- Joined
- 6/9/24
- Messages
- 1
- Points
- 3
So I'm currently 28M and working as a UX designer at a large media org in the UK but truth be told I'm really bored of the job and the pay isn't great (~ £40k). The work is quite tedious, not particularly intellectually stimulating and ultimately isn't all that creative so I'm wanting to change paths before I sink more time into my current one. My educational background is a BA in Industrial Design and Technology. Prior to that I did my a-levels in Maths, Physics and Product Design. I got a good grade for product design (potentially why I decided on pursuing it at uni and also at the time I thought I wanted to do something 'creative'?) but I did quite badly in Maths and Physics. I was later diagnosed with Depression and Anxiety and realised it had negatively affected my academic performance during my GCSEs through to A-levels. I know the grades I got are in no way an accurate representation of my abilities (I'm also waiting to get an AuADHD assessment) and am far more capable in maths and physics but at the end of the day the poor grades are what I have. I'm by no means a maths savant but I know if I set my focus on something and have a clear goal in mind I can achieve it.
I've been working with software devs and Data Scientists at my current role and have gotten really enamoured with the work they do and the technical aspects of it all. It's really made me miss doing maths and I've been teaching myself Python, R, statistics tests/analyses and some front-end frameworks (more so to compliment my UX work than being related to Soft. Dev. or Data Science). And basically I've come to the late realisation that I would much rather be doing something technical and intellectually stimulating. I have some friends from school who are now working in Finance doing some form of quant finance roles (quant dev/quant analyst/risk) and hearing them talk about their work was really interesting - they have backgrounds in Maths, Physics and Engineering and one went to Oxford to study Physics.
I'm currently thinking of doing a second bachelors in Maths and Stats but financially I wouldn't be able to leave work and do another 3 yr undergrad full-time. So I'm planning on doing a 4yr part-time BSc at Birkbeck, uni of London. I was then planning on following this up with a Masters in Quantitative Finance/Mathematics and Finance from a prestigious uni, Imperial do this very MSc with the option to do it part-time too. How much would school attended factor in for these roles (i.e. would the Birkbeck bachelors put me at a disadvantage even if I were to manage to obtain a 1st?)
I guess my main question is would I be at a disadvantage applying for quant jobs around the age of 34? (dev or analyst... would like to pursue quant research but appreciate a PhD would be needed here), given all in it would take about 6 years to complete and be very costly financially(~£60k with 40 of that being for the masters - might be slightly higher accounting for inflationary increases). Any other tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.
TLDR; Not happy as a UX Designer, want to move into a more technical & intellectually challenging career and ultimately want to earn much more money. Was considering Quant Finance but if age and prestige of school + exceptional grades are a blocker then would also be open to a move into Data Science, Data Engineer and/or ML engineering. I had also been made aware of Quant UX Researchers recently, who seem to essentially be Data Scientists but domain focused on UI/UX outputs and behavioural insights - but these roles seem to only occur in US markets.
I've been working with software devs and Data Scientists at my current role and have gotten really enamoured with the work they do and the technical aspects of it all. It's really made me miss doing maths and I've been teaching myself Python, R, statistics tests/analyses and some front-end frameworks (more so to compliment my UX work than being related to Soft. Dev. or Data Science). And basically I've come to the late realisation that I would much rather be doing something technical and intellectually stimulating. I have some friends from school who are now working in Finance doing some form of quant finance roles (quant dev/quant analyst/risk) and hearing them talk about their work was really interesting - they have backgrounds in Maths, Physics and Engineering and one went to Oxford to study Physics.
I'm currently thinking of doing a second bachelors in Maths and Stats but financially I wouldn't be able to leave work and do another 3 yr undergrad full-time. So I'm planning on doing a 4yr part-time BSc at Birkbeck, uni of London. I was then planning on following this up with a Masters in Quantitative Finance/Mathematics and Finance from a prestigious uni, Imperial do this very MSc with the option to do it part-time too. How much would school attended factor in for these roles (i.e. would the Birkbeck bachelors put me at a disadvantage even if I were to manage to obtain a 1st?)
I guess my main question is would I be at a disadvantage applying for quant jobs around the age of 34? (dev or analyst... would like to pursue quant research but appreciate a PhD would be needed here), given all in it would take about 6 years to complete and be very costly financially(~£60k with 40 of that being for the masters - might be slightly higher accounting for inflationary increases). Any other tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.
TLDR; Not happy as a UX Designer, want to move into a more technical & intellectually challenging career and ultimately want to earn much more money. Was considering Quant Finance but if age and prestige of school + exceptional grades are a blocker then would also be open to a move into Data Science, Data Engineer and/or ML engineering. I had also been made aware of Quant UX Researchers recently, who seem to essentially be Data Scientists but domain focused on UI/UX outputs and behavioural insights - but these roles seem to only occur in US markets.