A Peculiar Career Question

Hello,

I have a somewhat peculiar career question. I come from IT (MIT dropout, later a comp. sci. major from smaller school, only a year as part time software developer, mostly with C and Ruby). After this I made some money with online poker because it was so lucrative at the time, but then Uncle Sam put the kibosh on that. Looking back, I did not enjoy the insane amount of daily variance in poker (no limit holdem), but I have a high tolerance for risk because of this experience.

I have now decided to make my way into financial trading as I could potentially make more than from poker in the long run. I am slowly building a toolset of automated trading tools and learning about trading. However, I am in need of some income, and would prefer to work on something trading-related, even if vaguely so.

I happen to take highly stimulating environments very poorly (mild Aspergers qualities). And while I get along with most level-headed people just fine, I am unable to stomach much of what most social environments entail - flattery, posturing, politics, emotional pretense, and other forms of BS. Therein lies the peculiar part of my question: I am wondering if there is any entry level position in finance that is good for people who prefer not to deal with many other people on a regular basis and have no problem with solitude and boring tasks. Ideally, I would be locked in a cupboard somewhere in a back office or working with a small group of sane people (sorry if I'm stereotyping, but I couldn't handle egomaniacs or coke fiends). I enjoy activities that require problem-solving but that do not have stress-inducing short-term deadlines looming on a daily basis. I am a night owl so I could also work strange hours, as long as they were relatively regular.

Having said all that, I am very focused and have chosen to have next to no social life for the time being, so I would be able to dedicate a great deal of energy to the work.

Thanks for any replies,

Dean.

5 Comments
 

Oh my god you're on the fucking wrong forum. I refuse to respond to your question. Please do not post something like this again.

 

How good is your C/C++? Dropping out of MIT doesn't help you much, but if you have good grades and can hack linux kernels/do some core hardware coding (FPGA or GPU/CUDA), have a look at HFT/Algo trading prop shops.

But Rhaegar fought valiantly, Rhaegar fought nobly, Rhaegar fought bravely. And Rhaegar died.
 

Thanks Anomanderis. My C / C++ is rusty, but nothing that some review won't remedy. I follow graphics hardware pretty closely, so getting into CUDA sounds like it could be a lot of fun.

 

You would do great at a hedge fund that doesn't value what other people have to say. You'd sit in a back room, work through your analysis and occasionally pitch an idea to your PM.

 

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