Physics to I-banking?

You don't want to work 80-100 hour weeks if you have kids, they will never see you.

If you did well in your physics degree at a top 20 undergrad school, or non top 20 and have a high (1400+) SAT, it might be feasible for you to try to enter Sales and Trading. They like people with a quant-ish background and the hours are much more reasonable.

I'm only a student myself, but I'd say you're better off showering your daughters with love, than never seeing them and giving them more money to spend with their mother. You love your kids (which is why you're thinking about this), but banking probably isn't the right move. If you get into the field, it would be as an associate, working 100 hours per week (or is Houston completely different?).

Why not use your physics knowledge and work in the oil business? I know for a fact that the industry is screaming for qualified individuals, the pay isn't bad, and you can still enjoy lots of time with your kids.

maybe do something in brokerage...lots of quant roles there. buddy of mine went from physics into structuring, although structuring hours aren't that great either.

no need for a master's in finance unless it's from a top school...a cheaper, quicker way to convey your quant skills on a resume is to pass a couple of actuarial exams.

though if your friends are in the industry you might not need anything other than their intro...degrees and whatnot are just HR's way to weed through millions of applicants...once you're in the door, if you can convince the person you're talking with that you're a smart guy who's up to the task, it's no problem. just read up about the job, firm, etc, make sure your probability math is polished enough for random brainteasers, and go talk with them.

Read Monkey Business. Then decide if you want to never see your kids again for an increase in salary.

Trust me, there are other ways than banking to make money.

With a physics background, there are a lot of groups in the i-banks where your background will help you and you will have decent hours. Forget i-banking, look into the buy side in some of the quantitative groups, these guys typically pull 60-80 hours and most of them come from heavy math background like yourself, and the money is equally if not better than ibanking

My advice would be for you to look into the Msc program in Financial engineering or Math for finance at top schools - Berkeley, Stanford, colombia, NYU, Princeton(Ms Finance)etc. That should guarantee you easy entry into any quant role or S&T program at BBs or Hedge funds.

You get to work less, make a shit load of money and most importantly, spend time with your girls.

naija is absolutely right. Go get that MS Financial Engineering degree, and then you would be able to see which quant-role suits you better.

Get an MFE, go work for a quant hedge fund.

and read: "My Life as a Quant: Reflections on Physics and Finance" by Emmanuel Derman. He was one of the first physicists to jump to wall st, and he made an absolute killing by founding Goldman's Quantitative Strategies group.

Does an undergraduate physics degree provide enough math to prove that you can be a "top quant guy"? Or does it really depend on the person and the school (i.e. depending on what kind of courses you took to get the degree).

Will pretty much every science/engineering degree lead nicely to a MS in Financial Engineering? Sounds like a good way to get into a more quantitative role.

You'll need an MFE to even have a prayer of breaking into the industry. Even then, it's a long shot.