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Career prospects for Imperial MSc Risk Management & Financial Engineering vs MathFin

dgpo

Joined
9/1/23
Messages
11
Points
3
Hey guys, hope y'all are doing good!

I recently got an offer from Imperial for RMFE. Not sure what the conditions are (I should know soon, hopefully today before theteam go on holiday!).

I am interested in a career in quant. I have one or two projects (including my final year project), an internship at an IB, and haveread some books so I think I am generally in a decent position at my current stage.

However, I hear that the reputation of Imperial RMFE, although very good for quant, is more for risk management and risk roles ingeneral, rather than proper quant. I study Engineering btw, not Maths/Stats/Physics, so I wasn't able to apply for MathFin asperImperial's requirements.

How true is this reputation, and is there any other advice anyone could give? Thanks a lot!
 
@pepequantmaster I am about 90% sure I will. The name is too good to turn down, and I actually do like the course now that I have given it time to think. I believe I can tailor my course more toward Financial Engineering rather than Risk Management. And the offer conditions are very favourable too so looking likely! Any thoughts on the course?
 
Awesome @dgpo. I am excited about the course as well, just that the Risk Management term seems interesting as there are only 1 / 2 modules on Risk for the course based on the handbook.
 
dgpo said:
Hey guys, hope y'all are doing good!

I recently got an offer from Imperial for RMFE. Not sure what the conditions are (I should know soon, hopefully today before theteam go on holiday!).

I am interested in a career in quant. I have one or two projects (including my final year project), an internship at an IB, and haveread some books so I think I am generally in a decent position at my current stage.

However, I hear that the reputation of Imperial RMFE, although very good for quant, is more for risk management and risk roles ingeneral, rather than proper quant. I study Engineering btw, not Maths/Stats/Physics, so I wasn't able to apply for MathFin asperImperial's requirements.

How true is this reputation, and is there any other advice anyone could give? Thanks a lot!
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Hey mate were you at the applicant day? I was and I can defo say the course seems like it's set up for Risk Management. Very few people seem to do anything otherwise, with regards to those who end up being quants. Its starting to look to me like if you really want to become a researcher, trader, dev, the only "financial engineering" type programmes that will land you anywhere good as a graduate are MathFin and MCF. Obvs not impossible, but relatively you're fighting an uphill battle.
 
BigClout said:
Hey mate were you at the applicant day? I was and I can defo say the course seems like it's set up for Risk Management. Very few people seem to do anything otherwise, with regards to those who end up being quants. Its starting to look to me like if you really want to become a researcher, trader, dev, the only "financial engineering" type programmes that will land you anywhere good as a graduate are MathFin and MCF. Obvs not impossible, but relatively you're fighting an uphill battle.
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Hey! Would you be willing to dm? I wasn’t at the applicant day as I’m away on Easter break. Would love to talk more!
 
I just want to share my experience about this course. I once interviewed someone from this course. He was one of the best in his class according to his CV and was a student representative for his course.

He was so poor I ended the interview early and told him that I will not proceed with his application because he failed to apply ito’s formula and cannot tell me what is numeraire. This guy in particular felt unfairly treated and reported me to HR.

In future, if I am screening cv for front office role in a bank, most likely anyone’s cv with this course on it will end up being binned because I am now convinced that the quality of this course is poor.

In contrast, the financial maths course at Imperial is much better. At first I thought this risk management course was that financial maths course - that is why I chose to interview that guy at the first place. My manager did not like the risk management in the name and the candidate’s mediocre undergrad school and did not want to interview even.
 
YZhao said:
I just want to share my experience about this course. I once interviewed someone from this course. He was one of the best in his class according to his CV and was a student representative for his course.

He was so poor I ended the interview early and told him that I will not proceed with his application because he failed to apply ito’s formula and cannot tell me what is numeraire. This guy in particular fell unfairly treated and reported me to HR.

In future, if I am screening cv for front office role in a bank, most likely anyone’s cv with this course on it will end up being binned because I am now convinced that the quality of this course is poor.

In contrast, the financial maths course at Imperial is much better. At first I thought this risk management course was that financial maths course - that is why I chose to interview that guy at the first place. My manager did not like the risk management in the name and the candidate’s mediocre undergrad school and did not want to interview even.
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Hey! Really sorry to hear about your experience with the candidate. The only reason I applied to the RMFE course was because I don’t come from a maths/stats/physics background and so couldn’t apply to the MathFin. Assuming I have sufficient projects and internships (I am interning at an Investment Bank - as a Software Engineer though), do you think - in addition to the course - I stand a chance at the screening/interview? Also assuming I tailor my courses to be more quant/math based like statistics/option pricing, etc? I had the same reservations about the Risk Management in the name, but my understanding is that you can tailor the course to be more Risk Management or more Financial Engineering- I plan on doing the latter.

Also, respectfully, I’m not sure if it’s fair for one candidate’s bad interview to influence your outlook on all candidates from that course. Again, I don’t know anything about recruiting, but it does seem a little unfair- if there’s something I’m missing, do let me know!
 
dgpo said:
Hey! Really sorry to hear about your experience with the candidate. The only reason I applied to the RMFE course was because I don’t come from a maths/stats/physics background and so couldn’t apply to the MathFin. Assuming I have sufficient projects and internships (I am interning at an Investment Bank - as a Software Engineer though), do you think - in addition to the course - I stand a chance at the screening/interview? Also assuming I tailor my courses to be more quant/math based like statistics/option pricing, etc? I had the same reservations about the Risk Management in the name, but my understanding is that you can tailor the course to be more Risk Management or more Financial Engineering- I plan on doing the latter.

Also, respectfully, I’m not sure if it’s fair for one candidate’s bad interview to influence your outlook on all candidates from that course. Again, I don’t know anything about recruiting, but it does seem a little unfair- if there’s something I’m missing, do let me know!
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Do you mind if I DM you also, so we could talk 1-1 please?
 
dgpo said:
Do you mind if I DM you also, so we could talk 1-1 please?
Click to expand...
Sure. I see now why you apply for that course but I have to say a quant interviews can be very maths heavy. To catch up with people who had a maths background, that is an incredible amount of work.

Where did you study for maths undergrad?
 
YZhao said:
Sure. I see now why you apply for that course but I have to say a quant interviews can be very maths heavy. To catch up with people who had a maths background, that is an incredible amount of work.

Where did you study for maths undergrad?
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Yep, I understand they can be maths heavy. I’m planning on using the green book and just generally prepping for quant interviews this summer, and the next. I’ve bought some online courses too to learn stochastic calculus, PDEs, stats/prob and option pricing.

I did Electrical Engineering at a Tier 2 uni (think Warwick, Manchester, Edinburgh, KCL)
 
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