Career / Education Advice

[Mike__g]

Hi All,
I’m having some trouble deciding on a next step, hoping some of you may have some insight.
I have an undergraduate degree in finance with a minor in economics in a decent, but mostly average, private school with a pretty bad GPA (2.9). I just sat for CFA L3 in May, awaiting results. I have 6 yrs experience in a “production monitoring” (sort of trading operations if you’re not familiar) role at a top tier quant hedge fund. My role is not overly technical, and it really doesn’t require one to know much about finance / trading aside from the basics.

I’ve taken some initiative in learning python, and I’ve built a few projects including one that is used by my team to automate a process.

I’m realizing that I really enjoy programming, and the mathematical side of finance. I only did the most basic calculus and algebra in college required to earn the degree, same with statistics.

I’m really interested in trading, specifically if I could use data and statistics to make decisions. Interested in all forms of this including quant portfolio management/ risk management.

Do I have any chance of making it into a MFE or operations research program? Do admission offices consider MOOC’s to make up for my lack of calc / linear algebra if I was to try and go for an MFE? Any other way to gain prerequisite knowledge enough to make it in? Maybe my background could be of use without an MFE if I just get really good with python/ build some more projects?

I sort of goofed in undergrad, but I know for sure that I can handle the math if I actually tried.

 

[MRoss]

I'm not sure how to put this politely but I'll be blunt. MFE is very very difficult, even for wicked smart people.

With a 2.9GPA I'm concerned you will be overwhelmed and in an awful emotional and intellectual spot.

But here is the good news: You have some amazing experience and at a great firm. Use that to find your way into a role that is slightly closer to the traders and eventually you should be able to push your way onto the trading floor.

I did this on the sell-side, and I've help people do this on the buy-side. Way easier than starting the MFE process from scratch.

UNLESS you really want to be a hard core quant. Then MFE is the way to go.

 

[Mike__g]

I'm not sure how to put this politely but I'll be blunt. MFE is very very difficult, even for wicked smart people.

With a 2.9GPA I'm concerned you will be overwhelmed and in an awful emotional and intellectual spot.

But here is the good news: You have some amazing experience and at a great firm. Use that to find your way into a role that is slightly closer to the traders and eventually you should be able to push your way onto the trading floor.

I did this on the sell-side, and I've help people do this on the buy-side. Way easier than starting the MFE process from scratch.

UNLESS you really want to be a hard core quant. Then MFE is the way to go.

Appreciate your honesty.
So yeah, I don’t exactly want to be a hardcore quant, but I am also genuinely interested in learning more statistics, programming, and math. I’m looking for a way to accomplish this and also learn skills necessary to land a better role.
My 2.9 GPA was certainly not due to ability, I was very immature at the time. I’m not a genius, but I’m pretty sure I can handle it if I put my mind to it.
Any chance you’d be open to connecting off of here? I’d like to hear a bit more about your approach to making it to the trading floor.