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what can I do with "R"

pokerguy

Joined
11/27/12
Messages
5
Points
11
hi all,

wondering what to do - I am just about to complete a MBA in finance from a top 10 school and I have a problem that no one I know can help with.

my background is as a fixed interest trader, which i left for a cushy consulting job at one of the big four. recently I have been working for a tech company as an analyst where I have been using the R package to do a lot of the data analysis.

I don't know any quants and anyone do I try to ask about what I can do with a finance MBA and R skills just asks me "why do you bother using R, its too complicated."

So, any idea what I can do with this education/skills mix? is there any roles that might sound right, or a programming language I can learn to help me out (I taught myself Java back in the day)? In hindsight, I should have done an MFE rather than the MBA, but I think that I would be unable to cope mentally and financially with doing another Masters.
 
I'm a little confused; is there a type of job that you're trying to get that you're not able to get? A background as a fixed interest trader / consultant does not seem particularly prohibitive on future opportunities.

Although R is used by a lot of companies, SAS still dominates in a lot of places. I have found the amount of SAS programming need exceeds the available programmers and has for some time. Learning SAS (there are student / independent Learning editions) might help you out if you like the sort of problems one uses R for.

FWIW, sometimes I think I should have done an MBA instead of an MFE, but no use looking back.
 
Jose Thomas said:
I'm a little confused; is there a type of job that you're trying to get that you're not able to get?

Learning SAS (there are student / independent Learning editions) might help you out if you like the sort of problems one uses R for.
Click to expand...

I have a history using SAS/SQL, but I find that writing R functions is much simpler and more intuitive than SAS.

In regards to the type of job I am after, that is why I am here. I am being gently pushed towards management (not a bad problem I know) but I am not at the stage where I want to deal with what, from my observations, is so much political crap. I am looking for a job, in finance where I can use a statistical background. After hunting around, I have not been able to find anyone that could assist, hence I found this forum. Any ideas????

Jose Thomas said:
FWIW, sometimes I think I should have done an MBA instead of an MFE, but no use looking back.
Click to expand...

possibly, we are both suffering from the grass is greener syndrome
 
Very true about grass is greener syndrome.

As for a statistical background, statistics is not a particularly bad background to have for almost any white collar job. I recently had successful interviews for an equity research position wherein they were principally interested in my statistics background.

Many quant equity (hedge fund) jobs would use a lot of statistics. As does Risk Management. Possible financial software development could be another option if the product involves some statistics. The reason I asked, is because it seems like your options are there and it more depends on your interests.

R is easier all around than SAS. However, that is not that important if your employer or your industry uses SAS. Finding people who are willing to use R in professional situations is harder than you think, because of the copyleft nature of the GNU license.
 
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