Becoming a Quant: Best choice of PHD?

[mat_seymour]

I just finished a master of physics degree with a first. I believe that if I now wisely chose my PHD and do well in that, i'll be left with a good chance of becoming a quant later in life. I would like to do a research project involving complexity science, but i'm not sure how well regarded this is by financial firms? If a complexity science PHD is no good, would I best doing a research project in "pure" physics (something more traditional e.g. photonics), information theory or something more specific such as financial computing? Any tips, especially from someone who works at an investment bank, would be appreciated.

 

[Barny]

With your masters degree in physics, you must have an interest in a particular area? What is it? Do that.

 

[mat_seymour]

Ah yes, complexity science is what i'm particularly interested in. It's a relatively new field, which branches together many different disciplines to solve complex problems. I would of thought it would be very useful for quantitative analysis, since it involves a large amount of computer modeling. Such an example would be a project I saw at Bristol for developing a new model for the spread of disease, incorporating new crowd research results. My concern is that because the field is new, prospective quant employers will show little interest in someone with a phd in it, because they may not have heard of it, or it is not so "tried and tested" so to speak. One of my lecturers keeps promoting it as the next big thing to study, but what if this buzz of interest dies out after a few years? Sure I would have enjoyed myself but i'd be left with a rather useless qualification. I guess what i'm really asking for is someone who works within the industry to indicate whether they've heard about complexity science, and if it is worth my time studying it? Thanks for your help.

 

[Barny]

You're worrying about the wrong things. Firstly, if you don't do something you enjoy, then good luck getting the motivation to do a PhD in it. Secondly, if you don't have a good supervisor, good luck again. Any theoretical PhD will be useful for quant work. It's the transferable skills that are important. Will you have hedge funds and banks tripping over you and offering to pay you £100k a year straight after your PhD? Probably not, but who knows.

 

[martingaletrader]

first of all people in the know - those who have studied serious mathematics or physics will know about complexity science. Complexity science is an interesting development: theory with experimental work.

fake quants or people who haven't done serious mathematics can be ignorant of new and interesting areas of complexity science. In some cases you can do very theoretical stuff in probability and apply it to complexity issues. Other areas are statistical mechanics and its applications to solve other problems outside of physics.

A phd is not a means to do quant work. Only do a phd if you are interested.

 

[MiloRambaldi]

first of all people in the know - those who have studied serious mathematics or physics will know about complexity science. Complexity science is an interesting development: theory with experimental work.

fake quants or people who haven't done serious mathematics can be ignorant of new and interesting areas of complexity science.

Pure nonsense. The fact that someone has "studied serious mathematics or physics" in the past, does not imply that they will be familiar with a new branch of math/science.

 

[ValueSeeker]

first of all people in the know - those who have studied serious mathematics or physics will know about complexity science. Complexity science is an interesting development: theory with experimental work.

fake quants or people who haven't done serious mathematics can be ignorant of new and interesting areas of complexity science.

This is one of the dumbest things I have ever heard. Moreover, I have never heard of complexity science and I doubt any of my friends who also have jobs in the area your seeking have heard of it.