Age in the world of Quant

[Tiasilverman]

Hi guys,
I have two questions for you: how much the age is important to become a quant (age at the first job) and how much the curriculum is important? I wanna have a bachelor in management engineering and two masters (finance and financial engineering) at 26 years old, will I be to old? will my curriculum be competitive?

 

[Daniel Duffy]

What age will you be when you enter industry?

Personally, I would do a bigger MSc than 2 smaller ones.

 

[Tiasilverman]

I'll be 26 when I enter industry

 

[TheComplexUnit]

26? That will give you a mere 41 years on the US job market. Nobody would want that kind of cursory commitment!

 

[Tiasilverman]

?????

 

[Tiasilverman]

Am I too old at 26???

 

[Ken Abbott]

Am I too old at 26???

No. Not at all.

 

[TheComplexUnit]

?????

It's sarcasm.

67 is the age of retirement in the US for people in our age bracket.

 

[Tiasilverman]

I have read you are a Phd student, do you think that a phd is better than two masters degree (management engineering and financial engineering) for a quant job?

 

[Daniel Duffy]

I'll be 26 when I enter industry

It's sarcasm.

67 is the age of retirement in the US for people in our age bracket.

Also in the Netherlands. I am 62 and I intend to retire at 70 (stop now to do trout fishing, play golf, swim with dolphins and drink real Dublin Guinness is not everything)

By the time you reach 67, retirement age will be 75. No kidding. Sarcasm included :D

 

[bigbadwolf]

By the time you reach 67, retirement age will be 75. No kidding.

Retirement age will always be tantalisingly out of reach -- when you reach 75, the'll have upped it to 80.

 

[Daniel Duffy]

Retirement age will always be tantalisingly out of reach -- when you reach 75, the'll have upped it to 80.

let's hope so

 

[bigbadwolf]

let's hope so

Did you ever read Heller's Catch-22, where bomber high command kept upping the number of flying missions needed to retire from the fray?

 

[TheComplexUnit]

Retirement age will always be tantalisingly out of reach -- when you reach 75, the'll have upped it to 80.

Sounds Zenoesque.

 

[bigbadwolf]

Sounds Zenoesque.

Yes, but his series (involving Achilles and the tortoise) converges. In Catch-22 no pilot could ever meet the increasing quota of bombing raids because that's why they were being increased -- to make sure no-one qualified. Likewise for those chasing the chimera of state-funded old-age pensions.

 

[TheComplexUnit]

Also in the Netherlands. I am 62 and I intend to retire at 70 (stop now to do trout fishing, play golf, swim with dolphins and drink real Dublin Guinness is not everything)

By the time you reach 67, retirement age will be 75. No kidding. Sarcasm included :D

With the way things are going I do not project that I'll outlive my own (yet to materialise) career in finance.

Insofar as I aim for longevity, it might be better to stick around in academia.

 

[TheComplexUnit]

I have read you are a Phd student, do you think that a phd is better than two masters degree (management engineering and financial engineering) for a quant job?

Yes. But that alone should not be the incentive to do one.

Incidentally, I also have three MScs.

 

[Daniel Duffy]

With the way things are going I do not project that I'll outlive my own (yet to materialise) career in finance.

Insofar as I aim for longevity, it might be better to stick around in academia.

Death by a

Did you ever read Heller's Catch-22, where bomber high command kept upping the number of flying missions needed to retire from the fray?

I did not read it yet. Going to the limit solves a lot of problems. e.g. assured cash-flows.

 

[C S]

Death by a

I did not read it yet. Going to the limit solves a lot of problems. e.g. assured cash-flows.

You can watch the movie with Alan Arkin.

 

[Liam]

I think a point people miss with this age thing is how many market rises and falls over the 40+ years you work. While jobs markets have changed drastically over the last 30 years in many respects the way economy moves hasn't - ie cycles of 7-10 years.

It's a slight divergence from the question, but it influences how you should think - nothing wrong with wanting to be a quant but in terms of the age thing the cycles you go through are more important. A) unless you're unsuited to quant math you'll be graduated aged 22-26 and employers won't care as that's expected B) you should care more about where you are on the economic cycle curve. This determines how you'll do overall and it means at a bare minimum you'll have 3 or 4 testing periods in your career. That's assuming you were to fit perfectly into the quant world, a scenario which can be tricky within itself - how do you know you won't suddenly be off-track in terms of where employers expect you? This is usually the time where quality people in finance can fail without it necessarily being their fault or even if they know the market inside out.

Or put it another way - in 40 years time you won't bitch about not graduating sooner, you may even slightly regret not delaying it so you got more time in uni and more time to develop useful technical skills. You'll probably bitch though about the one market turn that got the better of you and hopefully mostly you'll be grateful for whatever helped you out of the rut, whether it be finding something else to sink your teeth into or a simply meeting the right person in your life or a good mentor.

Worrying about your age when you graduate, particularly not being a mature student, can be a little like Will in the Inbetweeners worrying that going to Centre Parks for one day during exam revision might ruin the next 10-15 years of his life...