Important things to have on a S&T resume

I would not take what greek god has to say as vernacular. I actually work in s&t and will be honest, the majority of the kids in my analyst class are not very mathy people. Sure there were a handful of very bright math students, by 80% of the kids were non math related, even non econ related majors. oh yeah this is top 3 BB. Im not saying that math skills are not important, im just saying you dont need to be a math major or even close to land a s&t job.

Remember,s&t at top banks are more about client relationships and flow. they are looking for someone who has the intelligence to trade or sell, but also impeccable interpersonal skills. whether it be fixed income or equity, you need to be able to bullshit on the phone with clients, etc. and through most of my experience, the extremely mathy engineers lack these skills.

where i work, and from my dealings with other top banks, the very mathy kids typically work in structuring, or very exotic trading desks, or prop desks. The majority of the desks employ smart, energetic, fun people. Its just the way it is.

but i do agree with the poker comment, dont think because you are sick at poker you will be able to trade. but if you trade for your PA, absolutley put it down on your resume. It will prove you are active in the markets, give a shit, and have an appetite for risk

and from what i have seen i second many of tekno's comments. most of the kids are not hardcore math/engineering majors although i'm not saying they aren't there. most of the kids are finance or econ majors from targets.

personality is def. huge to get in. there are many smart kids but a genius who can't socialize will not succeed in s&t. you are sitting in such closer quarters with your coworkers for 12 hours a day, they have to like you and want to hang out with you.

work hard, take a few probability classes if you can, read read read, know whats going on in the market/have a view on the economy, and be a social likeable person

i definitely agree that you shouldn't be a dork but a fun person to work with...not anybody good at math can trade. If you're good at math but you're not presentable you become a quant, and that's all. But, at least in structured products/derivatives desks a sound math background is a must. As far as the personal investing experience is concerned, my sense is that you can mention it in the interview (and probably you would be asked) but do not put it in you resume...at last, everybody interested in the mkts has invested at some point in his life; so it won't give you the interview. (If I were an interviewer and saw something like "Achieved 50% returns in a bear market bla bla bla", I would ask you how and what is your Sharpe ratio and you would have to prove me you weren't just another lucky bastard...My second question would be, "since you're so successful why you want to trade for somebody else?")

"since you're so successful why you want to trade for somebody else?"

I have $14,000 in loans, $3000 in credit card debt, I have a negative cash flow, and my mom's basement just isn't cutting it with the ladies these days!

Jim Cramer invested his student loans to pay out Law School...Do the same and forget BBs and such shitty stuff!!!!:P:P:P:P

Perhaps a harder question in current enviornment would be "tell me few stocks that is going to drop by 10%, 50%, and 100% by end of 2007." lol.