An internship will obviously be a big plus, but not having one is not a very big deal- compared to if you were an MBA for instance. Internship programs for quants are not as organized as for mba's, undergraduates, etc. Most recently hired quants that I know don't have internship experience.

Yes (including myself) - and all went through headhunters. There's been lots of discussion on this forum about the pros and cons of headhunters, which you should look at. I would recommend the HH route.

<t>Your background sounds rather similar to mine and others I've known. I'd say you have a pretty good chance- not being a C++ programming expert is not a huge handicap from my experience- but need to prepare systematically. Spamming is obviously not a good idea. DCFC's guide should be a good place ...

<t>This is a really fascinating discussion. N, I (and I'm sure many other semi-math-literates) would appreciate some more elaboration on why the standard Brownian constructions are wrong and why stochastic calculus is "trash math."And what makes PDE theory is as powerful (in finance in particular) a...

I'm curious to know why you think being a strategist is better than being in sales. The hours are a lot worse, that's for sure.

A great online puzzle forum for logical (non-probabilistic) puzzles is http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~wwu/riddles/intro.shtml

<t>Quote The point here is that the Ph.ds are not aiming for industry; they're aiming to pump out theoretical publications that are great for academia but are useless for industry. Nobody's gonna give two shakes about epsilon neighborhoods and some esoteric econometrics theory. It's interesting you ...

<t>QuoteOriginally posted by: flankWho said I harbored contempt for ph.ds from top tiers? In fact those degrees are obviously something to be proud of and they are especially useful for those who want to pursue academic careers. My only source of contention is that quantitative finance might be barr...

There are lots of engineering PhDs making the switch that I know of, including myself. Getting an IB job as a quant comes down to doing well in the interviews. You'll find lots of advice on this forum on how to prepare, what areas to cover, etc.