In the way of Introduction...

[quantyst]

Hi. I am new to this forum and may just as well throw in a question.

Question: Does anyone have any insight about the kinds of QUANT jobs available in this part of the world? Or jobs similar to quant type?

I am willing to leave my current job for a decent quant job in New York City, or elsewhere (as a last resort). But with no industry experience, what are my chances for landing an entry level quant job?

I give my advance thanks for anyone's answer.

 

[SteveTownsend]

Question: Does anyone have any insight about the kinds of QUANT jobs available in this part of the world? Or jobs similar to quant type?

Hmm, not much response huh? This forum is NYC-centric, I don't recall seeing anybody from LA posting before.

My suggestion would be to take a look for openings on the job search engines (dice.com, monster.com, maybe efinancialcareers.com) for keyword "quantitative, quant" and narrow the search to your location. See what pops up.

Other ideas - what investment banks and hedge funds do you know have offices in your area? Rating agencies, mutual fund companies, insurers also hire quants and risk managers. Anybody managing money is a possible. What about money managers for UCLA's or USC's endowments? Hard for me to believe there's not a whole bunch of stuff to get you started. Certainly some in the Bay Area (Barra, BofA). Locate a local financial engineering or finmath program and talk to the people who run it - where do they place their interns?

 

[Andy Nguyen]

it's funny, most of the graduates of UCB FE program intern/work in NYC. That just shows you how small the market in West coast is compared to Wall Street.
That's not to say if you are inclined to stay in West coast for whatever reason, you can't have choices. Barclays come to mind. And region office of most big players. Add hundred of hedge funds, asset managements firms to mind.

By the way, where did you get your MS Math Finance degree from ? Isn't it your ticket to the quant job market right there ?

 

[quantyst]

Thank you Andy and SteveTownsend for your responses. I will attempt to carry out some of your suggestions.