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Could I get to New York?

smerrill

Joined
11/10/09
Messages
5
Points
11
I'm in a mid-career transition (I'm 40), looking to move to New York and begin anew, directly in financial markets. I would appreciate your thoughts about whether I could land a quant job. I have a PhD, but it's not in mathematics or finance - it's in a natural resources field. The dissertation was pretty quantitative - a lot of spatial statistics - but my undergraduate training was also not in finance.

I'm now a professor in a mostly non-quantitative area (public policy). I am Director of a finance-oriented research center, though it doesn't deal with financial markets directly. I have substantial senior management experience, some in the private sector. I'm Excel savvy but have not done C++ or Java programming.

 I saw several entry level quant jobs on this network but they all seem to require something I lack, usually the programming skills. Do you think I could take some online certificate courses in C++ and Java and be competitive for one of these positions? Anything else I'd need to do?

Thanks in advance for any insights.
 
Smerrill,
Your profile is definitely not the typical one so I think you should approach the whole thing a bit different. Your programming skill is lacking so addressing it would be top priority. Since you already know Excel, I would go VBA->Matlab->C#->SQL in that order.
It's not worth it doing C++ now unless you target the hardcore roles.
Job wise, there are plenty of places others than those traditionally hire from the young blood pool. Places like small shops, consulting firms, financial services. I used to work with a guy whose specialty is Excel/VBA and he does make great money as a consultant. Banks have thousands of Excel spreadsheets that need maintenance so having a niche isn't a bad way to make money.
Age wise, contradictory to common belief, I have met more people in their mid 30s doing MFE than the freshly graduated in their 20s.
Good luck
 
Thanks.

Andy,

Most helpful; thanks. I'll take some programming courses, overhaul my resume, and hit the streets. For when I'm ready to start networking, do you have any suggestions on how to find and connect with these boutique firms, small shops, or banks that might need such services? Clearly QuantNet is a central source - are you aware of other forums for these niche markets or opportunities?

Thanks,
Sam
 
Wirelessly posted

This field is so niche the number of forums you can count on one hand. I don't know how much you can find these helpful but you can try wilmott, nuclearphynance and linkedin. The first two are older than QN and tend to be more technical. They are not very newbie friendly so I reluctantly recommend them but definitely browse through them and take what you can.
LinkedIn is fast becoming a spammer heaven where the signal to noise ratio has decreased quickly. It is way to easy to accumulate connection through it so the value of networking has diminished a lot.
There are vast majority of info so make sure you navigate them wisely.
 
Why not do a Masters in Financial Engineering to manage the transition? You can work on your programming skills now, go through the reading lists on here, and apply to the New York based MFE programs this spring. An MFE would give you time to re-focus on a finance career. Reading the Baruch MFE student profiles, many had done PHDs prior to doing the MFE
 
To some extent, quant is simply a higher paid hand-dirty programmer. (Even some non-financial sector programmers may demand more math skills.)

I am not entirely sure about your motivation. But if you think the perceived compensation may attract you, you can find a higher paid job with your background somewhere else both inside and outside financial industry. If you really a lover of hands-dirty technical programming, quant may be a good fit. Otherwise, a more business oriented role may be suitable and some pays more than quant (remember, to the end, quant is just a supporting role i.e. in the cost-center).
 
Don't quite understand why you want to because a quant while you're already a professor in your research field. Plus, C++ is not really easy to master. If you do want to learn to program, maybe C# is a good option to start with.
 
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