Credit Risk(Basel) vs Mortgage backed securities quant position

[infinity]

Hi,

I have recently graduated with a Ph.D in math, I have interviewed with two firms one of them with a major credit card company for a role in Credit risk modelling and another one as a Quant with a major bank in the MBS securities team, which one is more lucrative in the long term. From what I have heard the regulatory environment is heavy these days and Risk analytics will only grow, while as I would still like to make a transition to a hedge fund role in the near future. Any advice?

 

[Liam]

Hi,

I have recently graduated with a Ph.D in math, I have interviewed with two firms one of them with a major credit card company for a role in Credit risk modelling and another one as a Quant with a major bank in the MBS securities team, which one is more lucrative in the long term. From what I have heard the regulatory environment is heavy these days and Risk analytics will only grow, while as I would still like to make a transition to a hedge fund role in the near future. Any advice?

First thoughts would be stay away from MBS, particularly if the housing bubble bursts. What happens if you take their offer, then the housing bubble bursts (could happen soon)? In finance long term prospects are always based on the inaccurate presumption that current market (MBS is currently good) will stay like that until the end of time. Don't listen to their sales talk. So your position could be made redundant within months of starting. Then what? It's possible you wind up on whatever nonquant team they dump you on, perhaps doing something your dumb bosses regard as modelling, don't have enough experience to move on and never be a quant again and even wind up unemployable as suddenly you've gone from suitable job to wrong job with no way out. It's a nice idea to suck it up, but even at major banks some of the dumbass decisions they make in these situations are appalling - in theory they'll find another quant position, but these aren't as readily available as other roles. This isn't scaremongering because of the credit crunch - it was happening long before then, so be careful.