Doubts about Financial Engineering

[valueinvestor]

Hi all,
I am a Computer Engineer from a very reputed college in India. I am very eager to learn more about finance. Right now I carry an experience of 1 year as a Software engineer in a MNC IT company. I rate myself highly in terms of Mathematical abilities and have won few national competitions also in Mathematics like the National Mathematics Olympiad. I am looking for a program where I would love to get involved with math and Advanced math but I would not prefer doing Coding and making Trading products. I would rather love to work as a Quant and do some Modelling part or as a Portfolio Manager.
Is the FE program right for me? As I can comprehend from the Baruch Website that people who come from programming background usually are absorbed in Finance industry as a Financial engineer who develop such Finance related products as a Quantitative Analyst/Programmer. Please provide answers relating whether having an experience of IT would I be exposed only to job as a product developer or can I expect to have the chance to work in core Finance oriented jobs also such as Portfolio Manager/Modeler or else since I do not carry any Finance background. I do not have any professional Finance background but I had been doing some reading and knowledge development in Finance on my own.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Sounds like you want to do a PhD in Math. MFE is 1/3 of math/programming/finance so if you prefer not to code and work with financial product, i'm not sure what interests you in MFE.
Portfolio manager is the top of the chain and you won't get there before you pay your due doing some lower level jobs which surely contains some programming, be it C++, VBA, Excel.

 

[Yuriy]

There are many jobs in quantitative finance. Experience is a big plus. And if you don't get to do core Finance work right away, you can start as a developer and get promoted. All depends on how well you perform.

 

[valueinvestor]

Hi,
thanks for the prompt reply....well how about moving into Sales and trading with a MFE degree....? Any other degree other than MFE that would help me launch a career in Trading like MS Fin etc??

regards

 

[Yuriy]

Financial Engineering is a relatively new discipline, but trading has been around for years. So traders must come from somewhere, maybe MS Finance, maybe MBA. I suggest checking job search websites for jobs that involve Sales and Trading, they will have requirements for those jobs. Just see what education they require.

 

[Erica]

to get a reasonable trading job nowadays, the degree is a Master's in math, engineering, cs or clearly, fe.

for sales/ trading it's an mba

 

[valueinvestor]

erica,
do you think that a MS in Finance degree would be help me in any way to get into Trading? What do you think are the disadvantages or MS Finance

 

[Wallstyouth]

erica,
do you think that a MS in Finance degree would be help me in any way to get into Trading? What do you think are the disadvantages or MS Finance

If you want to get into soley into trading you will need an MBA no doubt about it.

 

[iosakwe]

to get a reasonable trading job nowadays, the degree is a Master's in math, engineering, cs or clearly, fe.

for sales/ trading it's an mba

Even an MBA is now the least requirement to compete as most have it nowadays. I find that it also behooves the entrant to obtain a CFA, even if you don't get the charter, at least pass all the exams. Not to start an MBA vs. CFA war, but the CFA definitely demonstrates a higher level of competency in Finance than MBA as the latter is more generic to business.

Heck, I see lots of Financial Engineers shooting for a CFA as well. And FE is a more focused discipline so what does say for MBA holders? The industry is surely changing, what used to be advantageous many years ago is now essential, UNLESS you know someone that can help you up the ropes.

 

[Yuriy]

Even an MBA is now the least requirement to compete as most have it nowadays.

That is very true. A lot of MBAs are now getting MS degrees in QMM/Stats as well as PhD at Baruch. I have met people doing each of the 3.

 

[valueinvestor]

thank you guys all....the information has been so informative..it has really helped me narrow down my search even more.......
regards