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Need advice choosing internship before MFE program

lfgao

Joined
11/3/13
Messages
6
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My background:
1. Attending UCB MFE that begins at 2015 Mar
2. Current Degree: BSE in Engineering, MSE electrical engineering, both in US school
3. Current job: software engineer
4. No previous finance industry experience

Given my lack of finance background, I would like to do some internship before the MFE program begins. Right now I have two choices for summer internship and would like to hear some advice from you.

Option A. A major future trading company in China
Option B. DBS Bank, Singapore

For option A, I will have the opportunity to work directly with one of their chief analyst, and the work is going to be related with future arbitrage, hedging or modeling.
The benefit of the DBS Bank is that the location would give me more global experience. Yet it is possible that I would be doing things that are more basic.

I feel like that I will learn a lot more related to financial engineering via option A. Yet, eventually I would like to find a US job upon graduation. My concern is will such experience of future trading in China market be useful in terms of job searching in US?

Thanks for your advice!
 
cuz of ur lack of experience and prob 0 clue of wat u wana do, i would suggest option b and try to network in singapore, which help u get more exposure to different field of finance and prospects from different ppl. then u can figure out wat really interests u
 
I have a situation. I have 2.5 year experience in Marketing and customer analytics, but no experience in Financial analytics. I am going to join UIUC or UMN in Fall 2014.. but I am not able to find finance jobs.. Internships are hardly available in India/UAE. I am currently working in a retail firm at Loyalty Analytics.. What should I do? Will I face problem finding internship during my MS because of lack of experience
 
IntoDarkness said:
cuz of ur lack of experience and prob 0 clue of wat u wana do, i would suggest option b and try to network in singapore, which help u get more exposure to different field of finance and prospects from different ppl. then u can figure out wat really interests u
Click to expand...
Thank you very much for you advice! It's very helpful. If I am going to do two internships, do you think the option A is worth going?
 
You can work with a trader and learn absolutely nothing about trading, especially if they are primarily a technical trader. It's highly unlikely you will learn much of what is considered "financial engineering" from a trader, as most traders aren't even financial engineers to begin with.

If it turns out you have a talent for trading, you can get a trading job. If you don't have the talent, then I'm not sure how helping a trader really brings value to your resume. You can say you did task X for trader, e.g. automating some task, but you could have done that in a non-trading context too. I guess you can always play up the "fast-paced" angle.
 
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