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Math/Finance Education Advice

Joined
6/18/12
Messages
3
Points
11
Hello All,

My name is David and I'm a newbie here. I'm interested in getting a job in a hedge fund or an ibank. I would really appreciate your guidance. My background is in math and statistics.

Q1: Who gets hired by hedge funds? Traditional finance people or quants? What's the percentage? To me those are very distinguish fields and their job functions are very different. I have heard math has been overly emphasized in this industry. But I also found the traditional finance analyst job tedious. What's the trend and how fast is it going?

Q2: If a "true quant" has to be a PhD in math or physics, where do masters in applied math, statistics or computer science fit into? Neither PhD, nor finance background.

Q3: Since my background is in statistics, I really don't know much about traditional finance and accounting. How much do I need to know and where should I start? I'm newly admitted to Harvard's computational science and engineering program. I wonder if I should focus myself on quantitative math, data mining, or should I also learn some finance? If some finance, what kind of finance? Basic accounting or quantitative asset pricing? Why?

Q3: What's the industry outlook? I have heard the entry level salary ranges from $100,000 to $300,000. I'm more concern about the industry's future in comparison with say data science in a tech company.

Q5: Other useful advice?

Really appreciate any help.
 
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