I have recently received a bunch of emails from people from my old school that are struggling to get full time jobs, and since I was feeling sleepless last night, I decided to share a couple of things here.
As Financial Engineering continues to become more and more mainstream, the competition for jobs becomes ever so tight and aggressive. Not to mention how biased competition is towards the major financial institutions; everybody wants to work at Goldman, Morgan, BofA, JPM, etc… However, at the higher end of the candidate spectrum, most resumes look really similar. It seems to be really hard to differentiate oneself from the rest of the aspiring quants out there looking to be placed. I want to share my two cents on how you can differentiate yourself from the pack a little better. In my limited experience, I have identified two things that FE’s do not have, in comparison to other “non-quant” finance professionals: Passion, and Communication skills.
To me, the most important of the above is definitely passion. I see a disturbing amount of posts in quantnet and other blogs of people asking about salaries in the financial industry. To me, this widespread concern among aspiring financiers tells me one thing: there is no passion for the field. There seems to be a lot of people who met someone, somewhere, sometime who told them that somebody they know made a ton of money doing something like algorithmic trading or (worse) high frequency trading. So they have this idea that anyone with decent math skills will become a millionaire if they work in finance. I’m not going to lie, that is a very motivating thought. However, once you realize how hard it is become a finance superstar, and that the jobs you thought you wanted are actually really scarce, there is a very good chance that the interest will be gone. By then, you might be midway through your financial engineering program or even working a job you don’t like. For this guys and girls, I can only say one thing: follow your passion and not the money. I guarantee that you will lead a happy life. You will also have a better chance of becoming rich because without passion you just won’t work hard enough to “make it”.
If you are indeed passionate about finance and are willing to go the extra mile, there is one thing you can do to get on the highway to getting a job: technical communication. People fail to recognize how important the “soft” skills are in this industry. Of course it’s great to know math, stats and programing, but I have actually heard a lot of managers say stuff like “if you can explain the math in layman’s terms to upper management and clients, you are worth your weight in gold”. An effective way to build/practice your communication skills is networking. Plus, it does wonders for your career; networking will open doors that won’t open any other way. Time and time again I see people relying solely on the name of their schools to get placed. That’s a mistake, especially since most of us do not come from CMU, Columbia, or Princeton. Wouldn’t you think it’s better to take control when it comes to your own professional future? I do realize that most quants are introverts, and I also know that the vast majority of junior quants are not native English speakers. However, the Financial Industry does not care about your personality type and nationality. It is up to you to get in managers’ radars and to attend events in which you might meet ‘that person that will get you an interview’. Join the IAQF (and actually assist events), use LinkedIn smartly and, of course, use quantnet to network. Take a not-so-random walk towards growing your career
As Financial Engineering continues to become more and more mainstream, the competition for jobs becomes ever so tight and aggressive. Not to mention how biased competition is towards the major financial institutions; everybody wants to work at Goldman, Morgan, BofA, JPM, etc… However, at the higher end of the candidate spectrum, most resumes look really similar. It seems to be really hard to differentiate oneself from the rest of the aspiring quants out there looking to be placed. I want to share my two cents on how you can differentiate yourself from the pack a little better. In my limited experience, I have identified two things that FE’s do not have, in comparison to other “non-quant” finance professionals: Passion, and Communication skills.
To me, the most important of the above is definitely passion. I see a disturbing amount of posts in quantnet and other blogs of people asking about salaries in the financial industry. To me, this widespread concern among aspiring financiers tells me one thing: there is no passion for the field. There seems to be a lot of people who met someone, somewhere, sometime who told them that somebody they know made a ton of money doing something like algorithmic trading or (worse) high frequency trading. So they have this idea that anyone with decent math skills will become a millionaire if they work in finance. I’m not going to lie, that is a very motivating thought. However, once you realize how hard it is become a finance superstar, and that the jobs you thought you wanted are actually really scarce, there is a very good chance that the interest will be gone. By then, you might be midway through your financial engineering program or even working a job you don’t like. For this guys and girls, I can only say one thing: follow your passion and not the money. I guarantee that you will lead a happy life. You will also have a better chance of becoming rich because without passion you just won’t work hard enough to “make it”.
If you are indeed passionate about finance and are willing to go the extra mile, there is one thing you can do to get on the highway to getting a job: technical communication. People fail to recognize how important the “soft” skills are in this industry. Of course it’s great to know math, stats and programing, but I have actually heard a lot of managers say stuff like “if you can explain the math in layman’s terms to upper management and clients, you are worth your weight in gold”. An effective way to build/practice your communication skills is networking. Plus, it does wonders for your career; networking will open doors that won’t open any other way. Time and time again I see people relying solely on the name of their schools to get placed. That’s a mistake, especially since most of us do not come from CMU, Columbia, or Princeton. Wouldn’t you think it’s better to take control when it comes to your own professional future? I do realize that most quants are introverts, and I also know that the vast majority of junior quants are not native English speakers. However, the Financial Industry does not care about your personality type and nationality. It is up to you to get in managers’ radars and to attend events in which you might meet ‘that person that will get you an interview’. Join the IAQF (and actually assist events), use LinkedIn smartly and, of course, use quantnet to network. Take a not-so-random walk towards growing your career