• 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!

Career Break Travel

YYL

Joined
5/14/12
Messages
13
Points
13
Hi guys,

I recently got admitted to a MFE program and will start the pre-program class from Jan next year.

My current job is a junior associate in a PE firm in Asia. I love the job but hate the hours, and is thinking maybe I should quit it now and go backpacking for a couple of months.

Do you guys think this career gap will jeopardize my future career after graduation? Or it is okay since my work now is actually irrelevant to the quant finance which I would like to do after MFE.

Any advice will be grateful!
 
Good!!

I have just quitted my job.
Kinda too impulsive... But it feels good.

I guess this is why they ban employees from secretly surfing the Internet when working.
 
But I'm told, if you do it right, once is enough ;)

Out of interest, where are you going to go?
 
Go exploring the world. It will help educating you more than taking some courses ;)
You know... Couldn't agree with this more. I spent two years traveling on and off in an attempt to acquire advanced glass blowing skills. I crashed couches from Cali to Hawaii and even ended up moving to Seattle for a while. Advantage? Well I can hold equally interesting conversations with hippies or bankers... More importantly, I value differing "perspectives" that I would've never seen otherwise. Now that's living.
 
Oh yeah.... I picked up some skills too:

fantaseapro.jpg


batuttostylevase.jpg


bowlofmarbles1.jpg
 
That's some very nice work you done there. Can doing that make a good living?
Oops... Didn't know the whole photo would pop up! Haha... It's technically possible to make a living at it in the same way kids want to be a rock star when they grow up. (Heard of the starving artist term?) My goal is to do it on the side and generate demand first... Then make the leap at some point.
 
Back
Top