Serving the Quantitative Finance Community

 
User avatar
secret2
Posts: 9
Joined: July 28th, 2010, 10:29 pm

To PhD or not to PhD when you are 30

October 30th, 2015, 9:32 am

QuoteOriginally posted by: mekornilolThere's been an interesting turn of events that I thought I'd share with the forum. Essentially, while I was finishing my research proposal to enter the PhD program next September, I managed to arrange a couple of interviews at two investment banks here in London. I have to say that I nearly got to the point of mental exhaustion after so many stages, brainteasers and all that jazz... but I have been finally made an offer to work as a front office quantitative analyst at an american investment bank, which I have accepted. I will be forgetting about doing a PhD for a long while I think.I know that there are many and varied reading lists for people looking for quant jobs, but in case mine helps anyone, three of the books that have really helped during my interviews have been:1) Brownian Motion and Stochastic Calculus (Karatzas and Shreve, I had to study this book while writing my research proposal as it was also a requirement to enter the PhD program)2) Concepts and Practice of Math Finance (Joshi)3) C++ for Quantitative Finance (Halls-Moore, I actually prefer this one over C++ Design Patterns by Joshi)Some chapters from a couple of other books have also helped, but what interviewers really liked was bringing up during interviews some projects that I had implemented in C++ and Python in my own time and be able to discuss them. Maybe this is less important for more experienced people, but I have got the impression that for junior roles it's rather essential. I might be wrong though.I am a fan of this book. Not exactly a popular choice, but I find it does a much better job than e.g. Shreve in introducing the concepts, instead of getting you drowned in formulae in no time.
 
User avatar
DominicConnor
Posts: 41
Joined: July 14th, 2002, 3:00 am

To PhD or not to PhD when you are 30

November 9th, 2015, 3:07 pm

Congratulations :)Duffy's books such as are worth having.But also you need to revise you Excel VBA ;)
 
User avatar
liam
Posts: 4
Joined: November 16th, 2004, 11:51 am

To PhD or not to PhD when you are 30

November 25th, 2015, 9:27 pm

Haven't been on the forums in a while, great to hear it worked out. The PhD thing really annoyed me intensely when I left uni, so I probably know how relieved you must be.
 
User avatar
Orbit
Posts: 36
Joined: October 14th, 2003, 5:34 pm

To PhD or not to PhD when you are 30

November 30th, 2015, 3:59 pm

QuoteOriginally posted by: mekornilolAnd here go the two questions, which might seem unrelated but they are really not:1. Is 34 an age which employers might consider a bit too high to access highly quantitative positions? 2. Should I just forget about the PhD and simply keep interviewing until I get a quant job, hating what I do in the meanwhile?1. I don't understand what people think about age. Do you think you die at age 30, or *gasp* 40? Seriously, what do people think happens after that? Is it perceived that you automatically leave finance at age 34 and then...do what? I'm almost 50, and I have a job and am productive. Who gives a shit how old you are?2. If you like the work, get the PhD. If you don't, don't.
 
User avatar
katastrofa
Posts: 7430
Joined: August 16th, 2007, 5:36 am
Location: Alpha Centauri

To PhD or not to PhD when you are 30

November 30th, 2015, 5:44 pm

 
User avatar
Orbit
Posts: 36
Joined: October 14th, 2003, 5:34 pm

To PhD or not to PhD when you are 30

December 1st, 2015, 5:50 pm

katastrofa:Ha! That's a good one
 
User avatar
Cuchulainn
Posts: 20203
Joined: July 16th, 2004, 7:38 am
Location: 20, 000

To PhD or not to PhD when you are 30

December 1st, 2015, 7:17 pm

QuoteI'm almost 50, and I have a job and am productive. Who gives a shit how old you are? in the year 5555 your arms are hanging limp at your sides your legs got nothing to do some machine doing that for you
Last edited by Cuchulainn on November 30th, 2015, 11:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 
User avatar
bearish
Posts: 5180
Joined: February 3rd, 2011, 2:19 pm

To PhD or not to PhD when you are 30

December 2nd, 2015, 2:18 am

One of my more productive employees is in his mid 70's. He is a former academic who only got into this line of business at the age of 50 or so. For whatever that is worth...
 
User avatar
Cuchulainn
Posts: 20203
Joined: July 16th, 2004, 7:38 am
Location: 20, 000

To PhD or not to PhD when you are 30

December 2nd, 2015, 9:27 am

QuoteOriginally posted by: bearishOne of my more productive employees is in his mid 70's. He is a former academic who only got into this line of business at the age of 50 or so. For whatever that is worth...QuotePerhaps my best years are gone. When there was a chance of happiness. But I wouldn't want them back. Not with the fire in me now. No, I wouldn't want them back.― Samuel Beckett, Krapp's Last Tape & Embers
Last edited by Cuchulainn on December 1st, 2015, 11:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 
User avatar
AbhiJ
Posts: 0
Joined: August 5th, 2008, 11:29 am

To PhD or not to PhD when you are 30

January 2nd, 2016, 2:59 am

QuoteOriginally posted by: bearishOne of my more productive employees is in his mid 70's. He is a former academic who only got into this line of business at the age of 50 or so. For whatever that is worth...This is something. I guess he was an academic all life(till 50s) then went into business.
 
User avatar
ExSan
Posts: 493
Joined: April 12th, 2003, 10:40 am

To PhD or not to PhD when you are 30

January 6th, 2016, 12:24 pm

QuoteOriginally posted by: CuchulainnQuoteI'm almost 50, and I have a job and am productive. Who gives a shit how old you are? in the year 5555 your arms are hanging limp at your sides your legs got nothing to do some machine doing that for youIt is difficult to give an straight yes-no answer. Sometimes I wake up capable of any challenge ! others I just want to to move on my own pace. I would love to do a masters in Quant Finance at Baruch or QF Wilmott's certificate , or masters in math at NYU, of course online! with periodic visits onsite. PhD is still a decision that I would have to re-think twice it requires a lot of dedication ie. time!
Last edited by ExSan on January 5th, 2016, 11:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
°°° About ExSan bit.ly/3U5bIdq °°°
 
User avatar
Cuchulainn
Posts: 20203
Joined: July 16th, 2004, 7:38 am
Location: 20, 000

To PhD or not to PhD when you are 30

January 7th, 2016, 3:38 pm

QuoteOriginally posted by: ExSanQuoteOriginally posted by: CuchulainnQuoteI'm almost 50, and I have a job and am productive. Who gives a shit how old you are? in the year 5555 your arms are hanging limp at your sides your legs got nothing to do some machine doing that for youIt is difficult to give an straight yes-no answer. Sometimes I wake up capable of any challenge ! others I just want to to move on my own pace. I would love to do a masters in Quant Finance at Baruch or QF Wilmott's certificate , or masters in math at NYU, of course online! with periodic visits onsite. PhD is still a decision that I would have to re-think twice it requires a lot of dedication ie. time!CMUWith maths, what you used to do all day now takes you all day to do.
Last edited by Cuchulainn on January 6th, 2016, 11:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 
User avatar
nullspace77
Posts: 0
Joined: January 5th, 2016, 6:47 pm

To PhD or not to PhD when you are 30

January 8th, 2016, 6:43 pm

When I finished high school I never thought I would have gone to university. My friend had started an IT company that provided networking solutions, support, etc. I was self taught in computers and programming so I worked with his team for a few years. Having gone back to start my undergrad education at the age of 25, I can say that it was challenging. I had to support myself and much of the fun that was had by others, I avoided in order to focus on getting good grades. Needless to say I got into a good PhD program and never looked back. However, at that point I was really doing it for the love of knowledge and leaning anything that I could. In the end I now have a good job in finance that involves pretty sophisticated mathematics, but that was never really the end goal (I actually thought I would end up a professor). So I would say do what you're really interested in and the money will follow as long as you keep career prospects relatively close to the back of your mind. But don't go into a program because you think it will benefit you financially since you'll probably end up hating it. That said, waiting as long as I did to do a career switch probably hurt my "life-time earnings" potential, but I if I could go back in time I'm not sure I would have done it any differently.