Quant VS Investment banker

[gautierLyon]

Hello everyone,

I need to choose my master and this choice depends on whether I would like to be a quant or an investment banker. I have always thought about M&A deals, about investment banking in and how to make deals happen and happen the right way. At the same time I have always studied mathematics and I like the idea of doing maths and programming for finance. However, what scares me as a quant is to be a "technician" forever and to never have this interaction with potential clients. I would like to be able to combine both a strong quantitative background but at the same time have to use my leadership, networking and communcation skills. I am lost in my choice.

What are your opinions about investment banker vs quant?

 

[RowYourBoat]

There are plenty of quant jobs that are client facing. In fact most are.

Usually a quant's clients are in-house for example quants make tools for traders. But there's also a lot of quants in fintech or that work on analytics platforms like bloomberg and murex that deal with external clients.

A career in quant finance teaches you tangible technical skills which can make you feel very fulfilled. If you want to gain soft skills, learn how to build and manage relationships and make sales pitches then you can go the corporate finance route. But you will be using basic arithmetic and spreadsheets in your day to day. To each their own

 

[gautierLyon]

Do you think that if I start as a quant enjoy the experience but then as you said would like to move to the corporate finance route it is possible? Like can I go from quant to corporate finance?

 

[lolalin]

Do you think that if I start as a quant enjoy the experience but then as you said would like to move to the corporate finance route it is possible? Like can I go from quant to corporate finance?

If you are interested in going this route then I think it's a good idea to chose a program with Finance courses like Intro to Finance/Intro to Corp Fin as a core component or elective.

 

[RowYourBoat]

Do you think that if I start as a quant enjoy the experience but then as you said would like to move to the corporate finance route it is possible? Like can I go from quant to corporate finance?

I don't think it's uncommon for people with backgrounds in liberal arts or life sciences to go into corp finance. This includes IB but also jobs in management consulting, private equity, etc. There are plenty of resources online for learning things like DCF analysis and all the other technical skills you need for that kind of career path. Taking a few intro to finance courses could help.