years of work experience at a leading hedge fund.

Unfortunately it can sometimes be difficult to view one's situation in a global macro-economic context, rather than as a personal failure. My advice: do things that you truly enjoy and arguably won't have time for once you find a job. If you're desperate for cash you can probably land a gig delivering parcels for Amazon...
 
Model validation? What would be the name of that position? I'm in a very similar boat. Physics undergrad with experience running the student run investment fund, now starting a UK online mathematical finance program because I didn't find anything over the summer. Either hoping to find full time work or get into a U.S. based program with good recruiting for next fall.
 
Tips on types of projects? I have no idea what kind of stuff to do so like I have one project that uses a bayesian optimization algo to maximize the sharpe ratio for a backtest of 13 different asset indexes (A proof to myself of the value of diversification) and a wealth management monte carlo sim sampling from the real historical returns distribution IVV and TLT w/ dividends & distributions. I also built a simple moving average strategy function and maximize it through testing the sample space of parameters which are the length of the SMA and how often it checks for a signal. (not robust models I know. pretty much the definition of overfitting)
 
Tips on types of projects? I have no idea what kind of stuff to do so like I have one project that uses a bayesian optimization algo to maximize the sharpe ratio for a backtest of 13 different asset indexes (A proof to myself of the value of diversification) and a wealth management monte carlo sim sampling from the real historical returns distribution IVV and TLT w/ dividends & distributions. I also built a simple moving average strategy function and maximize it through testing the sample space of parameters which are the length of the SMA and how often it checks for a signal. (not robust models I know. pretty much the definition of overfitting)
Something like what I’ve been doing...


don’t copy me, otherwise I might have to kill you :). Jk. But you get the picture. Implement whatever you are studying as a module/library that can be utilized by the general public.

I’m currently implementing a regime switching model from scratch. It’s pretty difficult and I’m almost done. Trying to speed up the optimizer by implementing an EM algorithm.

being a good software developer also requires you to know sql, databases, and some front end tools like django/flask. Aws or gws knowledfs where you are creating applications would be huge. That will take you sometime to become good at. You are looking at 3-6m.

Also, knowing c++. Python Dev roles pay a bit more than c++. The knowledge of the two however will make you stand out. Dm me and I can give you advise. I’m currently a software developer at Bank of America and getting to accept a quantitative developer role at Morgan Stanley soon enough. Believe it or not, my employers hired me due to my GitHub.
 
Tips on types of projects? I have no idea what kind of stuff to do so like I have one project that uses a bayesian optimization algo to maximize the sharpe ratio for a backtest of 13 different asset indexes (A proof to myself of the value of diversification) and a wealth management monte carlo sim sampling from the real historical returns distribution IVV and TLT w/ dividends & distributions. I also built a simple moving average strategy function and maximize it through testing the sample space of parameters which are the length of the SMA and how often it checks for a signal. (not robust models I know. pretty much the definition of overfitting)
That’s pretty impressive. Can you make that oop and push to GitHub?
 
Haha, Thank you for sharing. Won't steal I promise. is the regime switching model on your GitHub? I'm looking through it now. I'm in the Quantnet C++ course rn so I will have some confidence in my skills by the time I finish that. And Python is what I am most comfortable with. That is great to hear about your github. I posted mine and would be very happy to get feedback. What does it mean to make something OOP? and I haven't messed around with pushing to github yet. I just manually uploaded it. Davidfdaf/David_Personal_Projects
 
Haha, Thank you for sharing. Won't steal I promise. is the regime switching model on your GitHub? I'm looking through it now. I'm in the Quantnet C++ course rn so I will have some confidence in my skills by the time I finish that. And Python is what I am most comfortable with. That is great to hear about your github. I posted mine and would be very happy to get feedback. What does it mean to make something OOP? and I haven't messed around with pushing to github yet. I just manually uploaded it. Davidfdaf/David_Personal_Projects
Yes it is part of my GitHub under market_learn.learning.msr for Markov switching regression. I’m trying to implement the EM algorithm to make it run faster as the optimization runs very slowly as it keeps searching for a local minima
 
I would suggest using your terminal to push or pull things. Manual is painful. Go to a directory and type git init to initialize your repo. Once you create a repo manually, do a git clone Your repo’s ssh and clone the repo into your directory.

My code is somewhat incomplete. I mean there are modules that are complete like the linear regression and logistic regression etc, and many of the algorithms module is done. I have a short attention span, so I usually end up switching projects to code something else. I also don’t have too much time after work to do this. I try to allocate 3-4 hours a day after work to work in my GitHub. It’s an ongoing task.
Reason I’m doing this is because I want to eventually be a quantitative software engineer/researcher. I think this is a great way to get your hands dirty. Eventually I will have a lot of portfolio management work there.

to do something oop means to write in terms of classes. If you can maybe mimic my work in c++ that might be huge. But probably very painful to do it.
 
I just checked your GitHub. Remove the i pythonnotebooks, they are usually for yourself and it clogs GitHub. Convert what you did in a .cpp or .py file whatever you are coding

tactical asset allocation by Fabre is a great learning opportunity. A good project would be to create a backtester yourself and share it. Maybe a backtester in c++?
 
Back
Top