Trying to prepare myself for an S&T internship at a BB this upcoming summer. I wanted to hear some input from people currently in the field. How would you rank the three: knowledge of Excel, VBA, and Python as far as importance when starting out as well as continued use. Also, if there is something else that would crack this top three feel free to add that in. I wanted to get a head start for this summer by learning these things as I'm sure they will be useful no matter where I end up and believe it could be possibly quite interesting to learn. Any input would be appreciated.
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As an intern excel will be by far #1 and then I would say python. After you start as an analyst python #1 imo. I have been in trading for 2 years and use code more than excel. Maybe on the sales side it's different.
Hey thanks for the response man. When you say excel are you including VBA in that or did you not use that too much. I used a good amount of excel last summer but relatively basic stuff like pivot tables and pretty basic formulas like vlookup and match. Any chance you could point me in the direction of what I should focus on learning/where to learn it for excel and python?
Vba Not necessary imo. Sounds like u have the excel skills you need. Python can use quantopian or something. Recommend actually coming up with a project you think is cool and then learning the necessary code for the project online. This is how I learned. Can be trade idea generation or crunching margin datasets. Both useful.
As long as have generally know how to program, vba is trivial. Record a macro or copy paste from google gets you 95% of the way there.
To rank the three: probably Excel > VBA > Python. Excel because you'd probably use it to crunch data, conduct analyses, etc. VBA's useful since it helps you stand out from other interns.
Python is more for trading, or more quant-focused desks... in my BB it was barely used, but in another BB it was specifically used by one sales desk. So in effect, you're better off learning VBA.
I think it all depends on what kind of desk you will be on and the type of background of the people working on the desk have. This past summer I was on an options desk (not a BB) and the traders were all very technical and as a result, I coded most of the summer using VBA and Python.
Like many said above, VBA and Python should be the only languages you should really know but I would suggest that you spend some time building your own projects. Knowing the basics of a coding language versus being able to actually implement the knowledge and build things are two separate skills.
Comment once you know what desk or desks you will be on and these answers can be much more specific. Also, once you do know what products you will be around I highly suggest reading as much as you can on the product so you are already ahead of the curve once you start the summer. I suggest checking out this website: https://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-815676.html. Wiley has hundreds of books that I found EXTREMELY useful. Once you find the book you can easily find most of them online for free or check you school's library.
Best of luck!
i don’t know much about python but I love me a big black snake
Dude I'm sitting here at the desk and I cracked up. Lmao.
Python is a high level programming language that is pretty easy to learn and very useful. It's pretty intuitive compared to other languages. Take some $12 Udemy courses/ free YouTube and practice on your own. Practicing makes all the difference. I would suggest C++ after you've gotten decent with Python, but this is probably not necessary.
I don't work in S&T for the record, just know how to code.
The day to day things you will do in excel can be learned on the fly - pivot tables/lookups etc. learning python will not only make using VBA easier for times when you need it, but can then be used for other projects. Whoever commented above about doing a project you are interested offered great advice. Simply going through the motions and typing commands off of a YouTube video won’t reinforce how to actually code. Find some areas you are interested in, build the code / analysis around that, and google the bits and pieces in between where you get stuck.
Just learn python and know excel shortcuts my guy
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