• C++ Programming for Financial Engineering
    Highly recommended by thousands of MFE students. Covers essential C++ topics with applications to financial engineering. Learn more Join!
    Python for Finance with Intro to Data Science
    Gain practical understanding of Python to read, understand, and write professional Python code for your first day on the job. Learn more Join!
    An Intuition-Based Options Primer for FE
    Ideal for entry level positions interviews and graduate studies, specializing in options trading arbitrage and options valuation models. Learn more Join!

Industrial engineering?

jojoma

Joined
2/7/12
Messages
3
Points
11
Hi, I'm currently a third year industrial engineering student at a Swedish university. In Sweden industrial engineering is a very popular engineering major and they have the highest salaries but from what I've heard industrial engineers are often looked down upon in the US. The thing is I'm very interested in working in finance in the US (I'm a citizen) and in my program (MSc in industrial engineering) there is a financial engineering concentration you can choose.

I have taken fairly many math courses up until now, (multidimensional analysis, linear algebra, analytic functions, system and transformation, probability/statistics, optimization, operations research, numerical analysis, stochastic processes) and of course engineering courses such as mechanics, physics and a couple of manufacturing courses etc. My question is will recruiters actually go through and look at what courses you have taken or will they just look at the resume and see "industrial engineer - oh that is a soft major"?

I can change major to engineering mathematics (which also has financial engineering concentration) but I would in that case probably have to prolong my graduation by atleast half a year. Though engineering mathematics would also give me much more options than finance if things wouldn't work out plus it would allow me to take a few extra math courses before starting the finance concentration. A down side is that it would be a real hassle to change because I will be doing a year abroad at a US uni next year.

Cheers!
 
IE a soft major?! What kind of nonsense is that? IEOR is the closest engineering there is to the quant stuff. In fact, that's what Emanuel Derman's dept. at Columbia is. He's an OR professor.

So I'd say you're on the right track.
 
What university are you at? I've never heard of a possibility to choose a financial engineering track, only financial mathematics (which the IE students usually fail due to a limited background in maths). Overall, IE in Sweden is more about Management, at Chalmers the program is even called Industrial Engineering and Management. If you want to be a management consultant the program is really great. I cannot imagine that you do much programming at IE though, but then again, you may be enrolled in Linköping or Uppsala where I don't have any insight.
 
TATW said:
What university are you at? I've never heard of a possibility to choose a financial engineering track, only financial mathematics (which the IE students usually fail due to a limited background in maths). Overall, IE in Sweden is more about Management, at Chalmers the program is even called Industrial Engineering and Management. If you want to be a management consultant the program is really great. I cannot imagine that you do much programming at IE though, but then again, you may be enrolled in Linköping or Uppsala where I don't have any insight.
Click to expand...


Lund University. All IE programs in Sweden are called Industrial engineering and management afaik. We get to choose a "technical profile" in the third year and I've chosen math modelling, and 4 and 5th year you chose your specialization. It's actually called Financial engineering and risk management. Industrial engineers at Lund take almost the same amount of math courses as people majoring in engineering physics if you chose math modelling (but ofc with some management/finance courses when they take physics courses). Programming wise I've taken the two basic courses offered, which I realize is not that much, but I plan on reading up a bit on my own.
 
Nice, I forgot about Lund. Sounds like they have something going there! GL!
 
I know there are quite a few Swedes working in London, but what about on Wall St? Do Scandinavians have a good rep there?
 
Back
Top