I am a first-year analyst in a quant-ish hedging type job. I took advanced derivative classes in college so I was comfortable handling questions about hedging strategies. On the job, I realized most of these "strategies" are too complex to be evidenced in excel and had to pick up some new analytical skills.
I found online courses boring/general/long. My colleagues' code was somewhat more helpful/related to my projects but hard to understand and modify for my needs.
If you're in the same boat and looking to pick up some new tools quickly to quick-start your project or beef up your resume, here are my tips on what to focus on:
Python:
-Understanding object types: strings, lists, tuples, dictionaries...use the type() function or the variable explorer.
-Learn how to install modules with pip install
-Data sourcing: learn to write connection strings and use mySQL,pyodbc, cx_oracle
-Data manipulation: Pandas. Pandas, Pandas!!!
-Emailing from your machine: win32com, learn basic html with inline styling if you want to make it slightly less ugly
-If you have more time: look up numpy, seaborn (for graphs), pyfolio (portfolio risk management), webscappring
VBA:
-Honestly just learn python instead
-learn how to connect to mkt data APIs
-for/while loops
-use Excel 3G to support big spreadsheets
Visualization:
-Tableau/Power BI
