switch to quant role possible after 4 years in software development

[softwarist]

Hi, I am a software programmer based in India. I have 4 years experience as a programmer after doing Btech and masters from IIT in computer science. My thesis was in algorithms..had a publication..have knowledge of machine learning, data mining, etc and have used them a little in industry. No finance experience and since my focus area has so far been towards systems and algorithms, even applied maths may also be a worry(Ex: comfortable with techniques useful in data mining like stats, linear algebra, optimisations; not so much with PDEs , stochastic calculus). I have always been interested in mathematical modelling related job and am confident that studying on weekends and evenings during weekdays for 12 months should take care of knowledge I would gain in an MFE program
Are there any quant roles available in India? Is an MFE degree a must? What are my chances of getting admitted into a good MFE program in USA or Singapore? Ideally, I would like to avoid taking a hefty loan and doing an MFE, specially after spending 4 years as a developer. Can somebody guide me regarding what steps can I take without a full time MFE program to not only gain the required skills but also show/prove these skills in my resume. Are there any sites similar to topcoder(for programming), Kaggle (for machine learning and data science) specifically for financial modelling practice and competitions? Will spending time and performing well in Kaggle competitions help?Center of Finance at Indian School of business hires intern yearly to train them in quantitative finance research(ideally training for a Phd in finance). Does anyone here has a friend or an acquaintance that is aware or has taken this position?
Main reasons I am looking for a slight change in career are 1)I have always been interested in jobs that require some quantitative skills along with software development skills, 2) pure IT industry is too laid back for me; would like to try a slightly more demanding job(both in terms of skill and time) for once.3)current career growth slow and predictable; until and unless I join a really small startup 4)existential crisis.
I understand that initially the best I can expect is working under Phds from top tier universtities as a (junior) quant. I would still say I am more interested in algorithms and complexity theory as a research area; and don't want to do Phd in finance/machine learning/stats just for getting a shot at quant jobs.

 

[Ian Kaplan]

One thing that you could consider is the University of Washington Computational Finance and Risk Management program. You degree from IIT should be an asset in gaining admission.

The UW program is one of the few programs that supports working distance students. I live in California. So you can keep working and take quantitative finance courses. The tuition is $900 (US) per unit (courses are 4-units). The courses are recorded an available on-line. I believe there are students in my program who are in India and there are several in China.

I am constantly reminded that my courses, as intensive as they are, only scratch the surface of what I wish I knew. So I don't see how you could learn this material on your own, unless you get a job in finance. So Kaggle is pretty pointless.

 

[softwarist]

Thanks Ian. Yes, distance learning seems to be a very pragmatic option. It would be great if someone in this forum could shed some light about quant and algorithmic trading job market in India, their hiring standards and maybe how will job market look 3-5 years down the line.