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How much will a MFE help in breaking into quant finance for Engineering PhD from a top institution

Kavita

Joined
9/18/11
Messages
6
Points
11
I graduated in 2010 with a PhD in electrical engineering from a top 3 program (think MIT, UC Berkeley). After two years in the engineering research, I have decided to follow my passion for Mathematics, programming, and numerical methods. Quant Finance seems to offer a nice blend of these. Money is, of course, an added incentive as well ;-)

My PhD work involved a lot of numerical analysis (including writing my own code from scratch for solving ODEs and PDEs in MATLAB, Python,C++). I can say that I am fairly at home with numerical methods. I have, however, only elementary background in probablity/statistics and no experience in finance. I currently work in scientific research (which involves lot of math/physics/programming).
Is seeking hedge fund jobs without MFE a realistic alternative for me? A lot of entry level quant job postings say that post-PhD finance experience is not required. How good are my chances of getting interviews/offers without MFE? Could I educate myself in probablity/stats/finance and be a serious contender for quant jobs? I have been reading a lot of conflicting information.

My humble thanks for any words of advice. I apologize if a similar question has been answered elsewhere and would appreciate if anyone would point me to the appropriate thread
 
Have you tried applying for quant jobs or contacting recruiters? If you have, what type of feedback are you getting. If you haven't, what are you waiting for?

Also, this is a good starting point
 
Thanks for the link Atreides. I have not started applying and have no interview feedback. Please allow me to explain.

It is clear to me that breaking into quant finance is extremely difficult (by reading this and other forums). There are too many math olympiad whizzes and MIT/CalTech PhDs in the increasing applicant pool. Before beginning the time-consuming application process, I want to realistically assess my chances of breaking into this field with my current background (lots of math, programming PDE solving, but no probability/statistics/finance) and without formal finance education. From the responses to my question in the original post, I hope to get some idea of whether an MFE/MFin is needed to break in and how much it will help me stand out from the pool of all the talented people who will be applying with me.
 
Breaking in as entry-level hire is challenging without having the right network of contacts. There aren't many headhunters for entry-level positions and firms don't want to pay commission for entry-level hires, last time I heard. Would not be surprised if it's still the case given the market condition.
There is no telling if MFE is the right choice for you, or anyone. It's not a golden ticket to quantdom. Many people have tried and failed.

Networking still sounds like the most reasonable approach for you. Try to reach out to your school alumni, your friends. Someone out there will give you a chance so keep on knocking on doors.
 
Thanks for your insights Andy. Given that I am far away from financial hubs like NYC/Chicago (Tennessee), I have no easy way of networking with the folks on the street. Also, currently I am into pure research, with almost zero overlap with anything finance. So networking for me now can only mean cold-calling or cold-emailing people about my desire to switch to finance. It may seem surprising, but I really dont know any finance people from my school personally. I feel that this way of networking wont be very effective. To continue on your thought, my main question would be: starting from where I am right now, what would be good way to start building my network for my eventual goal of an entry-level break-in as a quant?
 
You can get interviews based on your PhD degree. The issue is whether you will be prepared for the interviews and pass the interviews. See the reading list on quantnet.You can read the books by yourself and do 20 interviews. If you fail 20-30 interviews, then you probably need to go to the highest-ranked MFE program and do 12-18 months intensive MFE study to break into Finance.
 
Kavita, I don't know how willing you are to give out more than $50k and one year of opportunity cost, but Ph.Ds, especially those from top notch engineering schools, are the first to be interviewed and hired by investment banks. IBs are quite snobbish when it comes to hiring. It's very likely if you apply for a good MFE program, you'll end up working there.

I would also say that you should have chance to get interviews. Be ready to answer questions regarding probability/stats/brain teasers/derivatives/stochastic calculus. If you find it's hard to get or do well in interviews, MFE does open door for you.
 
I don't consider myself the right guy to answer your question since I am not a quant (but I am on my way there), but I do feel that what you need above all is confidence. Give it a shot, my friend! No one in this forum, including Andy, can realistically offer you a job but some senior manager out there in the market, who will give you the very valuable assessment about yourself. Go for it, and see how it turns out. After all, you still get to go for MFE if failures in interviews do occur, right?
 
You are certainly qualified for a Quant job. I think (as someone mentioned in another post) that most people who apply to MFE programs do so not to learn as much as to get jobs. The programs prepare you for Quant interviews as well as improve your resume. You will likely get a Quant internship as well. The combination of good interview skills +better resume + internship = much better chance of landing a nice job.

That's why most of the programs are only 1 year.
 
Folks, thanks so much for all your replies. As someone who has just started to think about being a quant, I was feeling lost. Your responses have definitely started to streamline my thoughts. I can summarize my understand of the responses so far as follows:

1) A good PhD may get you interviews, but you really must know about finance/Prob/Stats to convert it into a job (makes sense when stated this way!).
2) Read (rather study) the suggested books on this forum, then apply for interviews.
3) If interviews dont turn out well, enroll into a good MFE program.
4) Network, network, network (but dont know how I can do that from afar and being in a job completely unrelated to finance. If someone has tips on networking that would be really appreciated.)

Thanks once again for your helpful responses. Definitely got me going.
 
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