Non-finance careers with a quantitative finance MSc

[KaloMil]

I have spent my last 3 years doing a Bachelor in econometrics and next year I will (most likely) be doing a Quantitative Finance MSc at a top 10 university in the world, located in Europe. While I know quant finance offers good prospects pay-wise, I do not find it very interesting, also I will feel like a bad person working in the sphere, due to the nature of it. I have almost no work experience and while I will most definitely be searching for a job in quant finance, I want to have options for jobs in different spheres. Can anyone give me advice on what he/she thinks might be a good secondary job field to search for, given my background, or am I solely limited to finance-related jobs? As a side note, I am not interested in academia.

 

[AppliedMath]

Don't worry about feeling like a bad person. The bad stuff only happens at the best companies. Lol. Just don't apply to a top company and you'll never become a slimy, economy-tanker. Problem solved? Also, If you don't want a direct Quant Finance job, don't do a Quant Finance degree. It will look strange on your CV anyway. Applying for: Software Engineer ... Education: MFE!

I will (most likely) be doing a Quantitative Finance MSc at a top 10 university in the world, located in Europe. While I know quant finance offers good prospects pay-wise, I do not find it very interesting​

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Makes no sense. Was the Quant MSc the only way to get to that university if you "don't find quant interesting". Lean into your corporate finance and statistics courses. You'll have many options as long as you craft a good CV at the end of it all.

 

[KaloMil]

Don't worry about feeling like a bad person. The bad stuff only happens at the best companies. Lol. Just don't apply to a top company and you'll never become a slimy, economy-tanker. Problem solved? Also, If you don't want a direct Quant Finance job, don't do a Quant Finance degree. It will look strange on your CV anyway. Applying for: Software Engineer ... Education: MFE!

I will (most likely) be doing a Quantitative Finance MSc at a top 10 university in the world, located in Europe. While I know quant finance offers good prospects pay-wise, I do not find it very interesting​

​

Makes no sense. Was the Quant MSc the only way to get to that university if you "don't find quant interesting". Lean into your corporate finance and statistics courses. You'll have many options as long as you craft a good CV at the end of it all.

Thank you for the reply. I will most definitely be applying to quant finance positions, I just have some reservations that it will get boring fast (But as I have no work experience, I have no way of verifying this yet, other than reading people's opinions on the topic). I am more asking about what alternatives to quant finance jobs are there, given that I possess a decent quant finance/mathematics/econometrics degree. For example, I know engineering is probably not plausible, but is it realistic to expect a position in a software engineering job, or other mathematics-intensive fields.

 

[Paul Lopez]

I have spent my last 3 years doing a Bachelor in econometrics and next year I will (most likely) be doing a Quantitative Finance MSc at a top 10 university in the world, located in Europe. While I know quant finance offers good prospects pay-wise, I do not find it very interesting, also I will feel like a bad person working in the sphere, due to the nature of it. I have almost no work experience and while I will most definitely be searching for a job in quant finance, I want to have options for jobs in different spheres. Can anyone give me advice on what he/she thinks might be a good secondary job field to search for, given my background, or am I solely limited to finance-related jobs? As a side note, I am not interested in academia.

Why did you get the econometrics degree? Statistical degree with a heavy leaning toward econ/finance, and yet you don't find finance so interesting. What do you find interesting then? You can certainly put your statistical knowledge toward something like biology if you find it more interesting. You just have to learn a bit about the field you like if it won't be econ/finance related.

 

[KaloMil]

Why did you get the econometrics degree? Statistical degree with a heavy leaning toward econ/finance, and yet you don't find finance so interesting. What do you find interesting then? You can certainly put your statistical knowledge toward something like biology if you find it more interesting. You just have to learn a bit about the field you like if it won't be econ/finance related.

I got it mainly because I wanted to do mathematics, but more practical stuff and less theory. Luckily, neither the econometrics, nor the quant finance MSc I am going to do are very involved in finance, and are both mostly math+statistics.