Help to a confused student
Hi all. I did my bachelor's degree in Mathematics in Greece and now I am doing my master's in Financial Mathematics, at the London School of Economics (LSE). The application period has almost ended and I am worried a lot about my future. I have no prior working experience (no internships) and as a result it is all but impossible to find a full time position in a graduate scheme. At the same time, the majority of the internships are offered only for penultimate year students, which is not applicable to my case. My aspiration is to work as a Trader or Quant in a trading firm, but I am (apparently) open to a large variety of roles, from Risk Management and Investment Banking to Actuarial and Consulting, in order to start from somewhere. An alternative is pursuing PhD but I am not sure whether I really want it (Maybe after a PhD will be easier to find a Quant position). Moreover, if I get rejected by all companies now (I have applied to 12, but they dont go well), is it possible to apply again when I finish my master? What should I do? What do you suggest me to do? I am honestly SO CONFUSED and depressed at the moment, that I can barely study for the course, feeling all this situation turning against me. Every opinion and contribution to this matter is highly appreciated. Thank you in advance for considering my worry and I am sorry for this long post.
Have you considered working in the Netherlands yet? There are some interesting market makers over there looking for quants and traders, such as Optiver, Flow Traders, and IMC Financial Markets. Also, you could check out the graduate scheme programmes at Dutch banks such as ING, ABN AMRO, and Rabobank. Financial institutions in the Netherlands are actually highly interested in candidates with a strong quantitative background.
Regarding your situation in the UK, are there any Greek alumni of LSE working in London? Perhaps you could reach out to them via LinkedIn or e-mail and ask for specific advice.
You need work experience ASAP. You're in London, start cold emailing/calling local firms/funds to get anything on your resume, especially ones with LSE alums. That's probably what's keeping you back.
First, thank you for your consideration. However, how can I do that? I mean, the only way I know to find a job is via companies' websites. What do you exactly mean by saying "cold emailing/calling local firm/funds"? Is it posible to get a job like that? Thank you in advance!
Sure it is, that's how the industry works. Plenty of cold-emailing threads here, look them up & start hitting up firms. You can either directly as for internships or do the networking dance, depends on what your timeframe is.
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