PhD in Asset Pricing vs Straight into the Industry

[llid]

Hi folks,

I'm currently an MFE student from one of the top 5-10 programs (QuantNet ranking). A professor at SFI in Swiss focused on asset pricing showed interest in hiring me as his PhD student. Shall I go straight into the quant industry or go for a PhD in Finance and join the industry afterward?

Some facts about myself:
(i) I'm very interested in asset pricing but not very interested in being a faculty.
(ii) My goal is to work as a quant researcher in the industry.
(iii) I have not secured a summer internship and I graduate in early 2025.
(iv) I'm an international student.

Some concerns:
(v) PhD's skills may not help find a QR job, at least may not be as helpful as 4 extra years of work.
(vi) Quant industry in Swiss is not as strong as in the US.

Would anyone offer me advice on this dilemma? I would really appreciate it!

 

[achirikhin]

Get a job. Don't waste a second of your life on a PhD, unless you want to stay in academia. You can always do a research only PhD later, for pure fun. It does develop you as a human being, but is mostly useless in modern applied math finance. One can argue, ot may actually make you overqualified.

Learn about the realities of the quant profession via www.qaprofession.com. You will never ever learn any of that in a Swiss PhD programme.

There are at least 8 different job types. Look at fintech or consulting, if your Plan A didn't work (yet).