Hello,
I'm new the forum and I was wondering if I could seek some advice in regard to making a decision on whether or not I should go for an MFE.
To provide a bit of background, I currently work in the industry on the risk management side (located in NYC). Started at JPM in the credit derivatives middle-office, then did about two years at BLK supporting their risk and portfolio analytical tools (mainly dealing with structured products) and have since moved on to business development in the structured finance risk group at another firm.
My goal is position myself to become a "quant" (i.e. quant trader, quant researcher, etc.) and enter a role in either trading or portfolio management. In order to make myself a more attractive candidate when the market I have been considering getting an MFE; however, I'm not sure if I fit the profile of your typical MFE candidate since I did not major in Mathematics, Physics, Engineering, etc. as an undergrad. In that regard, I was thinking about getting an MS in Statistics while trying to keep a focus on the applications to finance. However, I was wondering which of the following would make the most sense to help me achieve my goals:
My primary goal is to emerge, when the market corrects itself in the next 3 - 5 years, as a desirable candidate. My preference would be work on a trading desk and be a part of the decision making process when it comes to making investment decisions. I am considering going back to school on a part-time or a full-time basis.
During my professional experience I learned a lot of risk and pricing of various fixed-income securities. However, I do not do any programming in my current role and would say that I forgot most of what I learned in school and relearned at my previous employers. So, I would definitely need to take some remedial courses if I were to persue an MFE. Not sure how this would hurt my chances of getting accepted into a decent program.
Here is a rundown of my undergraduate profile (I graduated in 2004):
JSTAR
I'm new the forum and I was wondering if I could seek some advice in regard to making a decision on whether or not I should go for an MFE.
To provide a bit of background, I currently work in the industry on the risk management side (located in NYC). Started at JPM in the credit derivatives middle-office, then did about two years at BLK supporting their risk and portfolio analytical tools (mainly dealing with structured products) and have since moved on to business development in the structured finance risk group at another firm.
My goal is position myself to become a "quant" (i.e. quant trader, quant researcher, etc.) and enter a role in either trading or portfolio management. In order to make myself a more attractive candidate when the market I have been considering getting an MFE; however, I'm not sure if I fit the profile of your typical MFE candidate since I did not major in Mathematics, Physics, Engineering, etc. as an undergrad. In that regard, I was thinking about getting an MS in Statistics while trying to keep a focus on the applications to finance. However, I was wondering which of the following would make the most sense to help me achieve my goals:
- MFE alone
- CFA and/or FRM
- CFA & MS in Stats
- MS Comp. Sci & CFA
My primary goal is to emerge, when the market corrects itself in the next 3 - 5 years, as a desirable candidate. My preference would be work on a trading desk and be a part of the decision making process when it comes to making investment decisions. I am considering going back to school on a part-time or a full-time basis.
During my professional experience I learned a lot of risk and pricing of various fixed-income securities. However, I do not do any programming in my current role and would say that I forgot most of what I learned in school and relearned at my previous employers. So, I would definitely need to take some remedial courses if I were to persue an MFE. Not sure how this would hurt my chances of getting accepted into a decent program.
Here is a rundown of my undergraduate profile (I graduated in 2004):
- Degree: B.S. Economics, Minor Business from a large state school
- GPA: 3.6/4.0
- Accomplishments: Honors College, Dean's List multiple times, built an econometrics model one summer as part of fellowship program I was accepted to, built a web-based database driven application as part of a class project, and tons of extracurricular activities
- Undergrad finance related courses: Econometrics, Statistics, Finance, Acctng, Calculus (did not take Calc II or linear algebra but took Econ courses that taught and used these tools)
- Undergrad programming courses: C++, Java, SQL, PHP, VBA
- Work programming experience: SQL, UNIX, some VBA
JSTAR
