Resume (MIT/Columbia non-target grad)
http://www.razume.com/documents/18433
I come from an entrepreneurial and academic background, but I've recently become interested in finance thanks to some friends who introduced me to the topic over winter break. Unfortunately, after looking at entry-level jobs, I don't seem to qualify for anything. The standard description seems to require either an MBA, PhD in Statistics, or Finance background with 1-2 years of experience.
I've removed several irrelevant parts of the resume so that it would fit into one page without making the fonts microscopic. I took off almost all of my academic and research jobs as well as programming contest rankings.
I also removed a couple of my own companies - I ran one in undergrad to give my father something to do after his premature retirement, and more recently in New York because I thought I might be on the path to starving on my $200/mo rented couch. Both essentially amounted to survival pocket change. I keep one incorporated because it was a pain to set up its payment contracts.
Also, I trade my own portfolio - but currently only at a modest profit of less than 30k/yr; so, I think I'll leave that off, especially since other people looking for jobs have done M&A deals for $100MM+.
http://www.razume.com/documents/18433
Please be BRUTAL. What did you like? What did you not like? Feel free to ask questions.
you don't have much of a chance in M&A (no transferable skills). but you seem like a good fit as a quant developer in a hedge fund or prop shop that does algorithmic or high-frequency trading.. might need a little more math like a MFE if you can..
listing anything other than Java, C++ or CUDA might seem superfluous. they're interested in algorithms rather than user interfaces or web portals. i'd include personal account and coding competitions in.. maybe shorten the iOS stuff/social network.. elaborate more on what type of statistics @ google.. and maybe remove the stuff abt interviewing candidates.
remove the bit about the crisis in your interests too. Quantnet will help you more than WSO. I'd choose google over finance if I were you though.. good luck.
I'd remove the following: "& Leadership Experience" "The Financial crisis (recent)"
Aside from that, pretty solid, despite the M&I template.
Why do you say despite the M&I template?
I like your resume. What math courses have you taken? You're definitely qualified for a job as a Quant developer, but your math courses will dictate if you qualify for a straight-up Quant job. If you're applying for quant jobs, mention which math courses pertinent to that ob you've taken (very important).
Beyond conventional quant jobs (stat arb, market modeling, pricing, risk), you could also consider these 2 additional role. Neither is recruited for out of college: - Some quant groups employ an HCI expert. Your profile seems ideal for this. The job of the HCI expert is to understand the quant models (so you get exposure to quant modeling), and present it in a format intuitive to the traders (you get face-time with traders). - The other is for a group where people explore quant algorithms that can be parallelized on a GPU or FPGA to process more data per clock cycle (you can imagine this being gold for market making and hft). A few sell-side banks and all quantitative HFs have this.
@LTV Ah, math might be a weak-ish point for me. The highest math courses I studied were in undergrad, about four years ago, and I haven't done any since then. I am so rusty that when someone asked me for help with a calculus problem, I pointed them to http://www.khanacademy.org/#Calculus.
My higher level undergrad math courses:
Mathematical Modeling - quite enjoyable (included simulations of WW2 and my own calculations on extraterrestrial life)
Linear Algebra - I took it one summer with a friend from Princeton and we challenged each other to never miss a point. He took copious notes and engaged with the teacher after each class. I read the book & won the bet.
Statistics - the class used Matlab, but after my first taste of that, I wrote all my programs from scratch in Java.
Differential Equations - almost failed it! (twice)
Theory of Infinity - (philosophy + set theory)
Formal Logic - (proofs + first order logic)
I was also in a number theory / putnam test club, but I think I was terrible at it. I think the group just liked having me around to liven up the atmosphere.
I have a semester remaining and can squeeze in a course or two - what should I take to inject this resume with a little more oomph? I also have free access to Harvard MBA courses (I have spoken there on invitation before.)
Thats more math I was expecting from a compsci major.
It depends on what you want to do.. If you want to be a
Quantnet, wilmott and global derivatives are your friend. WSO's a little to mainstream.
no Matlab? and you have two Master's?
Based on what you've said - you'd probably have maximum chance as a Risk Quant (lots of deterministic modeling, and mostly linear algebra), or as a Quant developer in any other group. Quant developer is actually a really nice gig - you'll get to learn the math on the job, and maybe become a full quant in a year or 2.
Anyways, to build your resume - for quant jobs, a course on advanced statistics/probablity and refresh on calculus.
For what finance/econ courses to take, someone who majored in these fields would be better to answer the q. Roughly, though, for finance/economics courses, a course on derivatives or portfolio management might be a good investment of time and effort. In economics, something on econometrics (to understand how math is used in regressional analysis in finance), and/or a course on the economics of financial markets (to get a introduction to yields, rates and FX).
@trailmix8 I actually do a teeeeny bit of Matlab, but I feel like I suddenly lose all technical ability once I'm in that environment. I get the same feeling when opening up Excel. I can use it, but only in super slow motion while I look up how to do basic things I could normally program in a few seconds on Google. Perhaps I just never learned these tools properly. To address your exasperation, at Columbia, I created a simple language to avoid coding in Matlab. I could then embed the programs into websites since they ran on the JVM.
go to wilmott.com Your single best bet is getting in somewhere as a programmer. learn and network from there. In the meantime you will be making nice pocket change.
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