High GPA Non Target No Internship?
Hi. I'm a rising senior at a large non target research university majoring in math and econ with a CS minor, 3.9+ GPA. Instead of an internship I've been spending this summer working on my honors thesis in math (algebraic geometry) and I'm wondering what kind of disadvantage this puts me at in terms of getting a job. I really enjoy studying mathematics but I would also like to make some money at some point in my life.
I find derivative products really interesting, especially credit derivatives, and from what I've read structuring seems like a cool field. That being said, I've also read that getting a job in finance pretty much requires having an internship.
Is it possible for someone with my profile to get a job in some kind of credit derivative structuring at a bank (or really any other quanty finance job) and if so are those jobs good places to start a career? I plan to go to grad school in stats or math eventually, but if possible I'd like to make a bit of money and get some work experience first.
Any thoughts on my situation would be greatly appreciated.
bump
pls
pls I’m begging you
Anything is possible as long as you network now and start preparing for interviews for Ft. They will be starting now or in the very near future.
Thanks.
you seem very smart, so my advice is to network and speak with people at different banks. best of luck!
Thanks for the advice.
its true...not having an internship will hurt you and limit your opportunities.
however, if you are super smart and a math whiz, then networking will allow you to communicate that...and vol desks, and derivative structuring desks will be interested.
However, you will probably need to get a masters in financial engineering first. So, my suggestion is to goto one of the financial engineering masters programs either at Columbia, NYU or Baruch. All of these programs are feeders into quant roles at the banks.
Thank you for the advice. Do MFE programs usually require finance experience first though?
nope
Yes, your background is actually sought out for very math-heavy desks, like in rates derivates trading and structuring. At my bank, I'm pretty sure one of the rate swaption traders has his Ph.D. in mathematics and the rates trading and structuring analysts for my class were both STEM majors. One had no background in finance whatsoever prior to the internship. Credit Structuring I would say generally requires less mathematics to be succesful in (even though the products do involve substantial mathematics).
The bad news is that most full-time spots in these roles are filled by people with an internship. In order to get an S&T role out of college, that would require some heavy, heavy networking.
If you want to be a trading Strat, that often requires a master degree in comp sci or math first, but you come in as an associate.
You could alternatively apply for work at a quant fund (Two Sigma, Jane Street, AQR). Those actually pay better than S&T analyst roles out of college ($200k vs $100k) but are more coding heavy than math-heavy from my understanding.
Either way, you sound like a smart and hardworking dude so keep grinding and you should be fine.
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