How hard is it to get an internship as Political Science major & non-top tier school?
I have graduated with a major in political science in 2007.
Since then, i have worked in different industries, non-financial related.
How hard is it going to be to get an internship at prop trading firm??
(as assistant trader)
Any way to put my feet into the door?
Get a cleaning job and impress them by answering combinatorics questions posted on chalk boards.
Or you could work as an HR bitch.
Get on linkedin, your alumni network, and go out and meet people to start networking. MANY people go into finance from the wrong school, with the wrong major, and with little backing. There is one common denominator with the people that make it in: the amount of effort and thought put into finding a way in.
Also, take what you can get and don't be picky. The economy SUCKS right now and even Ivy kids aren't getting their first choice.
Do you really think that networking will get you in a prop trading firm as an assistant trader? Have you ever interviewed for a trader position? Its not something you can 'pick up on the fly'. I agree that you don't need to have a quant major to do it, as long as you are quick, logical and good with numbers. But generally, if you can't display a flair for numbers, you're really not going to get far.
I completely agree with you that getting more education would be a good move. My #1 recommendation is always to reach out to as many people and learn what they have to say: posting on WSO is a step in the right direction. If you know/meet the right people, literally anything is possible...so while other people focus on resumes, education, or other facets of the job hunt, I stick to encouraging people to just open their mouth and put themselves out there.
Hell, it worked for me. I'm not only the president, I'm also a member.
thanks all for your answers.
Then, what should i do? the better question is, what can i do to build up my resume/skills?? In order to increase probabaility of getting into the prop firms, anything else i should prepare?
I think your best bet would be to join a MathFin or Applied Math Masters so that you get some quant on your CV. That will at least get you the interviews, and then its all up to you thereafter. Also, in your spare time learn a bit of programming (this is crucial) - start with Java and work your way down, or with C++ and work your way up. Really, if you have these two things on your resume: evidence of math/statistics and programming you're good to go.
maximumlikelihood, thanks for your input.
any suggestion on MathFin?
Just go for the top few, I'm not too savvy on US schools, but MIT and Columbia first spring to mind. I'm sure if you search for MathFin on WSO or google you'll find plenty of posts. In the UK, you've got Cass, Oxford, LBS, LSE, Imperial to name a few. Like with anything be realistic and think of your GPA - maybe a 3.9 GPA from a slightly lower-ranked school will get you further than a 3.2 from MIT. As long as it covers the basics (stochastic calculus, probability and C++ programming) its then up to you to make it work.
Don't want to hijack the thread in any way, but maximum, how much programming ability would you say is necessary?
I've only taken a single course on C++: Is the level of coding knowledge for a trading (not quantitative research) something that can be self-taught?
Talking to Wolverine Trading recruiters this year and they said they train all their traders in programming. From my impression a programming background was a plus, but wasn't necessarily mandatory since they planned on training you anyway. I know trading at banks is not as heavy on programming skills, but again could be a plus.
No worries. Ok think of it like this. There are two candidates, both with say 3.7 GPA, both from reputable schools and degrees in math/physics/engineering. One of them has experience (not necessarily a lot) in programming, the other none. Assuming all other factors were more or less identical, you'd clearly go for the candidate with programming exp. simply because s/he would be easier to train.
I think for trader roles its less important to know a lot of programming, but enough to understand and run some of the algos that the quant research peeps have developed. If you just brush up on your C++ and mention you have experience of it on your resume (and if you can back it up at the interview of course), you'll be fine for trading roles. There are plenty of C++ online courses available:
http://www.intap.net/~drw/cpp/ http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/ http://newdata.box.sk/bx/c/ (really good if you're disciplined)
where you can brush up your C++. At interviews they will ask you things like: Given a set of 25 numbers, provide pseudocode for finding all samples of size k (i.e. all 25_choose_k combinations), or write code to reverse the string 'reverse' etc. Very basic code.
Generally I think knowing one low and one high level language is most advantageous, so go for Java and C++. They are the bread and butter of algo trading.
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