Do I want to work towards becoming a quant?

[ZackL]

Hi guys,

I am a fourth year at the University of Ottawa. I will be graduating with my BS double major in Mathematics & Economics in roughly six months. I'm getting a little panicky because I really am not sure what route I want to take next.

Firstly, I really like mathematics. Throughout my undergrad I focused my maths mostly in the applied venue... ODEs, PDEs, time series, applied probability, some statistics, a lot of applied linear algebra, etc. I have always been interested in entering finance, but given my interests, I am not sure where would be the best fit for me.. i.e. someone who likes the topic of finance and loves quantitative subjects. There are so many venues... PE, IB, M&A, risk, consulting, blah blah blah.

I'm also realistic... I know that leaving uOttawa with a 3.33GPA (thusfar) and no internship experience isn't going to land me some sort of Goldman Sachs-esque ibanking position. I'm obviously going to have to work my ass of for this last semester and try to get my GPA high enough to get into a decent graduate school. Right now I am looking at the University of Toronto for the MMF program and the MFE (financial economics) program.

At this point, I would ideally like to get into a graduate program with a plan to stick it out all the way with an end-game career goal in mind, and I am definitely leaning on the quant world... but a large reason for that is that I really don't know what else there is out there that is in finance but is also quantitative in nature.

Another problem is that I have almost no coding experience, which from what I can discern, is obviously a big part of the job. I have minimal exposure to MATLAB and Java, but no C++ which I hear is detrimentally important. If I want to go down this road, I think the best thing for me to do is start self-teaching coding to prepare for the MMF, which again, is an investment of my time and probably money.

In sum I just want to know if anyone can give me a little input after knowing my background and vaguely my goals, is this profession something someone like me should aspire to? I realize nobody can give me a definitive answer, but maybe if someone went through a similar experience? I was also told my by one of my economics professors that "the quant industry is dead". Is there any truth to that, or is he just being a cynical bastard?

I appreciate your time.

 

[Jay YK Kim]

If you like mathematics so much, yeah financial engineering might fit for you. If you also know C++, that would have been great. But I still think that you have chance to go to MSFE without it if you elaborate yourself well with your interest in mathematics and SOP. (but sorry, probably not those top3 MSFE) I heard C++ is not 'must' when doing FE. It still depends on what you want to do after studying FE, and trust me, I thought studying FE would give me much narrower choices. It actually did but it seems like there are still so many options and choices out there even after MSFE.

Talk to other people including your professors, and have some more careful thought about what you want to do and what you are capable of.

Few other options you might want to consider:
Actuarial Science
Operational Research
PhD in mathematical field

 

[ZackL]

Thanks for the input. I've looked into other positions like becoming an actuary and I haven't taken that one off the table. And your last suggestion, the PhD, is also on the table. If I went that route I was considering a MS>PhD in statistics or applied mathematics; there is no way I could do a research based PhD with pure maths; it's not that I can't do it, I just don't like it; I really wasn't a fan of classes like topology, analysis, group theory etc.

I spoke to a few of my professors but I can't seem to find anyone with any solid suggestions.. i'm thinking on going to the finance faculty just to see if any of them had any input.

 

[Jay YK Kim]

Just a reminder, nobody will give you any solid suggestions since nobody actually can except you.
Other people might be able to suggest you some options but such 'solid' suggestions (or decisions) should be made by you.
Think, talk, listen, research a lot. It's a cliche but that's really the only way.