Internship Help

[nociton]

I am a rising junior with decent gpa(3.73) in computational applied math. Problem is I am from a state far from target school. What sort of companies and internships should i be looking into for the upcoming summer 2011 that will help me enhance my resume to hopefully get into a top mfe or phd program? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Connor]

First choice would be something related to your specific interests, but anything finance or economics related would be good for MFE. The question is whether any internship is better than say taking extra summer classes; debatable but still think I would recommend an internship.

For PhD, being a research assistant would probably be more valuable on your application than any internship.

 

[DominiConnor]

Buy a copy of Walkenbach and learn Excel, do the whole bloody thing, VBA especially.

Create a CV that says in effect "I'm a shit hot Excel guy, who also knows a bit of finance, you want me to help sort out the clusterfuck of spreadsheets on your trading floor". Pay me $1K per week and some of the loudest complaints from your traders will go quiet for a while.

 

[jason mellone]

definitely follow dc's advice. being a powerful vba coder will really help you along wrt front office and being junior.

don't worry so much about the school you attended. if you're not top tier, it doesn't really matter. just try, and work harder to compensate.

learn vba, then once you are very comfortable with that, maybe challenge yourself. pick up hull and familiarize yourself with some of the basics.

just apply and knock on doors.

if you want someone to critique your cv who was recently in a position like yours feel free to reach out to me: jason at jasonmellone.com

 

[euroazn]

Is C# or any other .NET language a valid substitute for VBA?
Because... god... I hate visual basic >.<

 

[Connor]

Not in this case because you are talking about using VBA in Excel

 

[euroazn]

You can effectively have the same outcome if you use VSTO, though... right?

:| I'm probably completely wrong xD

 

[Andy Nguyen]

VSTO is based on the .NET platform. You have to install it as additional package on top of it and most likely use Visual Studio to develop.
VBA Excel comes standard with every Office installation.

 

[euroazn]

You have to install it as additional package

Yes, this is correct, but is this a big issue? Sorry for going so off topic.

 

[Connor]

Any employer is almost guaranteed to have Office, but will they have the additional package for VSTO?

Plus they are going to be looking for someone with VBA/Excel skills, not VSTO.

 

[euroazn]

That's unfortunate. I hate VB that much :'(
Oh well I'll survive haha.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

The guy I used to work with on a prop trading desk at big IB is VBA/Excel specialist. Don't laugh.
He makes really good money and he skills have come through time and again for many of the essential trading tools we have.

You may not know this but A LOT of trading desks are still running on old Excel sheets. If it works, there isn't going a chance for them to go away from it.

And it's not like you will become an Excel/VBA guru anytime soon. Like everything else, it takes time and skill to be an expert of one thing.

 

[euroazn]

Thanks for the info.
However, the fact remains that VB = :wall
lol