hi, allI was offered a job from a financial consultancy company. I am still not sure sure if I should take it, since the career path for the job is vague.The job is mainly to price executive's stock option and warranty for corporate companies . The majority of this company are from busininess, lawyer and accounting and only two are doing quantitative model. Regarding the package, it offered 45 K, bonus is very small. Any suggestion or comment? Really appreciate for any reply(My background: just finished Phd in top university in UK, fine math and programming skills, but not good at C++)

Well, first is that the 45k is in pounds?Also, what is the location of the job?

Yes, it's in pound and location is London

What was the PhD in ?45K for a consultancy is not bad.

Entry level people with a PhD and 0 commercial experience start around the 40k mark plus bonus. I think the max is around 120-150k plus bonus for someone who is a director of analytics in a consultancy. The basic pay levels are about the same a banks, but its near impossible to compete on the bonus levels over say 50-100% in banks. Overall you have more varied work in a consultancy, but if you looking for a very challenging technical role then a bank or hedge fund is best in view.Stats Guy

One reason for the "vague" career path is that there probably isn't one.When coffeeing people through this process a good question to work through is how much they are like their boss, and how much they want to be like their new boss.My guess is "not much", and "horrified".You seniors will be more sales oriented, though as consultants it will be called something like "business development".Maybe that is what you will be happy doing, I suspect not, but I don't know you.For this job to work out for you, it must be seen as a stepping stone, not a goal.That means you must commit non-trivial amounts of your time to educating yourself so that in a year or two, you can move to a bank or HF.Maybe that's a MFE or CQF, maybe just disciplining yourself to read hard.But if you don't then in three years time you will start to feel quite trapped. Odds are against progression within that firm, and few of the more lucrative employers will be all that impressed by consultancy.I cannot know what makes you happy, but finding yourself in a dead end job, but no decent place to go is likely to decrease your happiness.

anechoic: I agree with what was said above and would like to add my 2 cents. I've been working as a consultant for the last several years and have found myself wanting for a more intellectually challenging role (see my thread: http://wilmott.com/messageview.cfm?cati ... adid=60442). If you are very comfortable chatting up people, become very good at office politics, and are satisfied with not developing your skill-set beyond what you currently possess (and very likely not using the more advanced skills that you currently have), consultancy is actually a very comfortable place to work in. In consultancy sales is king - as a sales friend of mine noted: "People buy from people they like, product is secondary." This should give you an idea of the work environment. Of course, there is always slight variation around this, but not much. I would be happy to chat more, if you have any specific questions. Just shoot me a private message. ziilons

QuoteOriginally posted by: DCFCOne reason for the "vague" career path is that there probably isn't one.When coffeeing people through this process a good question to work through is how much they are like their boss, and how much they want to be like their new bossDom's coffeeing procedure ?