Exit opps for market risk advisory at Big 4

It is coming to the end of my 1st year as a staff at EY FSRM market risk team. It is not a universal team and only exists in certain cities among a region. Basically my job is dealing with 1) otc market derivatives pricing for auditing purpose 2) model validation for structured products. I had great time learning new stuff here when exposed to new products or deals. However what troubles me is that sometimes I can be super free if there are not enough projects allocated and thus the learning curve sucks. Just wonder any exit opps for such job nature, trading, structuring, ibd structured finance, pe? Any suggestion would be appreciated, insightful and related experience would be better. Thanks a lot.

6 Comments
 
 

market risk advisory can exit to market risk model development/derivatives pricing quants/system development consultants/quantitative portfolio researchers --- at banks, invst firms, funds and insurance companies. it seems that you have had quite a lot of exposure to technicals. in terms of compensation/title, the above exits are what i can think of. i don't think highly of staying in validation regime for too long. get out asap. to the developer side, to the buy side, to the investment & portfolio management :D investment&portfolio management may seem quite a long shot, but one needs to keep hopes up.

 

for ibd, structuring and trading, shots are too long from market risk advisory, similar to investment&portfolio management. yes, either try really hard to move to where you eventually want to be, OR climb up the corp ladder in current role and only to find it becoming even harder to move, unless you do a MBA/MFE in hoping of switching gear during campus recruiting.

just my two cents

 

Much appreciated on your suggestions. Seems most of the exits are middle office roles? I am indeed considering a MFE degree in a year or two. With a bachelor degree in finance and information system, hopefully some years' quant job would help the admission. My long term goal is break into the front office of ib/am, mainly structuring/s&t. Is back to b-school the best bet to turn the career? Is there any exit to a consulting company (big 4 excluded)? Thanks a lot!

 
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Hi Chat-Shire, I know that it has been a while. Just want to add my views here. I had one year work experience in validating market risk models and about another year in validating derivatives pricing models. I also validated a lot of structured finance products during the course. Therefore, I would say I know what skills set would have been built for someone like us.

I think Investment Banking and Structuring are quite far away. Probably asset management and sales & trading are more probable; yet it is still very challenging; it maybe better to get in as risk managers (risk modelling, investment risk management, model development). Trust me, model validation are quite removed from sales&trading and AM. I have tried and learnt the hard lesson. The truth is if you want to get to the developer side, you need to get out from auditing/advisory/validation ASAP, which calls for a lot of efforts. I myself am trying to get into IM/AM as a investment risk manager (multi-factor risk model development, portfolio construction stuff etc.)

 

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