How to get hired in strats and structuring?

[MNRC]

I've noticed that at Goldman, Morgan Stanley, and other BBs strats and structuring are the most quantitative roles at these firms.

Do you need a PhD to be hired for these roles? I'm currently doing a master's in computer science at a target school and thinking about switching over to applied math. How likely are you to get hired for a srtats or structuring role at a BB with a master's in applied mathematics?

 

[moretodo]

I've noticed that at Goldman, Morgan Stanley, and other BBs strats and structuring are the most quantitative roles at these firms.

Do you need a PhD to be hired for these roles? I'm currently doing a master's in computer science at a target school and thinking about switching over to applied math. How likely are you to get hired for a srtats or structuring role at a BB with a master's in applied mathematics?

In my opinion, they're not the most quantitative roles at a bank.

Either suck up to an employee in these divisions at one of these banks and cajole him/her to give you a strong internal referral or join a Tier 1 MFE program or do both.

 

[MNRC]

In my opinion, they're not the most quantitative roles at a bank.

Either suck up to an employee in these divisions at one of these banks and cajole him/her to give you a strong internal referral or join a Tier 1 MFE program or do both.

I just read through some threads in the forum about structuring and yeah, definitely not a very quantitative role. Strats seem to be more quanty but not by much...

 

[m_ch]

Can anyone point me towards a good source to understand what kind of work is done in a bank's strats department?

 

[financeguy]

Hi guys. To provide a little clarity here, the name "strat" is pretty specific to GS and MS. I don't know much about MS, but at GS strats are either trading strats or sales strats. Trading strats are a lot like modeling quants who sit with the trading desk. They work on pricing models, advise on quantitative risk management issues, and stuff along those lines. Sales strats are what other banks call structurers. They come up with trade ideas and hedging strategies to pitch to customers. At other banks, you'd find people similar to trading strats within the quant group, and people similar to sales strats within the structuring group. Structurers, depending on the bank and the individual, tend to fall somewhere on the spectrum between supporting the trading desk and supporting the sales desk.

 

[Ken Abbott]

If you guys can articulate 6 or 7 key questions, I can probably persuade the head fixed income strat at my firm to write something for this blog.