Hello All!

[chris lake]

Hello All,
Nice to find a forum like this on here!My name is Chris and I'm a recent Masters' graduate in Electrical Engineering and currently working as a Network Engineer for a major company.
Recently I've been wanting to switch to the financial industry badly (have always wanted to but never really went through with it). Now that I have started working I realize that engineering jobs can be a little boring and I want something more dynamic and fast paced. Moreover, living here in Kansas is killing me .

Does anyone have any tips as to how I can break into the financial sector? I see there are quite a few technology jobs available in various financial institutions. I would be open to financial jobs as well but am unaware as to whether they would even consider me if I applied, given my background?
To give you a little of my background, I've worked with signal processing in electrical engineering (worked with echo cancellers and beamforming) which involves a LOT of linear algebra and I really liked my Math classes. I have worked with MATLAB and C++ for most of my course of study. Would any of the following skills be useful to enter the financial sector? I notice Excel VBA and SQL being mentioned a lot in this field. Would learning these increase my chances? I am quite comfortable with various programming languages so learning these would be no problem.

Anyway I think that's quite a bit for an introduction! I'd be very grateful for any information I could get from anybody. Nice to meet everyone!

Chris

 

[Yuriy]

Acually, Electrical Engineering is one of the possible backgrounds to enter into Financial Industry
I always think of Dr. Shreve who has a Masters in EE.

This is because electrical engineers know/study stochastic/signal processing that come useful in Finance.

You can do one of two things: get some work experience and appy to financial companies that hire people with your background (just search job websites), or get a degree in financial engineering/finance/financial math and then look for a job

 

[Vic_Siqiao]

yes, many of our current students have EE background. thats also a popular major.

 

[Rachit]

Your background as an Electrical Engineer should not be a deterrent if you want to switch to Finance.

 

[naeron]

You are all set to get dirty on wall street. I also had my undergrad in EE. Learn VBA and Excel. the most important course will be stochastic analysis for finance. if you do this you are all set.

 

[Yuriy]

Stochastic Modeling/Processes, by the way, is a very important part of Electrical/Systems Engineering
So if you understand it, you are half way through FE

 

[Wallstyouth]

Hello All,
Nice to find a forum like this on here!My name is Chris and I'm a recent Masters' graduate in Electrical Engineering and currently working as a Network Engineer for a major company.
Recently I've been wanting to switch to the financial industry badly (have always wanted to but never really went through with it). Now that I have started working I realize that engineering jobs can be a little boring and I want something more dynamic and fast paced. Moreover, living here in Kansas is killing me .

Does anyone have any tips as to how I can break into the financial sector? I see there are quite a few technology jobs available in various financial institutions. I would be open to financial jobs as well but am unaware as to whether they would even consider me if I applied, given my background?
To give you a little of my background, I've worked with signal processing in electrical engineering (worked with echo cancellers and beamforming) which involves a LOT of linear algebra and I really liked my Math classes. I have worked with MATLAB and C++ for most of my course of study. Would any of the following skills be useful to enter the financial sector? I notice Excel VBA and SQL being mentioned a lot in this field. Would learning these increase my chances? I am quite comfortable with various programming languages so learning these would be no problem.

Anyway I think that's quite a bit for an introduction! I'd be very grateful for any information I could get from anybody. Nice to meet everyone!

Chris

Try apply for a job with BIDS Exchange or TradeBotSystems I believe there both based out in Kansas

 

[manojav]

Hello all

Hi, My name is Manojav. I am quite pleased to discover a forum of this type. I have an undergrad degree in computer science. I plan to apply for Masters in Financial Mathematics. I have experience in designing systems based on c++ and MatLab. I have done some research on the programs, curriculum and colleges. I believe that I have covered the math prerequisites, but my lack of financial domain knowledge can be a dampener. Any suggestions and guidance are most welcome. Thanks again. Happy to be on this forum. - Manojav.

 

[Yuriy]

Hi, My name is Manojav. I am quite pleased to discover a forum of this type. I have an undergrad degree in computer science. I plan to apply for Masters in Financial Mathematics. I have experience in designing systems based on c++ and MatLab. I have done some research on the programs, curriculum and colleges. I believe that I have covered the math prerequisites, but my lack of financial domain knowledge can be a dampener. Any suggestions and guidance are most welcome. Thanks again. Happy to be on this forum. - Manojav.

Take an intro finance course if possible, or read a book on introductory finance. That way you will know what is going on in finance

 

[chris lake]

thanks to everyone who replied! I've started reading some finance books myself so far and am trying to practice my VBA skills. let's hope these lead somewhere!

Thanks,
Chris

 

[Yuriy]

thanks to everyone who replied! I've started reading some finance books myself so far and am trying to practice my VBA skills. let's hope these lead somewhere!

Thanks,
Chris

Best of Luck

 

[Andy Nguyen]

VBA is de factor language of front office so learn it. It's easy to learn but you can still pick up new things years down the road. Learn VB. NET as well.

Of course, an MFE will open more doors for you. With only IT skills, one can easily be pigeonholed into IT support roles.

 

[manojav]

Take an intro finance course if possible, or read a book on introductory finance. That way you will know what is going on in finance

Thanks Yuiry,

I have been reading books, blogs and online articles.
But how do i convey my interest and intent in my applications ?
I don't have any formal certification or experience in the finance domain.

Will admissions committee consider me on the face value of my proactive efforts?

Thanks,
- Manojav.