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Message: <blockquote data-quote="bigbadwolf" data-source="post: 14378" data-attributes="member: 722">If astutely chosen (e.g. MFE), it does "add value." But in the United States, since students have to fund their own undergrad education and professional training, they have to think and act like entrepreneurs marketing themselves, and there's quite a bit of "volatility" in returns. Tends to add to anxiety. Additionally, work across the board is being transferred to lower-cost countries and this shows no sign of abating.  So would I. But I would have to train the Ph.D., and after training he might be poached by a rival firm. A well-trained MFE will probably require less-on-the-job training (albeit coming with a more limited math skill set). Also, much of the so-called "quant" work is drudgery and doesn't really need a Ph.D. Horses for courses, as the English say.  Those jobs are few and far between. They will tend to go to WASPs with a background of, say, Andover and Harvard. Nepotism and string-pulling is often involved. So if you're a nephew of Bush or Kerry, or your last name is Rockefeller, it will work. It won't work if you're most everyone else, went to Jerkwater High and then Hick State U. Your starting pay will be closer to 50K, maybe even 30K. That reminds me: if you can, get hold of a copy of C. Northcote Parkinson's "In-laws and Outlaws." The In-laws are those who get married to the Chairman's niece and are subsequently assured of a cosy, senior position. The Outlaws are everyone else, who have to compete on their own merits in a brutually competitive and harshly unfair world. We're all in the second category on this forum: no silver spoon in our mouths.<img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite16" alt=":cry:" title="Crying    :cry:" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":cry:" /></blockquote>

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