Quant only for PhDs?

[Henry Liu]

A friend who graduated from an MFE program five years ago told me that quant teams were looking for PhDs.

In terms of coding they preferred computer science students.

Hence in the field of quantitative finance MFE graduates, ironically, had no place to play.

They needed to compete with MBAs for other finance jobs, which preferred MBAs.

In conclusion he strongly advised against MFE if I would like to find a job in the US.

He recommended studying either PhD or MBA, both of which, however, I found no interest in.

I wonder if such a pessimistic statement about MFE still holds nowadays.

Thank you.

 

[TehRaio]

did you friend do a MFE?

 

[Gavin L]

did you friend do a MFE?

 

[TehRaio]

Yeah sorry I didn't pick that up.
So my real question would be which program did your friend graduate from? Because it matters a lot in a shrinking industry. Some of these degrees are not worth the cost but others are.

 

[Yike Lu]

There are still firms that only hire PhDs, although this appears to be more for marketing purposes. Also certain roles need to be filled with subject matter experts (ie PhDs) as opposed to generalists (MFEs). However, there is definitely a market for the generalist.

 

[Henry Liu]

Yeah sorry I didn't pick that up.
So my real question would be which program did your friend graduate from? Because it matters a lot in a shrinking industry. Some of these degrees are not worth the cost but others are.

Hello TehRaio,

Thanks for your reply. He studied MFE in University of Michigan--Ann Arbor. (Is it closed now?) In terms of "shrinking industry", could you tell me more about it? Any kind of positions do you think where MFEs have an advantages over PhDs and MBAs?

Thank you!

 

[Henry Liu]

There are still firms that only hire PhDs, although this appears to be more for marketing purposes. Also certain roles need to be filled with subject matter experts (ie PhDs) as opposed to generalists (MFEs). However, there is definitely a market for the generalist.

Hello Yike Lu,

Thanks for your valuable remarks. What is the market do you think where MFEs have a niche?
Thank you!

 

[Yike Lu]

Risk is the major one I can think of, then model QA/validation. Quant trading would be another, though much harder to get into and highly individual whether or not one is suited.