3 years out of math degree -> consulting/trading?
I'm 3 years out from completing a pure math degree at a quality school; in the meantime I've completed one year of math grad school (did well and have good reccs but the school was a poor fit, and I realized that I probably don't want to work in academia), done other odd jobs, and now am doing my duty teaching high school math for a year or two. It's enjoyable, pays the bills, and gives me free time to read, write and learn.
Two months ago, I had the good fortune to receive a copy of Nassim Taleb's "Fooled by Randomness", which hit me like lightning. I find the idea of trading, or working behind-the-scenes of the markets, fascinating, and have since been reading through more of Taleb's work, in addition to other material such as Hull's "Options, Futures, and other Derivatives", some mathematical works such as Mandelbrot's popular account in "(Mis)behavior of the Markets", and anecdotal works such as Emanuel Derman and Schwager's "The Market Wizards". I've also been revamping computer programming skills in JAVA/MATLAB(ha)/learning Python.
I'd like to turn this newfound interest into a way to make $$, learn, and do interesting work, and am wondering what possibilities lay out there. I always assumed I'd go into academics, and may return to complete graduate work in the future, but for now I'd like to see what's on the other side of the fence. I've sent in applications to the prop trading firms (time to learn networking skills) and think working with clients for a consulting firm also is a possibility. I don't have a crazy drive to get rich, just get paid sufficiently to do interesting work and learn what's happening in the big world of business/markets.
If anyone has any advice or knows something obvious I may be overlooking, please chime in. Also any book/textbook recommendations on the lines of what I've read above (which all come highly recommended by me) would be most appreciated.
Hi there,
For prop trading firms drop the python and go for C++ unless you know it already. Whilst networking helps, if you want to be quant research or trading, you really need to be good.
Many 'quantitative finance' consulting firms tend to be IT support.
If you're very keen and have the money, maybe try trading a bit on your own from what you've read. You'll at least have something to talk about in the few final interview stages.
After some applications, if nothing bites, I'd go for the MFE course, which you can ace, gives you the necessary line on your CV for recruiters and most importantly, time.
Not a lot of info I know, but I hope it helps.
Yes, that was very helpful, thank you.
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