Stretching Degree Title on Resumes for STEM-Focused Trading Firms?
I know that a lot of Trading Firms are highly interested in STEM majors. D.E. Shaw actually does have some respect for the softer sciences (Chemistry/Biology) as well.
I am currently a Biology major and will be graduating with a B.S. in Biology. If I were to put Computational Biology or if I was Chemistry/Biochemistry something like Computational Chemistry is that too far of a stretch?
I feel like Biology is too soft of a science major in terms of having specific skills however half of our major courses do use statistical programming in R in terms of modeling for research. We also have a Computational Biology M.S. program. If I were to say something like oh I tailored my course-load to have more of an alignment with Computational Biology/Genetics rather than Ecology/Oceanography I think that's a pretty valid pitch.
If I only took electives in oceanography and ecology that's one thing, but some of my courses included computational genetics, cell molecular biological modeling, hypothesis testing in R, statistical design and research in R, etc. The school I go to is a well known school (Top 10 Engineering), but all Biology majors go into Pre-Med and nothing Quantitative at all (probably the reason there's no reason for a subsection/specialization in Undergrad, but definitely why we have a M.S. in Computational Biology - we have a top 10 CS program). I feel like just having Biology is weak and would make me seem more likely to be a pre-med/health/ecology to recruiters rather than someone who has experience programming/interest in quantitative side of biology/finance.
The only reason I'm curious is because I know some firms will weed out based on major and just having another box checked in terms of a more quantitative looking major sounds like it could benefit me and would basically just be a stretch of the truth and not a lie (similar to what everyone does on their resume).
Update: I found out today that we do have a computational biology certificate that I am eligible for and can complete and have all the courses on my transcript to receive it. So I think I will just put Computational Biology as my major now since we have an actual specialization/certificate program. For all graduates in weird majors - take a look at some of the certificates and various specializations you might be able to add on to your major. I'm sure Computational/Quantitative Biology sounds better than just Biology and would have some recruiters thinking of me as at least having some stats/cs/quantitative experience in a major as weird as Biology instead of them just thinking I'm a pre-med who stumbled into trading.
Your degree is Biology with specialization/certificate in Computational Biology? Putting that seems more honest and safer in case some alum interviews you and starts asking about the Computational Biology major. If there is an actual Computational Biology and you are not in it then this is definitely dishonest. If there is no Computational Biology major it's not as dishonest but still could be a red flag if the interviewer realizes this major doesn't actually exist.
Makes sense. Only wanted to ask because we have a major called Industrial Engineering which has a few concentrations like data analytics but this one guy advertises that major as "Financial Engineering & Data Science". He told me he puts Data Science as his major on his resume which seems to be similar if not even further trying to stretch his major. It's a top program in the country but it is specifically industrial/systems engineering with concentrations in economics/data science - not a data science major. He's off to join Goldman as a Quant Researcher so I guess he either had a good story or never got questioned.
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