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dodora
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FE positions in Texas

September 3rd, 2008, 3:37 am

Are there any financial engineering positions in Texas? I plan to find a job in TX, but it seems like Texas is too far from NYC.
 
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mit
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FE positions in Texas

September 3rd, 2008, 4:23 am

oil?
 
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KackToodles
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FE positions in Texas

September 3rd, 2008, 7:13 am

enron?
 
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daveangel
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FE positions in Texas

September 3rd, 2008, 7:16 am

there are a few hedge funds donw there. Have you tried HBK ? Big multi-strat hedge fund.
knowledge comes, wisdom lingers
 
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DominicConnor
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FE positions in Texas

September 3rd, 2008, 11:46 am

Kacktoodles mentions Enron, given the scale of the mess, I suspect there are still quants of some kind working on trying to sort it out.The little quantish work there appears to be mostly in the HQs of oil firms.
 
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ppauper
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FE positions in Texas

September 3rd, 2008, 12:41 pm

(deleted)
Last edited by ppauper on September 2nd, 2008, 10:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 
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twofish
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FE positions in Texas

September 3rd, 2008, 1:27 pm

There are some hedge funds and a lot of energy trading, but I tried to do financial engineering in Texas for two years and then gave up and moved to NYC. Texas is a good place if 1) you are particularly interested in energy, power, and oil 2) if you have experience in a major finance center and want a change from the NYC/London lifestyle or 3) you are interested in non-finance software development.It's a very bad place for an entry level job seeker job with ambition. The interview question that you have to answer is "since you seem to have ability and ambition, then what will keep you from moving to NYC in a year when someone offers you more money/career opportunities than we can provide." Curiously, "I like the Texas lifestyle" doesn't work as an answer before if you run the numbers you find out that you end up ahead working in NYC and commuting to Texas on the weekends, and the people interviewing you know that.In my case, once every interview with a Texas financial company ended with polite rejection and the advice that I should look for a position in NYC, I ended up taking the hint.
Last edited by twofish on September 2nd, 2008, 10:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 
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tigerman
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FE positions in Texas

September 3rd, 2008, 6:12 pm

Apparently, I am not the only one missing Texas...I like the lifestyle there too, even though I live in a place which is supposed to be much more fashionablebut it's likely I'll be able to come back there once I'll have the money to run a ranch, rather than for doing a quanty jobtigerman
 
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trackstar
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FE positions in Texas

September 3rd, 2008, 8:21 pm

Dodora,Here is a listing for a position in energy private equity. Based in NYC, but indicates frequent trips to Houston to see clients. Not sure if you would want to make a transition into PE, but I am sure that others could weigh in on the pros, cons and challenges to making that switch.http://jobs.efinancialcareers.com/job-4 ... 398581.htm Note: this is not an endorsement for eFinancial as a service (vast majority of postings are from head hunters), but it is a convenient way to see some of the skills that are in demand and search by geog. location.I keep an eye on it anyway.Good luck!
 
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twofish
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FE positions in Texas

September 3rd, 2008, 8:38 pm

QuoteOriginally posted by: tigermanApparently, I am not the only one missing Texas...I like the lifestyle there too, even though I live in a place which is supposed to be much more fashionableThere are many different parts of Texas. I really like Austin. Couldn't imagine myself living in Houston. All of the big city problems and really none of the benefits.
 
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icon
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FE positions in Texas

September 4th, 2008, 3:09 am

I would say some - if not most - of the quant jobs in TX are not as attractive as in the NY metro area. But then there are exceptions I would think.There are some hedge funds. ML has its entire commodities business down there. JP (former Bear Energy) has substantial presence as has Deutsche's commodity group. Would be interesting to see what the pay differential is between NYC and Texas but I imagine it can't be all that bad. If you work at an ibank in Texas why wouldn't you have the same career opportunities as working for the same firm in NYC?
 
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dodora
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FE positions in Texas

September 4th, 2008, 3:14 am

I have a master degree of UT-Austin, So I want to find job in TX. I guess UT-Austin is not a big name in NYC. But in TX, I can use my Longhorn network.
 
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twofish
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FE positions in Texas

September 4th, 2008, 3:33 am

QuoteOriginally posted by: iconWould be interesting to see what the pay differential is between NYC and Texas but I imagine it can't be all that bad.It actually is. You can PM me for numbers. To be fair, NYC is much more expensive than Texas so a lot of the pay difference goes to taxes and rent. But the pay difference is quite steep. What was much worse than the pay difference was the lack of career opportunities in Texas for geeks. You reach a certain point and it becomes painfully obvious to you that you've gone as far as you can go. There is something of a glass ceiling for geeks in NYC, but it is at a much, much higher level. Austin is a nicer city than NYC, but Houston isn't.QuoteIf you work at an ibank in Texas why wouldn't you have the same career opportunities as working for the same firm in NYC?Because big investment banks are federations of groups, and while the IB's put commodities and some real estate and sales in Texas, pretty much everything involving quantitative finance is in NYC. One of the interviewers I had was with the energy group for a big IB in Houston. The head of the group was one of the nicest most helpful people I've ever met, and he told me that if I was specifically interested in energy that he could go further with the process, but if I wasn't, I was much better off getting a job in NYC. He was right.This is one of the things that you just have to find out for yourself. If you try to find a good FE position in Texas and land one, then great!!! But there is one data point for someone that tried for two years, and didn't get anywhere with it.
Last edited by twofish on September 3rd, 2008, 10:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 
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twofish
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FE positions in Texas

September 4th, 2008, 3:42 am

QuoteOriginally posted by: dodoraI have a master degree of UT-Austin, So I want to find job in TX. I guess UT-Austin is not a big name in NYC. But in TX, I can use my Longhorn network.I have an astrophysics Ph.D. from UT Austin and I found that it has a generally good reputation among head hunters and investment banks. The mathematical finance group there is rather well known in the field. If you are in the McCombs School, they have a very good career services program which unfortunately no one else in the university can use. I didn't find the alumni network itself to be very useful.
 
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gjlipman
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FE positions in Texas

September 4th, 2008, 6:04 am

I would have said there were plenty of energy quant / structuring roles for investment banks, hedge funds, energy companies in Houston, probably less in other cities in Texas.Opportunities to move out of energy will be much more limited without moving to New York or London, but in the meantime you can get some good experience. And sure, pay may be less than NYC or London, but it goes a lot further, particularly if you've got a family. I know a lot of people who have chosen to go to Houston rather than NY, it can't be that bad a proposition.