Msc Mech Eng to Quant Research/Analyst

[joelowz]

Hi guys,

I've heard that Mechanical Engineers are also welcomed in the field of quants, due to the use of CFD with PDEs and FEA etc etc. But is there anything i can do to make up for the lack of use of stochastic calculus? Or would I still be welcomed.

Doing MSc Mech Eng in University of Melb at the moment.

Cheers

 

[KillingField]

If by quant you mean the traditional sell side quant (as indicated by PDE solving, SDEs), you will basically have to learn stochastic calculus, preferably to the level that you are comfortable enough mentioning it on your CV. Your typical competition is PhDs from non-finance related technical fields (such as mech eng) and MFEs: What's your selling point? I imagine it may be difficult just to land an interview is what I am saying.

 

[joelowz]

Yes, probably sell side. Will be looking into analyst or trader, not so much of a developer. Oh, so if i pretty much have my head around in, I can just include it in my CV and let the interviewers have a whack at it. Selling point would preferably be CFDs simulations and modelling; however as mentioned by you, PhDs from Mech Eng would trump me in this. I might probably look at building my own models and running my own backtests etcetc.

To add, I'm planning on taking up a year 3 Machine Learning Module. I have a friend who is into that now, so pretty much RNNs and lots of cleansing, epochs etcetc. Would that help?

 

[KillingField]

Yes, probably sell side. Will be looking into analyst or trader, not so much of a developer. Oh, so if i pretty much have my head around in, I can just include it in my CV and let the interviewers have a whack at it. Selling point would preferably be CFDs simulations and modelling; however as mentioned by you, PhDs from Mech Eng would trump me in this. I might probably look at building my own models and running my own backtests etcetc.

To add, I'm planning on taking up a year 3 Machine Learning Module. I have a friend who is into that now, so pretty much RNNs and lots of cleansing, epochs etcetc. Would that help?

If (sell side) quant is what you want to do, you should know that most of the job is about programming, and a part of the interview will reflect this. While the case might have been different 10 years ago, knowledge of a bit of CFD is not going to be good enough nowadays (and I don't think anyone with a MSc can really say they have deep knowledge of the subject). Every single viable candidate will have experience implementing PDE and Monte Carlo solvers, and usually in a financial math setting.

Sell side models are not really about stats, backtesting and machine learning. These tools are used a bit, but mostly to help with marking etc. rather than actual pricing models, and play a major role only in certain specific markets.

As for your CV, whatever you write on it is fair game and you will likely get questions about. If you don't mention something and still get an interview, chances are they care less i.e. the role's a better fit for your skill set.

 

[joelowz]

Ahhh thanks for that. Yeah there has been in a shift in the requirements for non finance majors, eg Sydney still strictly requires PhD for quants. Guess my best bet would be to aim for an MFE in the future.

Was also considering taking up the CFA, but from what I understand that usually leads to equity research, IB etc etc.