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MFE admission requirements for someone with PM experience

targetfinance

Joined
1/3/11
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I am a product manager in a computer networking company. I ma planning to switch to quant partly because of my love for maths and partly because I dont like my job any more since I am drifting away from engineering. I am planning to prepare for CFA and started working on my math skills. I have never had problems with CS major maths in school and got good grades in maths.

My question is since I dont have any exp in finance/math related job how to prove to the university that I am ready for MFE?
If someone already made such a career change I would like to hear how it worked for them.

Thanks in advance,
SS
 
Quant maths are mostly quite different from maths used in CompSci, though you're right that someone good at discrete maths, can quickly come up to speed in the continuous maths prevalent in this area.
I suggest that first you need to prove it to yourself, so as to make sure you are not making an expensive mistake. Dan Stefanica has written a primer on financial maths for this sort of thing, and I recommend it as a self test for whether you are ready. I wouldn't expect you to know all of the maths in it already, but if any really challenges you in learning, then perhaps you are not ready for this transition.

In general, most programs are pretty approachable on entry criteria, partly because academics by nature tend to be people who want to help people learn, and partly because they are in effect businesses who want to sell you something.
Many have an exam process for non-standard candidates.
 
Something like the pre-mfe program is a reasonable idea (assuming you have proved to yourself that the MFE is what you want)
 
Thanks DominiConnor and David for your suggestions. I will check out Dr. Stefanica's book to get a taste of MFE maths. Pre MFE programs are expensive but a nice option, it would be nice if they provide a grade which I can add to my application. Also any idea whether the schools give preference to MATH(Subject) GRE scores?
 
MFE admission requirements for someone with PM experience
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I was thinking you were a Portfolio Manager as PM is often such abbreviated in finance.

I am planning to switch to quant partly because of my love for maths and partly because I dont like my job any more since I am drifting away from engineering.
Click to expand...
I work in MFE admission, I run Quantnet, I have an MFE and I worked in finance so of all people, I'm mostly skeptical of everyone new to this field declaring their love for math/programming/finance. And I'm sure a lot of other people in admission/recruiting have a smirk on their face when they read this.

It has become an industry standard lie to say you want to go into quant profession because your love for math and programming, specially for newbies who just discovered the field yesterday.

Have you read all the discussion on Quantnet? How many books on our master reading list that you read? Do you have some good idea of what people in this field doing on a day to day basis? How many people familiar with this career have you talked to?

Don't take this as a scorn but rather blunt advice to how to approach this career the right way. Saying only "I want to become a quant because I love math and programming" is a sure way to show you have no clue about this field.

You know what I thought when I found out about MFE degree back in 2006?

I thought "I hate being a Math PhD student, I can't see myself doing this for the rest of my life. What skills do I have that I can make a living?
So I have a MS in CS and I can work in front of a computer longer than most people can. I'm a good problem solver and I enjoy working with computers.
MFE seems to make better than average salary and I get to play with lot of numbers, data.
I definitely can see myself doing this for the next 10 years"

Then I spent the next couple of months online reading EVERYTHING i can get my hand on about MFE programs, what they do. I registered and participate in every quant forum existing at the time. I asked question. I probed the students who are doing it. I went to open house, I emailed the professors in those MFE programs.

I spent hours upon hours everyday reading, asking, posting until I am confident that I know what this MFE degree is about.

So I applied and it worked out the way I hoped.

Now every year I see hundreds of posts here and read applications from people who want to be a quant. I know for a fact that majority of them haven't spent a fraction of the time and effort when I first learned about this field. And I know a good number of them will fail miserably in achieving their goal, whatever lofty goal they had.

Many will not know enough about this field, the working condition, the cutthroat environment, the faux high flying lifestyle that they envision.

Why I post this in your thread? I don't even know for sure. There is something in your post that reminds me that I need to respond to it.
Maybe my message was to be yourself, and not become the thousand wannabies out there. Present yourself as someone who has practical skills and realistic expectation of the field, who has done the research to know that he is not jumping in for the Wall Street million dollars bonus that he kept reading on newspaper.
 
Thank you Andy for the response. Your love and care for the quant industry and quant applicants can be told between the lines. I am a potential applicant for a MFE too, who has little relative experience in math/cs. This quarter I am trying to take math/cs classes to see if I can explore my potentials and love in quant. Andy's advice as we have to know as much as possible before we declare we love it is exactly what I think important for MFE/quant applicants.
 
Andy, thanks a lot for your advice. Also thanks for sharing your strategy while deciding to go for MFE. I already started reading few books from the master reading list but I agree I need to know more about the daily work schedules and responsibilities of entry level quants in the industry (for which I found few posts in the "General" section really interesting). From five year experience in software industry I learnt that daily routines differ a lot from responsibilities mentioned in career guides.
I really appreciate the responsiveness of the forum. In just 24 hrs I got some good pointers to work on.
 
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