Sell Side Trader Breaking Into Buy Side - MFE vs Other Programs?

[lonelystranger]

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your attention. I need some advice on quants / grad school education in general. I have an undergrad from an ECE program in Canada with heavy focus in CS and stats. After I graduated, I have worked 4 years at mid-market S&T shop in New York in the front office as a quant developer then into a trader seat. My current role is revenue generating, I trade a risk book and have been actively working on systematic futures strategies (mid-frequency) and derivatives pricing.

I have been preparing for math/stats and programming questions extensively and recruiting for a buy side quants trader/researcher role for the past few months, but I have hit a bottleneck. I am fielding a lot of interest and introductory calls from recruiters because of my relevant experience. However, not many firms are providing me real interviews beyond recruiter intros. For the few interviews that I have progressed further, I passed most the technical interviews, despite a couple bloopers in theoretical stats/regression questions (my CS background is stronger than my stats). Nevertheless, I tend to get rejected after the final hiring manager call despite the recruiters prepping me for these quite rigorously and my

From the above, I suspect that my academic background (or the lack thereof) is hurting my chance to get interviews, I observe a lot of buy side firms explicitly require Masters' degree or above from top schools. I think that some education in stats and math can help me get better at answering stats/regression/ML questions as well. I have consider a couple of routes:

1. Top MFE program that has good math education and network (e.g. Princeton MFin, CMU Computational Finance, etc.)
2. Top applied math/stats program (would appreciate any recommendation)
3. Top CS program with focus on ML/AI

Which one would you recommend? I have heard MFE programs being huge money sinks, and a lot of buy side firms specifically note that they want candidates from research based programs. However, the alumni network, career service and reputation are something I feel were lacking from my current education and could have made my recruitment process easier. Or should I stick to my current post and keep grinding "heard on the street" while getting more trading track record?

Any advice is appreciated!

 

[MikeLawrence]

Don't know which route is best for you, but I can speak to schools to consider.

1. Baruch should also be on this list. Don't be thrown off by lack of traditional prestige, if you can get into Baruch every company you interview at will know your serious. Also, Uchicago offers incredible scholarships and is a very solid program. These two are by far the best cheap options.

2. Uchicago Stats and CAAM programs are incredible, and you can take the exact track that their Ph.D's take if you want the rigorous research capabilities. Typically done in 1.5-2 years, but quite pricy. Close to $100-150k for two full years. However, it'll be great material.

University of Texas' Oden school has a great 2 year track in for applied/computational math (CSEM) and is MUCH cheaper than Uchicago (<$60k for the two years), but you have much less flexibility and have to take courses applied to chemistry and geosciences.

Georgia tech could be good, do the IEOR route. On that note, Stanfords ICM/MS&E would be great.

UCLA is a must-look at, priced like UT and a great program in applied math - solid in stats too, but their applied math is renowned.

3. CMU's masters in ML would be top here, not terribly familiar with others.