Hi, I really need some advice on my career path. I have a MS in Finance (from CWRU, a school in Cleveland), and I want to become a quant in an investment bank. I learned programming in R, C++, and Python on my own. I tried applying to some quant jobs, but had no luck.
I am wondering if I need to go to a MFE program. I am hesitate because MFE and MSF have many similar courses, and I don't want to get the same degree twice. I tried applying for some schools, and only got admitted to Georgia Tech's QCF (Quantitative and Computational Finance) and got a hold on UCB.
I have been working in a compliance department for a year as a business analyst after graduation (I know this is so far away from where I want to be). Shall I just keep applying for quantitative jobs? Shall I apply for MFEs again and try to get into a higher ranking school? Shall I just go to Georgia Tech? Or what else should I do?
Thank you in advance for your advice.
Firstly avoid doing MFE if you can as it is possible to wind up with more debt, unemployed and essentially with the same degree twice, which looks bad to managers. It really depends upon what 'MS in Finance' means and what you mean by quant. Be a little more specific, as others have said. What products do you want to cover? Equities? IRS? CDS? And is it quant development or analysis? Or just working with quantitative products - like MRM or trading?
Yetanotherquant has a good point but I would not rush into judgement. As a risk manager/quant pricer if you had shadowed me for 2 weeks you would probably have regarded it as "mainly programming". But had you shadowed a quant developer I suspect you would see a huge difference as they code a hell of lot more and I was what is colloquially known as an "analyst", not programmer, nor a "number cruncher". Don't jump to conclusions just yet.
I'm reading through this and one thing strikes me - are you networking or simply banging out applications on the web? Thing is if you "applied to some quant jobs" then likely it went to some HH/recruiter or at best HR - either way they simply took one look at what your current role is and went "experience is not quantitative" and binned your CV. HHs operate on the basis of last role only and will therefore ignore you until you get experience as a quant.
Instead you will have to network. Justify why you think you have quant or programming skills. Is there anything in your current role that could be built up? Did you do any programming or stochastic analysis in the masters? "Masters in Finance" doesn't say much, so if there is any maths your CV/resume needs to highlight it.
Content is king and given that you are switching streams I would find a specialist in quant finance or a quant manager to help rewrite your resume. With you being 1 year in the business it won't be a complex rewrite, but the whole "doing something else" schtick can make it messy and you will need coaching from someone that is clued in to answer (what I regard as unfair) questions like "If you are so motivated to be a quant, why join a compliance team?". I have a tech specialist that does my data science CV who I got through a referral - having someone that understands the business is amazing as what other careers advisors barfed out for CVs did not cut the mustard.
You will need this, even for an internal move as I suspect a lot of your USP will be in the self taught programming, especially if you didn't do a quantitative masters like I did, and it is not straightforward to put it on the resume. The only thing I would add to the networking thing is to go as direct as possible to managers. There would be nothing more heartbreaking than going through some MBA and having the clown forward your CV to their compliance team - I don't call them Moronic But Ambitious for nothing.
Your best bet is probably an internal route working for a team you interact with in your current role. Ask yourself - do you check compliance on any teams that do quantitative work? One bank I was at certain teams always took on compliance people that had strong attention to detail and that had been trained to comb through legal documentation. You probably just need to market one or two major skills in your current role that are valued to join as a junior on some team that does what you like and the rest is just about being blooded in. The catch is that particular move happens more with non-quant stuff like corporate/project finance than with quant products.
But even if such bridging skills don't exist there may be some route for you - even just going "look, I know my role isn't very relevant but take a look at an R project I have published online" or polishing that statement can be a game changer.
Thing is applying for 1, 10, 100 or even 10^23 jobs without looking at these things more closely will get you nowhere and you will still get very few interviews. Look at these things and change the angle of attack and, well, you can probably achieve anything.
