UIUC ECE to Quant/HFT

Hi,

I am currently a rising junior ECE w/ STAT minor at UIUC. GPA: 3.9

Anyways, I am looking to land a Quant/HFT type of jobs when I graduate.

I have zero internship experience if it matters.

I have a few questions:

  1. Do I need a Phd to get those kind of jobs? I like to think that UIUC is a target school of some sort. Would a Bachelor's be fine?

  2. I am doing ECE w/ STAT minor, should I add in some finance courses? Is it necessary?

  3. What are the salaries like?

  4. What are the other jobs that I may qualify for as an ECE major?

 

Interested to hear IlliniProgrammer's insight as well. Meantime:

  1. Not necessarily. There definitely will be certain roles that require more advanced degrees, but plenty of shops take in people with just Bachelors. UIUC is definitely a target school, especially moreso with Chicago firms.

  2. As a general rule of thumb, you don't need to have much finance background, because you can learn this stuff on the job and it's more or less look it up through a book. Wouldn't hurt to read/brush up on basic options theory (check out Options, Futures and other derivatives by Hull). Rather than finance, I would recommend courses such as prob/stats, and maybe some CS related. (I'm not sure how much overlap there is for CS and ECE @ UIUC). If you can pickup R, Python, and get more proficient in stats, that should give you a solid legup in this realm.

  3. You're going to hate this answer, but the answer is, it depends. Some shops are low base, but high bonus, some of them the inverse, etc. I would imagine an average total comp for a 1st year can range anywhere from $80k - $100k ballpark though? Take what I say with a grain of salt, it's only an estimate from a limited sample size.

  4. You can probably land most trading gigs given your background. I would actually say HFT is struggling right now and it's the mid frequency shops that are crushing it. Research what you're interested in and pursue that. I was really interested in currencies when I graduated, but I ended up going to a shop that focused on fixed income. Ironically, I wanted to do quant trading but currently at a firm that's more discretionary lol.

Disclaimer: I'm only 2 years into the industry. Guys like IlliniProgrammer and others are probably much more qualified to provide their opinion.

"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity"
 
Best Response
  1. A PhD will open more doors, but you shouldn't get one specifically to go into trading. You will probably be competitive for some jobs straight out of undergrad, and a masters might be sufficient otherwise. If you're genuinely excited to spend another 5+ years in school and doing research, then you should look into doing a PhD.

  2. I don't think you need any formal finance coursework, but perhaps a single course in corporate finance wouldn't hurt in order to give you some basic familiarity. I'd also highly recommend you review Hull's book to familiarize yourself with the basics.

  3. As above. I'd guess around 100k but don't have much data to back up that estimate.

  4. I assume you already know the traditional ECE jobs, and mean other jobs in the finance space? You're going to be pretty limited to either trading or quant/analytics type jobs. That said, this represents a pretty broad swath of a trading floor and there are plenty of different products to work in so there are a lot of opportunities.

 

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