Not a STEM Degree, but into quant trading?
Hi everyone,
I developed a pretty keen interest in math maybe a tad late into my college career after declaring a dual degree in econ and business administration. Funny thing is my school is definitely known for STEM, but because I'm almost done with both of these majors, I am not totally sure I want to stay longer to complete a pure STEM-degree. The courses I took in econ were proof-based and very math heavy, but honestly am not sure how having a STEM degree would hold up at a place like Jane Street/Two Sigma/Citadel. I am extremely interest in all of the work at these places, but have not a single personal connection. Was just wondering if anyone had any tips on how to get even just to first round without a math background.
I was lucky to intern at an economic consulting firm with pretty demanding modeling due to my CS and math courses, but working as a quant trader requires a totally different level. I'm continuing to self study as I work, but of course, that's nothing like having a pure stem degree. Would really appreciate any advice.
Have you considered doing grad school? You could go for degree in financial engineering and easily end up in quant position. Quantnet has excellent advice and would suggest you ask there also, I'm far from being the best advisor. I'd say you meet well the reqs for MFE programs (e.g. Baruch) depending on your undergrad GPA. Econ can be quite math heavy so I'd not say lacking a STEM degree is gonna ruin your career aspirations.
Usually those places recruit people themselves, either way I think a graduate level knowledge of probability and statistics is a must as well as being very comfortable with a low-level language like C++.
Non HFT prop firms like Jane Street aren't that quantitative despite the interviews. Trading intuition and fast estimation will generally matter more than hardcore programming or deep stats/machine learning knowledge. The technical interviews at places like Jane Street are like AMC questions in that they require more cleverness than mathematical machinery. However, getting an interview might be difficult especially if you aren't from a target although Jane Street seems to interview a wide candidate pool. I think it would be harder at more quantitative places like Two Sigma.
Wait are you aiming to be a quant or aiming to be a trader? One requires you to be exceptional in a quantitative field (PhD, Putnam, Olympiad) and the other only requires you to be good at probability and stats (i.e. quick estimations)
Is this still the case? And if it is, don't you get filtered out anyways from not being able to signal quantitative proficiency via a STEM degree?
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