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Switch from Finance to QF

Joined
1/23/16
Messages
58
Points
268
Hi, I really need some advice on my career path. I have a MS in Finance (from CWRU, a school in Cleveland), and I want to become a quant in an investment bank. I learned programming in R, C++, and Python on my own. I tried applying to some quant jobs, but had no luck.

I am wondering if I need to go to a MFE program. I am hesitate because MFE and MSF have many similar courses, and I don't want to get the same degree twice. I tried applying for some schools, and only got admitted to Georgia Tech's QCF (Quantitative and Computational Finance) and got a hold on UCB.

I have been working in a compliance department for a year as a business analyst after graduation (I know this is so far away from where I want to be). Shall I just keep applying for quantitative jobs? Shall I apply for MFEs again and try to get into a higher ranking school? Shall I just go to Georgia Tech? Or what else should I do?

Thank you in advance for your advice.
 
''I tried applying to some quant jobs, but had no luck.''

How many places you applied?

How many places you met people who could actually help you?

How many places you sent your resume to someone specific who offered help?
 
There are several banks with quant groups in Atlanta, if you don't mind working there. I know Bank of America has a group there and I am sure they recruit out of Georgia Tech QCF.
 
''I tried applying to some quant jobs, but had no luck.''

How many places you applied?

How many places you met people who could actually help you?

How many places you sent your resume to someone specific who offered help?
I think you are right. I need to put more effort in my job hunting.
But if I am still not able to find one until early August. I have to make a decision: keep applying for jobs? or going back to school?
 
I think you are right. I need to put more effort in my job hunting.
But if I am still not able to find one until early August. I have to make a decision: keep applying for jobs? or going back to school?

The problem is that networking takes time... Not that it is very time consuming, but you have to give your relations time for opportunities to arise. Two or three months seem short to me...

You got to ask yourself what are the pros and cons of doing another masters. What have you done in the past that led you to the position you are in now and what you can do differently to end somewhere you want to go. Also, will a second master do anything but add a line to your resume and burry you in more debt?

Since you are already working in a bank, why don't you hustle your way to where you want to be? Two possible answers :
-Either your are not as motivated as you want to think you are.
-Either you are not fit for the position you are aiming for.

Rather than doing an other masters, why don't you start from where you are and move to a different position within your business line, that is closer to your interests. This should not be too hard.

Also, what do you mean by ''I want to become a quant in an investment bank'' ... This is so generic, specially from someone who has been working for a few years in the field and also has a masters in finance. What is it exactly that you want to do... From what you said it is combining finance and programming. There are many many position that fit these two criteria.
 
The problem is that networking takes time... Not that it is very time consuming, but you have to give your relations time for opportunities to arise. Two or three months seem short to me...

You got to ask yourself what are the pros and cons of doing another masters. What have you done in the past that led you to the position you are in now and what you can do differently to end somewhere you want to go. Also, will a second master do anything but add a line to your resume and burry you in more debt?

Since you are already working in a bank, why don't you hustle your way to where you want to be? Two possible answers :
-Either your are not as motivated as you want to think you are.
-Either you are not fit for the position you are aiming for.

Rather than doing an other masters, why don't you start from where you are and move to a different position within your business line, that is closer to your interests. This should not be too hard.

Also, what do you mean by ''I want to become a quant in an investment bank'' ... This is so generic, specially from someone who has been working for a few years in the field and also has a masters in finance. What is it exactly that you want to do... From what you said it is combining finance and programming. There are many many position that fit these two criteria.

Thank you, Alex.
 
Also, what do you mean by ''I want to become a quant in an investment bank'' ... This is so generic, specially from someone who has been working for a few years in the field and also has a masters in finance. What is it exactly that you want to do... From what you said it is combining finance and programming. There are many many position that fit these two criteria.

Hello Alex,

I have the same interest of combining programming and finance with Tong Ge. May you please suggest me some of the appropriate job positions for the combination?

Thank you.
 
I enjoy learning programming, and want to do it as my daily job. Plus my education was in Finance, so I think, why not combine them together?
Then you should look how to switch to FinTech, not to QF.
Programming is an essential part of virtually any quant but they mostly debug the legacy code and write scripts than develop something really cool.

But if you (for whatever reason) do want to be a quant-developer, start learning QuantLib and/or OpenGamma. It will be much more useful than making an MFE.
 
Hi, I really need some advice on my career path. I have a MS in Finance (from CWRU, a school in Cleveland), and I want to become a quant in an investment bank. I learned programming in R, C++, and Python on my own. I tried applying to some quant jobs, but had no luck.

I am wondering if I need to go to a MFE program. I am hesitate because MFE and MSF have many similar courses, and I don't want to get the same degree twice. I tried applying for some schools, and only got admitted to Georgia Tech's QCF (Quantitative and Computational Finance) and got a hold on UCB.

I have been working in a compliance department for a year as a business analyst after graduation (I know this is so far away from where I want to be). Shall I just keep applying for quantitative jobs? Shall I apply for MFEs again and try to get into a higher ranking school? Shall I just go to Georgia Tech? Or what else should I do?

Thank you in advance for your advice.

Firstly avoid doing MFE if you can as it is possible to wind up with more debt, unemployed and essentially with the same degree twice, which looks bad to managers. It really depends upon what 'MS in Finance' means and what you mean by quant. Be a little more specific, as others have said. What products do you want to cover? Equities? IRS? CDS? And is it quant development or analysis? Or just working with quantitative products - like MRM or trading?

Yetanotherquant has a good point but I would not rush into judgement. As a risk manager/quant pricer if you had shadowed me for 2 weeks you would probably have regarded it as "mainly programming". But had you shadowed a quant developer I suspect you would see a huge difference as they code a hell of lot more and I was what is colloquially known as an "analyst", not programmer, nor a "number cruncher". Don't jump to conclusions just yet.

I'm reading through this and one thing strikes me - are you networking or simply banging out applications on the web? Thing is if you "applied to some quant jobs" then likely it went to some HH/recruiter or at best HR - either way they simply took one look at what your current role is and went "experience is not quantitative" and binned your CV. HHs operate on the basis of last role only and will therefore ignore you until you get experience as a quant.

Instead you will have to network. Justify why you think you have quant or programming skills. Is there anything in your current role that could be built up? Did you do any programming or stochastic analysis in the masters? "Masters in Finance" doesn't say much, so if there is any maths your CV/resume needs to highlight it.

Content is king and given that you are switching streams I would find a specialist in quant finance or a quant manager to help rewrite your resume. With you being 1 year in the business it won't be a complex rewrite, but the whole "doing something else" schtick can make it messy and you will need coaching from someone that is clued in to answer (what I regard as unfair) questions like "If you are so motivated to be a quant, why join a compliance team?". I have a tech specialist that does my data science CV who I got through a referral - having someone that understands the business is amazing as what other careers advisors barfed out for CVs did not cut the mustard.

You will need this, even for an internal move as I suspect a lot of your USP will be in the self taught programming, especially if you didn't do a quantitative masters like I did, and it is not straightforward to put it on the resume. The only thing I would add to the networking thing is to go as direct as possible to managers. There would be nothing more heartbreaking than going through some MBA and having the clown forward your CV to their compliance team - I don't call them Moronic But Ambitious for nothing.

Your best bet is probably an internal route working for a team you interact with in your current role. Ask yourself - do you check compliance on any teams that do quantitative work? One bank I was at certain teams always took on compliance people that had strong attention to detail and that had been trained to comb through legal documentation. You probably just need to market one or two major skills in your current role that are valued to join as a junior on some team that does what you like and the rest is just about being blooded in. The catch is that particular move happens more with non-quant stuff like corporate/project finance than with quant products.

But even if such bridging skills don't exist there may be some route for you - even just going "look, I know my role isn't very relevant but take a look at an R project I have published online" or polishing that statement can be a game changer.

Thing is applying for 1, 10, 100 or even 10^23 jobs without looking at these things more closely will get you nowhere and you will still get very few interviews. Look at these things and change the angle of attack and, well, you can probably achieve anything.
 
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