Career advice & current developments

[FedericoM]

I have two questions for you guys:

1) What's the likelihood of being admitted to the graduate program from a top financial firm with no previous internship within the financial industry?

2) Trading fixed income products electronically is a growth area. Goldman’s electronic bond trading platform was launched a few months ago. Last week the Wall Street Journal reported that Morgan Stanley was following Goldman in automating its fixed income business.

Which skills are needed to work with electronic trading?
Do you think there will be a higher demand of MFE / Quant related graduates due to the adoption of trading platforms in big financial institutions?​

Thanks!​

 

[Andy Nguyen]

1) Just to give you some ballpark numbers.
https://www.quantnet.com/threads/barclays-107-000-applications-for-1-500-positions-last-year.8606/
Remember that finance positions attract applicants wide and far. Even people with art history major from Ivy school apply so it's a lot of competition.
2) I think Dodd-Frank regulation would have a direct and wide effect on the career prospect of MFE grads.
To me, front ending the next hot trend is a hit/miss thing. By the time you master the technical skills for that hot trend, it may be outdated. So the right question to ask is what technical skills will serve you in the long term, in bull or bear markets.

 

[FedericoM]

Thanks Andy.
The numbers are really incredible and tell us how fierce competition can be.
Though it is true that history or literary major can apply for finance positions, I think they do not have (or should have) a big possibility to work in a higly quantitative field such as Finance.