Chance with top prop firms
I'm currently a junior in college at a normal state school with a 3.8 GPA and my major is Management Information Systems. I work full time as a systems administrator. I'll be 25 when I graduate, due to working full time and attending school full time. Do I have any shot at hiring on with one of the top prop firms that offer a salary when I graduate? Or do they mostly pick younger (22 or so) people or people with degrees from very good colleges? I have no finance/trading connections at all and my school is far from being a "target" or in the loop.
Why should the prop firm pick you over the younger, ivy-league educated graduate with an equally stellar GPA, background in finance, (probably 1-2 summer internships at a top firm), and probably better SAT scores than you? Or why would they pick you over the senior at MIT with a perfect GPA, perfect SAT's, and could probably recite black-scholes from memory?
If you can successfully convince someone why, then you have a good chance. These are the types of people you are applying against - thank the recession for this.
If you cannot convince someone of this, I suggest you develop a (very) good golf game and start networking.
FYI, I just graduated from Carnegie Mellon, with the same major as you, internships at Lehman and Morgan Stanley, and I was unsuccessful at this. Keep in mind that I applied over the summer and last fall/winter, before the shit hit the finance-world fan. I do have a job now at a trading firm, but that is beside the point, since it is not a prop shop. No it is not back office so do not even go there.
(Optiver will take anyone, regardless of major, but they only visit top schools, so fill your car with gas, get ready for a road trip, and good luck on their exams - if you fail, you can never apply there for as long as you live.)
Queens: What you are missing is that the 4.0 MIT grad is not gonna be going to the average prop shop or even trading. They will have their pick amongst Google, D.E. Shaw, Jane Street, etc.
In this economy, there may very well be the 4.0 MIT Grad with brains but no connections, looking for a job at a prop shop...
Pretty much what I expected. I do appreciate the quick response!
Yea, Three Remarks: 1) I have a friend whose father is an MD at BB, and he said that they won't even read a resume past the first line if it isn't a target school, simply because there is no lack of competitive applicants, why waste time? 2) I can contest that I have many friends (15+) who have gone/are attending UMICH Ross, which is arguably the best state school undergrad/grad b-school in the nation. The material they cover is an absolute piss show compared to what we cover at MIT. Simple example: UMICH doesn't incorporate calc into econ until 401, while MIT does not teach an intro econ course w/o calc (They actually lump grads/undergrads together on many intro courses), they simply assume that you either know the concepts or will catch on quickly. 3)Why does everyone always say state school, why not just name your school?
MIT.... Leaps and bounds above the rest.... HWYP has no chance next to MIT. Everything is a piss show next to MIT.
Does google pay insanely well?
"You don't join Google to make money, you do it to change the world"
for people they want? better than first year analysts for sure.
I laugh everytime a firm hires an Ivy league turd over an engineer from a top 5 research university. Is it any wonder that Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch are no more? Keep it up IB fools. DRW claims to no longer even hire business/finance people anymore.
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