I'm a fixed income trader at a big 5 canadian bank (1 year rotating, then 2 years on my current desk trading). It's always been a goal of mine to do some sort of grad school for personal reasons, but ideally it'd be something that would help advance my career as well. I'm pretty happy now but I wouldn't mind having a more quantitative skill set. I'm doing well and would probably be offered a spot somewhere where I am now, but I'm definitely interested in moving to a larger US bank or going to the buy-side.
I did an undergrad in business and economics, with about 2 years worth of math (~3.7 GPA, @ a top Canadian school). I passed all three levels of the CFA as well. I have decent work hours to be able to cram hard for the GMAT/GRE, so assume I could get top ~10%.
Any thoughts on different gradschools (in Canada or abroad) that would be a good fit? I want a few ideas before I poke around talking with the head of my desk, although I know he'd be supportive.
U of T has a partime MFin program, but very few people entering it are traders (3%). They have a masters in financial economics that places into trading, but a lot of the people in it are straight out of undergrad.
Other programs that really interest me: MFin's at MIT, LBS, and LSE.
I'm not sure if I have quite enough math for an MFEng, but I want something more quantitative than an MBA for sure. Any thoughts on other programs are appreciated. Thanks!
I have few ex-classmates that did the MFin at MIT and it's actually same level as the stuff I did during my masters of Financial Engineering.. lots of quant finance, stochastic calculus.. etc. Best school to get into the City is LSE.. you could try applying to their econometrics & mathematical economics program LBS MFin seems like a good choice since you'd be in class with guys who have industry experience. Although, it's not easy for Canadians to get a trading job in London b/c of visa and recent debate on immigration (you can check out Tier 5 visa but that expires after 2 years) as they would need to justify hiring a non-EU. From my experience, not easy but v doable... also personally don't think it's worth the investment with gbpcad around 2 lvl This might be a good article to read: (sry can't post link for some reason)
google>> GUARDIAN: are-international-students-getting-a-raw-deal
If I were you I would do a masters of quant finance not finance. For Canadian universities, with your background, I don't think you'd fit in at waterloo as it is quite heavy in quant but uoft would probably take you in their MMF (masters of mathematical finance).
why do you wanna leave your job? and what are you REALLY looking to get out of grad school? if quant skill set maybe think a little further than a MFin...?
cheers and good luck!
Thanks for the advice.I have a uk passport as well, so working in the UK after going to school there is an option.I'm not so keen of U of T's Mathematical Finance program as it seems very quantitative, from their website: "Exceptional math skills are the most important qualification."I'll look into programs somewhere between LBS's and MIT's MFin in terms of quantitativeness. I'm waiting on a promotion I'm pretty sure is coming. I figure it's good to see what my future here will look like to see whether staying put might be better. Also, if I end up having to recruit after a masters I figure it'll be a decent indicator of my employability.
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