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career guide - please help

eebaris

Joined
6/25/08
Messages
3
Points
11
Hi,
I am a physics graduate student. I have seen finance has been a major source of employment for physics PhDs both from experimental and theoretical side. Now the situation is more competitive, only PhD is not enough to get a job, one needs some finance background.
I am seriously thinking finance as my future career. I have an impression that a degree in financial engineering is best to get into finance industry. But my economical condition doesn't allow me to pay the tuition fees. I am pretty fluent in c/c++ , Matlab, and Mathematica. I am not a hardcore theoretical physicist from a top ranking university. I work on experimental side and my university ranking is ~ 35. Is it possible to find a quant job based on knowledge of John C Hull's book (Options, futures, and other derivatives) and such programming skill? How competitive it the job market? Do they expect more knowledge of finance beyond this book? Do they call for interview if someone doesn't have finance degree? I highly appreciate if you guys help me out discussing the issue.

Thanks
Baris
 
talk to a recruiter. They will be able to give you a better advice. I would hit the market with your degree.
 
Hi eebaris

I too belong to the same category as yours. Which university you are from? As far as I think , the field is becoming more and more competitive. Few years back it was very common for physics PhDs to move to finance will very little knowledge. But things are changing rapidly and therefore it would require much more effort for a physics graduate than what used to be before.

For alain: Hi, can you please tell us how do we contact the recruiters and what should be our approach while talking to them. Also do you know somebody from asia (Singapore or HK).

Regards
Ashwani
 
I have an impression that a degree in financial engineering is best to get into finance industry. But my economical condition doesn’t allow me to pay the tuition fees. I am pretty fluent in c/c++ , Matlab, and Mathematica. I am not a hardcore theoretical physicist from a top ranking university. I work on experimental side and my university ranking is ~ 35. Is it possible to find a quant job based on knowledge of John C Hull’s book (Options, futures, and other derivatives) and such programming skill? How competitive it the job market? Do they expect more knowledge of finance beyond this book?
Click to expand...

The finance per se is not a problem; the hard-core math and computing is what's really needed for quant work, and indeed defines it. If you have a strong PDE and stochastic background, plus scientific computing using these disciplines, you are better off than most fresh MFE graduates in terms of math and computing background. The finance material is a piece of cake in comparison. Assuming you have this background (which an experimental physicist may not have), all you have to do is sell yourself aggressively. But you should have your Ph.D. in your hand. Not having it from CalTech or Stanford makes the job harder but not insurmountable, not cause fo despair.
 
@bigbadwolf
Thank you very much for sharing informations. As a physics student I did a lot PDE. That will be a plus for me. I will hit the market with my background.

Thank you
Baris
 
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