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MFE Just For Fun?

AdrianQ

Joined
8/1/08
Messages
3
Points
11
I look over the application form, and the familiar topic on career inevitable appears in the essays section. I'm looking into MFE program not because it "might" be useful for my career down the road, but because I found FE to be interesting, fun and potentially profitable. I know that for some of you, and this program would give you a chance to break into the big league. I work on Order Management System software for the past seven years and have a good career so far, I don't particularly need this degree.So, "Should I do it just for fun?". Obviously, this assumes I get accepted by Baruch by appearing intelligent and generally useful to society. :-k
 
I thought I would share this article on QN.
Konstantinos Tsahas is not exactly typical of the students enrolled in Baruch College's elite Masters program in Financial Engineering. For one thing, Konstantinos, known as "Gus," is not looking to land a high paying position in finance with Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, or Citigroup. Been there, done that.
Gus once worked for a major finance firm. These days he is a contractor and the owner-manager of a company that specializes in technical construction. He's also an independent spirit. "I'm not interested in working for anyone," he says flatly. His company, Tarsis Electronic, based in Long Island City, installs computer wiring, TV studios and science labs in schools and other facilities. For Gus, investing in the markets is strictly an avocation. But evidently it's one he's pretty good at.
Click to expand...
 
I look over the application form, and the familiar topic on career inevitable appears in the essays section. ... Obviously, this assumes I get accepted by Baruch by appearing intelligent and generally useful to society.
Click to expand...

I suppose it's there to gauge motivation and focus. It's redundant because 1) most of us don't have careers these days (just insecure jobs) and 2) people give fake answers anyway.

It's debatable whether financial engineers perform any useful role in society (the same can be said of lawyers and MBAs). It's all about making cash fast.

Since the MFE is an expensive conversion course, I expect applicants to be motivated solely by naked greed but to be somewhat coy in how they express it in their essay.
 
The Baruch FE program is quite hard and I would expect most people to drop out if they were doing it for "fun". In my case, it is true I was not looking to get a job at any of the financial firms but I did attend the program so that I would pick up additional skills to improve my trading performance and possibly build a business.

Hey, maybe I don't have a good sense of humor, but "fun" would not be my description of the program..... not during one of those 48 hour "take home" tests weekends anyway. :cry:

All the best, Gus
 
I don't mean fun in leisurely way I supposed. I just don't think this degree will help my current career. The degree itself is an end rather than a mean for me, unlike many others.
 
If you have the time, the money and the motivation (and you get accepted) I don't see why not. However, as Gus said without an end goal (e.g. job) you will be hard pressed to stay motivated with the amount of work you will have to do.
 
CQF is another option but I have no first hand experience with that certificate. If you insist in doing a brick-and-mortar program, there are plenty others out there that would love to take your 50 grand and don't have to provide placement support (since you already have a job). It's a win-win for everyone.
It's true that you can cruise in some master program (I did once) but MFE is lots of hard work. You can always buy books and study the materials yourself. There is a list of books used by most MFE programs you can find here
http://www.quantnet.com/forum/posts/?post_id=7516
 
I think it is good to find this work "fun", I might even say essential if you want to be succesful in any line of work.
One of my standard lines is that you spend more time with the people you work with than the ones you sleep with.
Doing QF for money alone is like marrying an unattractive person who annoys you a lot, just because their father is rich.
Of course there is crap in any job, but unless you are very good or useless you are going to be doing this stuff for decades. If you gain no utility from the work itself you are buying a longer more unpleasant sentence than the averager murder convict.
 
Thanks for all the replies! I'm going to look into Baruch program a little bit more. Since Baruch has FE classes at night, and it's cheap since I'm a NYS resident. I now wonder how to write my career essay :cry:.
 
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