Profile Evaluation for MFE / Econ / Financial Economics (UK)

[BigClout]

Hi everyone I hope you’re doing well.

So I’ve already been offered a place onto Imperial RMFE. I’m waiting to hear back from Oxford for MCF and UCL for CF. I’m somewhat rethinking my entire strategy though and wondering if I should bite the bullet and just wait an extra year (depending on some factors that I will explain further, otherwise I’ll be taking the program and looking for jobs in 2025!). So I just wanted to get some opinions and then go from there.

So, I graduated in 2022 from an Economics programme at a top UK university (top 5 or 10 depending on the year. Was top 10 the whole time I was there). I received a First Class honours. This wasn’t one of the unscientific BA Econ programmes, I took BSc Economics and more often it felt like BSc Applied Mathematics. From start to finish we had a strong focus on
1. calculus (so I’m very familiar with integration, and I’ve covered both ODEs and PDEs),
2. linear algebra (so the full set manipulating matrices, performing operations on matrices, performing calculus on matrices),
3. probability (the most challenging topic we tackled was Bayesian Probability)
4. Statistics (took advanced econometrics where we covered everything up to cointegration, maximum likelihood regression, panel data regression analysis, all using linear algebra)
5. Some stuff I don’t know how to classify (Taylor Series expansions, eigenvectors and eigenvalues, matching algorithms, imaginary numbers, steady state and convergence)
6. Statistical software (VBA, EViews, Stata)

I did very well in almost all of my mathematics based modules.

Professional experience-wise, I had a year long internship during my degree where I worked in a client business role for a small firm. The main relevant experience there was using VBA and Refinitiv Terminal to automate some tasks we had.

Following that, I started a graduate programme at a large asset manager in a product role. Here I gained some exposure to Python, as well as a bucket load of SQL experience in Postgres and MS SQL. I wouldn’t say that I’m a great programmer but I’ve proven I can pick it up quickly. No experience in C/C++, R or Matlab.

I stand to be promoted in January 2025 and have received very strong performance reviews.

A big differentiator to my position when I initially started applying and now is that I am currently in discussions to move on to a Risk Management role (fingers crossed) hopefully by around May (so we’ll before the programmes start).

I’m mainly interested in working in Research, specifically either for an index arbitrage / enhanced index strategy HF, a Delta One desk or an ETF MM. Mainly targeting Citadel, Jane and Soc Gen.

So, what should I do? Provided I get this Risk Management role, do I drop RMFE and try to get into Imperial Math Fin? Do I have the requisite background to even get thought of for RMFE? Do I wait it out a year and maybe try a really prestigious Economics or Financial Economics programme, which I would stand a much better chance of getting into such as Oxford Financial Econ or Cambridge Econ and Data Science? Do I switch it up completely and try get a Pure Maths, CS, Stats or Data Science postgraduate? I’m really kind of stuck. My main stance is that no matter what I want to do this part-time if I get this Risk role.

If I don’t get the role I’ll just be quitting and doing RMFE, which to me doesn’t seem like a bad option and could still get me where I wanted to get to anyways, just maybe with a longer journey than with Math Fin or Oxford MCF.

I’ve been spamming this site a little since I joined lol, but hopefully this is my last post asking about this sort of topic.

Thanks All!