Is there any way to get experience in the quant field without being qualified for a position?

S

sucker for smiles

Joined
4/2/23
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I got my BS in Statistics around 8 months ago. I’m currently working at a BSA position and I am miserable here. When I was offered the job, I thought I might as well take the offer while I study for my FRM level 1 and CFA level 1 because I got desperate after getting rejected from so many data science jobs for almost half a year and there were so many layoffs left and right. I’m working on some side coding projects geared towards finance to build a decent GitHub portfolio. The problem is, I feel with all this self studying, all that I am learning is theoretical and I don’t know how to actually apply what I am learning. I feel like I am just memorizing information to build a foundation for a job that’s still too far out of my reach because I still lack experience. Is it naive for me to hope that I can get some entry level position in quant with my level of knowledge? I desperately crave real job experience in this field so I can be more competent and learn in a way besides self studying like reading textbooks, CFI pages, and stackexchange threads. Genuinely speaking, I’m even fine working for free but I don’t know how to say that in job interviews without sounding too desperate and openly admitting that I’m not qualified for the position. I don’t think internships are still available to me since I’m no longer a student. If anyone have any suggestions or advice, that would be amazing.
 
Here is another one to get you started.
quantnet.com

Projects idea for students going into quant field

Whenever anyone sks how to get into a field involving #programming or #machinelearning, the advice is always "do projects and upload them to GitHub." The same applies to #quant investing, but what #quant projects would impress a prospective employer? Well, I can tell you what would impress me...
quantnet.com quantnet.com
 
Andy Nguyen said:
Here is another one to get you started.
quantnet.com

Projects idea for students going into quant field

Whenever anyone sks how to get into a field involving #programming or #machinelearning, the advice is always "do projects and upload them to GitHub." The same applies to #quant investing, but what #quant projects would impress a prospective employer? Well, I can tell you what would impress me...
quantnet.com quantnet.com
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Thank you for the reference!

One of things I am working on is trying to create a bot for a personal discord server that’ll connect to your trading platform, return portfolio positions every week, incorporate some kind of prediction model and use the predictions to suggest possible hedging strategies with other securities. I also want to incorporate some of things I’m learning from the FRM textbooks but I’m not exactly trading futures so I don’t have anything material to work with besides back testing haha.

These tips and feature suggestions are really helpful and honestly things I didn’t consider. Thanks again!
 
Thanks for linking the server @Lukee.
As Andy Nguyen said, it is hard to do this without support. The discord is still getting acquainted to each other, but we have one group up and running already. @Quasar Chunawala and I are going through Neftci's Intro to Mathematical Finance right now if you want to hop in.

You should have all the pre-requisites, I recommend it. We are into the third chapter and haven't hit anything groundbreaking yet, but the book is well known and full of things you need to be familiar with before you can undertake a more advanced study. We should finish by October, taking it a chapter a week (assuming no weeks off), he has a full time job as well.
 
MikeLawrence said:
Thanks for linking the server @Lukee.
As Andy Nguyen said, it is hard to do this without support. The discord is still getting acquainted to each other, but we have one group up and running already. @Quasar Chunawala and I are going through Neftci's Intro to Mathematical Finance right now if you want to hop in.

You should have all the pre-requisites, I recommend it. We are into the third chapter and haven't hit anything groundbreaking yet, but the book is well known and full of things you need to be familiar with before you can undertake a more advanced study. We should finish by October, taking it a chapter a week (assuming no weeks off), he has a full time job as well.
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Sorry for the late reply. I saw your message on discord just now too. I would love to take you on the suggestion of working through Neftci’s book together but I am struggling myself right now to work through the FRM books in time before my exam. Neftci’s book definitely does sound interesting and I think I’ll take a read through it when I have time. If it’s alright with you two, I would love to still discuss the book and hear your thoughts (even though I’m not following along at the same pace).
 
sucker for smiles said:
Sorry for the late reply. I saw your message on discord just now too. I would love to take you on the suggestion of working through Neftci’s book together but I am struggling myself right now to work through the FRM books in time before my exam. Neftci’s book definitely does sound interesting and I think I’ll take a read through it when I have time. If it’s alright with you two, I would love to still discuss the book and hear your thoughts (even though I’m not following along at the same pace).
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That's totally fine. I'd love to walk through it again with you when you have time. It will sink in much more the second time through, and won't take much at all since I'll have already gone through all chapters/problems once.
 
MikeLawrence said:
That's totally fine. I'd love to walk through it again with you when you have time. It will sink in much more the second time through, and won't take much at all since I'll have already gone through all chapters/problems once.
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By the time you walk through the book with all the new members, you will know the materials by heart. Great job.
@sucker for smiles take this chance. You won't get another offer as generous as Mike's.
 
Andy Nguyen said:
By the time you walk through the book with all the new members, you will know the materials by heart. Great job.
@sucker for smiles take this chance. You won't get another offer as generous as Mike's.
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The best piece of advice. Group study can be very effective, and also streamlines things. I have been fortunate to meet some amazing people through QN/Discord study groups and picked up some great habits.
 
The FRM Level 1 is good review and practice. (Ignore CFA). The real jobs are about the theory. You need to have certain things memorized in order to draw conclusions about topics beyond that. Also, you'll be asked to recite things from memory in an interview: It's a memory/recall fest! Try not to go wide. Several books in Quant Finance build one or more end-to-end models, that are explained well. They leave room for you to put your own interpretations and ideas in. Such projects are also coded and would be great for Github.
 
Lukee said:
discord.gg

Discord - Group Chat That’s All Fun & Games

Discord is great for playing games and chilling with friends, or even building a worldwide community. Customize your own space to talk, play, and hang out.
discord.gg discord.gg
Here is a link to the study group
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Hey, I want to join the Discord study group as I want to transistion into quant given my natural interest into Finance and Maths and I am coming from a different field altogether i.e. PhD in Applied Mechanics.
Unfortunately it says that the invite link is invalid, could you please send the invite again ?
TIA
 
Aspiring Quant said:
Hey, I want to join the Discord study group as I want to transistion into quant given my natural interest into Finance and Maths and I am coming from a different field altogether i.e. PhD in Applied Mechanics.
Unfortunately it says that the invite link is invalid, could you please send the invite again ?
TIA
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I PM'd you. If anyone else finds this thread and has the same problem just PM me and I'll get it to you. If I don't respond right away I'm sure Quasar, Luke, or some of the other members can help you if you can find them and PM them. This way we don't fill the entire thread with a new link every month or so.
 
Hi, @MikeLawrence @Quasar Chunawala I'm a retail Banker with 5 year experience wants to switch to quant field. Can i have the link to study group ? I'm really starting from beginning. I've read, john c hull and python programming for dcf valuation. I'd love to study more but given my tight schedule 45+ hours at work, i lose focus. A group study would be really nice. can anyone send the link to me?
 
Lukee said:
discord.gg

Discord - Group Chat That’s All Fun & Games

Discord is great for playing games and chilling with friends, or even building a worldwide community. Customize your own space to talk, play, and hang out.
discord.gg discord.gg
Here is a link to the study group
Click to expand...
Hey, The link seems to have expired. If open, I would love to join.

For ref: I've recently joined Quantnet and am considering the field of quant. I'm looking to upskill and hopefully improve myself in the process.
 
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