A critical quant program career choice. Please help a confused soul

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mercury

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I've received an offer to join the programme in Q. Finance from Cranfield University, UK and EDHEC France. I'm in my late 30's and I'm a little worried about what offer (if any) I may get once finished (visa and languages are taken care of).

They both have a career center but EDHEC also has an intership (Cranfield only research project and probably is not always there), which seems a +, but Cranfield is a better University (rank wise and not sure how worth a rank is) and thus you would expect higher chances of placement. But when I spoke to someone at the Cranf. career center I did not get a great answer (or was it just my perception?).

I was also considering to drop both of them in favor of Smurfit, Dublin, since the job market there might be better. But I'm not sure if that makes sense (or if true at all).

I'm a little confused and I'd love to hear your suggestions. If some has graduated from one of them I'd really appreciate if (s)he wants to share something with me.

thanks to all of you. It's a wonderful site & network
 
I don't know enough about you to give a really precise answer.

It must be said that neither of them are seen as top flight quant schools, and the 'rank' you talk about refers to the university as a whole, so that basically means brand to put on your CV.

Also, the place you study and the place you work only correlate mildly, and on top of that the Irish job market is not a place I'd like to be any time soon. It's not really nice anywhere of course, but Dublin has neither the cost advantages of India, or the scale of London.
Short version is you may end up on Indian pay with European cost of living.

Again Smurfit is not a bad school generally, but I must say I never even thought of it a quant school.

Why not do stats @ the LSE or Imperial ?
 
I agree with you on the EDHEC internship being a great opportunity, and I think you getting an unsettling response from the Cranfield career services is a bad sign.

An important consideration of course is what exactly you are interested in doing. I don't know anything about the Dublin job market but would be surprised if there were abundant quant finance job openings there.

I think it depends on where you want a job. If in the UK I would recommend Cranfield, in continental Europe then go for EDHEC.

Overall I'm personally leaning towards EDHEC because with Cranfield you are competing with a number of other top programs in and around London.

Dominic beat me to the reply and I would recommend his advice over mine :D
 
@ Connor & Dominic Thanks a lot for your reply. Much appreciated. This W/E I should have time to think it over, ponder your suggestions and hopefully....

Thanks again.
 
I've received an offer from the university of Luxembourg to join the following programme:
http://www.lsf.lu/eng/Program/Master-of-Science-in-Banking-and-Finance

is the only one where I heard almost 100% placement at month 0 (and I'm ok as far as visa requirements). Am I doing the right thing? Am I missing any important detail that will make me regret the choice later?

I'd really appreciate your thoughts. Thanks A LOT!
 
It looks like a neat program course-wise, but not quantitative. Looks like it would be great for getting a job in banking, and I imagine after completing it you would be looking at a job in Luxembourg, France, or Switzerland.

Not sure about its reputation globally as I have only heard about it from my friend from Luxembourg. I'm kindof worried about your job mobility outside of Luxembourg for your first job afterward.

I hope your French and German are excellent!

DominiConnor said:
Why not do stats @ the LSE or Imperial ?
Click to expand...

I second Dominic's question. I think if you are 100% wanting to do quant finance you need to look at some other programs.
 
Connor, let me 1st thank you for your insights. You showed intelligence and knowledge.

the program is not much quant. but relocate long term to LUX for me would be good (even if this means to work as a quant on the side).
You raised a good pt. about its weight outside of LUX and I was wondering if your info. support that:

(a) once you have a job in LUX the chances of losing it are small,
(b) (even now in LUX) unemployment is low (4.5%) and thus finding another job is not as difficult and
(c) even if you want to relocate your last job should overweight that of the Univers. (which in the end does not seem that bad since a good # of prof. is from top (French but not only) university).

Thanks again!

PS: I think Dominic is a very experienced, responsible and competent man and his suggestions make a lot of sense. But I was wondering how many headhunters are like him! and would not just, for instance, consider Cranfield > Imperial because of the ranking. Thus making Cranfield a (cheaper and) more effective choice.

The thing I do not understand is why stats & not Quant fin. directly. I'm sure there is a specific logic behind his suggestion but unfortunately, I'm not as wise as you are, and I do not see it (but I'd appreciate if someone enlightens me). Thanks again guys, the site and quality of people is really remarkable!
 
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