Relative low GPA from a non-elite University

[Aber]

I will soon graduate from Royal Inst. of Technology in Stockholm with masters degree in Applied and Computational Mathematics (Financial Mathematics track). When using online GPA converter I will graduate with a US GPA roughly around 3.5 (between 3.45 and 3.55 depending on how my thesis and last few courses will be graded) .

I have been a student assistant (18-22 hours a week) in Market Risk in SEB (non-quant but technical demanding position) for the past 2 years.

What are my chances to get job interview for quant positions in Banks or Hedge Funds in Chicago/NYC/San Fran? Ideally NYC.
Will it be easier to land a job in Chicago/San Fran rather than NYC?

I am flexible regarding which area to work but "ideally" relate to building pricing models or developing trading strategies. Again; I am flexible regarding which assignments I should do in my new job.

I have only been coding in Python and R but I will claim my coding skills are above average for master graduates in my program.

 

[TehRaio]

You're a foreigner, your GPA doesn't matter that much. Your ability to work in the US is more important. Do you have a green card ?

 

[Aber]

You're a foreigner, your GPA doesn't matter that much. Your ability to work in the US is more important. Do you have a green card ?

Hi. Thanks for your input.
No! To be honest I haven't really done any of the administrative stuff. I will graduate in August so maybe it's time to get started on that.

However, my purpose with this post was whether my profile is good and discuss my profilee

 

[TehRaio]

So regarding immigration, if you do not have the right to live and work in the US that maybe your biggest obstacle. You work move freely in the EU but that's not possible in the US if you do not have paperworks granting you these rights. I would advise you to start looking on LinkedIN, people who graduate from your university or a university from your country and went on to be recruited by american companies. That's a start.

 

[mhy]

1) Modeling jobs typically require a PhD.

2) Your profile is average, perhaps below average in terms of GPA compared to the typical applicant for a quant job in the US.

3) Your chances of getting an interview for a NYC/Chicago/SF job are close to zero. You will need work visa sponsorship, and the H-1B window has just closed for this year so you need to wait until next year.

4) Your best bet, IMO: get a job in Europe at a big bank with a NYC/US office, then transfer over on an L-1 visa after a couple of years. A lot of people do this and then go on to get green cards. It's much easier than H-1B. All of the major global investment banks have offices in Europe and the US, though it might be difficult to find a quant position outside of London. SEB has a NYC office btw. Maybe go on LinkedIn like TehRaio suggested, and try to find someone from SEB who works in NYC (even better if they were transferred on L-1).

 

[Marlborough]

I'm a European too, and you have absolutely no chance.

If you want to go to the US, you have two options:
- get in a BB in Europe and try to move internally to the US, will be really hard to break into London/Frankfurt/Switzerland from your university, so best shot there is to get into a top tier graduate program in Europe (St Gallen, Lausanne, Zurich, Warwick, LSE, Kings College, Bocconi, etc...)
- try get into a graduate program in the US