I am an aspiring quant who is feeling a little lost and is seeking advice
First of all, thank you for reading this. This is my first post, but I've been a long-time lurker here. Your advice is greatly appreciated.
Before I ask for advice, let me give you some background. I recently graduated with a B.A. in Math and Economics from a large state school on the east coast. I knew I wanted to be a quant after I took a math finance course for undergrads in my sophomore year and did well. In the following years, I completed all the prerequisite courses for the masters program in quant finance at my school.
Unfortunately, there are now a few things holding me back. I lost my way in my second and third years, got very poor grades, and gathered no work experience. After maintaining a 4.0 in my senior year, my GPA upon graduating was a 3.35 / 4.00.
At this point, I am utterly confused about what I should do. My plan is to apply for masters programs for the Fall 2014 semester. Before that, I intend to complete the online certification C++ offered through QuantNet. I took the GRE and received a perfect score on the quant section.
My main concern is related to my work experience. I recently accepted a job as a statistical (SAS) programmer for a clinical data management company, just to avoid remaining idle after college. My true intention was to gain experience that would be relevant to my goal of being a quant. My question is: what kind of job would best complement that goal, given my qualifications, and what is the best way to pursue those kinds of jobs?
you could probably get into a solid MFE. that is, if you can't network into something and think you need the rebranding/OCR.
You can say 3.4. And like Ipso said, I'd shoot for MFE or masters of quantitative finance sooner rather than later.
As the guys above have already recommended, I would say to pursue a MFE. Your job situation will actually benefit you. You'll be using SAS all day conducting statistical analysis. Sure, it may not be on financial data but the skills are easily transferable.
A MFE may not be the golden ticket in your case... feel free to PM me and we can chat.
Couldn't PM you, but I sent you an email. Thanks!
Couldn't PM you, but I sent you an email. Thanks!
MFE is really not worth it unless its from a top 5 school IMO. Contact some recruiters...
Please don't say on your SoP that you want to be a quant... Figure out what type of quant jobs out there... I think the statistical programmer is a very nice position.
Remember this, a good number of quant jobs are taken by either PhDs or CS majors (BS or MS)... so your job will help stress that you have the programming skills...
I went to a top MFE program and most of the kids didn't get job in quant trading/analysis (perhaps 10 of us)... most of us ended up in risk, trading, sales or structuring... so keep in mind that MFE will not guarantee a quant job...
If you are really really set for a quant job, get a PhD in operations research, math, statistics or CS... you will have better chances becoming a quant trader or researcher.
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