January 9th, 2014, 6:45 am
QuoteOriginally posted by: DevonFangsQuoteOriginally posted by: GamalI did consulting with one of the Big Four firms for a short period of time. Never more.Big 4 and McK is quite a different story, but in the end same sh!t if you ask me.I also agree with you that quant is still an attractive job for science people, even though probably less so than it was back in the days (but I wasn't even born yet, so who am I to say). Of course I'm talking averages here, i.e. average numerate grad in average quant job I think is reasonably happy. Unless, deep in their heart, they want to be bankers, in which case quant is a shit idea. That's pretty much also what I say to the, actually surprisingly numerous, students that approach me on linkedin seeking advice (and if you saw my profile you'd found that hilarious).Indeed, it completely depends upon what you want out of life. Furthermore, what you want out of life can be a moving target.Not many people I know were born wanting to be a quant, or to work in finance. It seems people end up here by a) being pretty capable and b) being subject to the kind of moving goal-posts life can throw out. I dont normally 'recommend' lines of work to anyone. I am of the opinion that you follow your interests (with an eye on what skills might be useful in future) and you make sure that you do well relative to your peirs in whatever you are doing. Be oportunistic, seek situations that facilitate oportunities of varied kinds and life then tends to do the rest.So in a nutshell 'be flexible'. Right now its big data (and of course that is permeating finance). So right now, yes that is a good option. But ten years ago, not so much. Ten years from now? Who knows. Hence, make sure you get solid quals and you are flexible. Whatever happens in ten years, enterprises who actually need to get stuff done are still going to be digging solid computing/maths/stats/communication sklls.For liberal arts people who can blag then yes, maybe consulting is a better option!