What are my chances of landing a full-time position as an i-banking analyst or quant trader or trader with only 1 internship??

Hi, I will be a senior in college in the fall at a target school. I am a econ major with a double major in either applied math or statistics. I have a GPA that is above 3.9. My only finance experience will be one with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, a retail brokerage. After I graduate, I will have touched advanced statistics courses that I noticed are similar to those in financial engineering courses. I also have a solid background in probability theory. I am hoping to make a jump into an investment bank in the sales trading or M&A side. I have no clue what my chances are right now. Have you guys heard of anyone making the jump into quant trading and/or sales trading with only a retail brokerage internship? Thanks so much!

15 Comments
 

What are my chances of landing a full-time position as an i-banking analyst or quant trader or trader with only 1 internship??

Do you even know what the difference are between those jobs ?

Quant traders usually have a masters or a PhD and quant trading in general does not require the same skill set as investment banking.

Figure out what you want to do first, then re-asses yourself.

 

Yes, I know the difference and am considering all of them. I will be applying to masters in financial engineering programs aside from trying to get a job straight out of college. I have extensive experience in C++, Matlab, Gauss, R, STATA, PDE, Monte Carlo Simulation, Time Series, Stochastic Processes, the kind of courses I noticed are in demand for the FE program. I noticed about 65% of grads from FE programs go into investment banking. How will the quant job be different than the "regular" banking job? I noticed that salaries average $160,000 for quant guys out of the financial engineering program, which seems to be a little higher than straight-out-of-college guys. Also, I noticed that a good amount of quant guys enter into investment banking as a M&A analyst. Please enlighten me on the differences between what a quant banker and a regular banker would do. Thanks!

 
wallstreet112Yes, I know the difference and am considering all of them. I will be applying to masters in financial engineering programs aside from trying to get a job straight out of college. I have extensive experience in C++, Matlab, Gauss, R, STATA, PDE, Monte Carlo Simulation, Time Series, Stochastic Processes, the kind of courses I noticed are in demand for the FE program. I noticed about 65% of grads from FE programs go into investment banking. How will the quant job be different than the "regular" banking job? I noticed that salaries average $160,000 for quant guys out of the financial engineering program, which seems to be a little higher than straight-out-of-college guys. Also, I noticed that a good amount of quant guys enter into investment banking as a M&A analyst. Please enlighten me on the differences between what a quant banker and a regular banker would do. Thanks!

If you have extensive experience in the areas mentioned above, what's the point of doing a masters in financial engineering? Either you're heavily exaggerating your experience or you basically already have the necessary qualifications to be a quant.

 
reddog23
wallstreet112Yes, I know the difference and am considering all of them. I will be applying to masters in financial engineering programs aside from trying to get a job straight out of college. I have extensive experience in C++, Matlab, Gauss, R, STATA, PDE, Monte Carlo Simulation, Time Series, Stochastic Processes, the kind of courses I noticed are in demand for the FE program. I noticed about 65% of grads from FE programs go into investment banking. How will the quant job be different than the "regular" banking job? I noticed that salaries average $160,000 for quant guys out of the financial engineering program, which seems to be a little higher than straight-out-of-college guys. Also, I noticed that a good amount of quant guys enter into investment banking as a M&A analyst. Please enlighten me on the differences between what a quant banker and a regular banker would do. Thanks!

If you have extensive experience in the areas mentioned above, what's the point of doing a masters in financial engineering? Either you're heavily exaggerating your experience or you basically already have the necessary qualifications to be a quant.

No, I am not exaggerating my experience. I have a major in Math and Statistics, but the reason I want to apply to the financial engineering masters it that salaries will be considerably higher and it is much more refined and direct in what you learn. Even though I have learned the necessary tools, there are still lots of specific industry finance applications you need and the masters program gives a jumpstart. My question is if anyone can describe if sales and trading is different than "traditional" ibanking.

btw, take a look at the placement reports for berkeley MFE grads:

http://mfe.berkeley.edu/careers/placement.html

 
Best Response
wallstreet112Yes, I know the difference and am considering all of them. I will be applying to masters in financial engineering programs aside from trying to get a job straight out of college. I have extensive experience in C++, Matlab, Gauss, R, STATA, PDE, Monte Carlo Simulation, Time Series, Stochastic Processes, the kind of courses I noticed are in demand for the FE program. I noticed about 65% of grads from FE programs go into investment banking. How will the quant job be different than the "regular" banking job? I noticed that salaries average $160,000 for quant guys out of the financial engineering program, which seems to be a little higher than straight-out-of-college guys. Also, I noticed that a good amount of quant guys enter into investment banking as a M&A analyst. Please enlighten me on the differences between what a quant banker and a regular banker would do. Thanks!

You sound retarded.

Under my tutelage, you will grow from boys to men. From men into gladiators. And from gladiators into SWANSONS.
 
TropicalFruit> I noticed about 65% of grads from FE programs go into investment banking.

Where the fuck did you get that statistic?

"Where the f***"? Why dont you click on this link:

http://mfe.berkeley.edu/careers/placement.html

and scroll to the bottom where it says job industries. This is for Berkeley however and not for the lower end schools. Albeit it is 61% this year, the 4% difference amounts to about one person due to the small amount of people accepted into the program.

 
wallstreet112
TropicalFruit> I noticed about 65% of grads from FE programs go into investment banking.

Where the fuck did you get that statistic?

"Where the f***"? Why dont you click on this link:

http://mfe.berkeley.edu/careers/placement.html

and scroll to the bottom where it says job industries. This is for Berkeley however and not for the lower end schools. Albeit it is 61% this year, the 4% difference amounts to about one person due to the small amount of people accepted into the program.

Look at the pie chart above it that says "Job Functions". Investment Banking isn't even on there. The percentage of people who go into investment banking after getting an MFE is really small. None of the quant/programming skills you get out of an MFE help you in investment banking because investment banking doesn't require those skills. S&T on the other hand does.

You don't seem to know the difference between investment banking and sales & trading.

 

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