A brief profile about myself:Have a Phd in Transportation Engineering (dissertation involved a lot of data analyzing work), a master in Statistics (a natural turn-out of doing statistical models for PhD dissertation), good with SAS, worked with VBA in excel (mostly for data crunching use), beginner in C++ (making progress slowly), very beginner in finance (reading some books now)have engineering consulting firm experience, and also have done research (lots) mainly of data analysis. have several journal publications (if it matters)I want to become a quant not solely because of the money. having worked at both academic and industrial sides of my major, i feel my energy and talent have been so under-utilized for the actual work but over-spent on things such as shmoozing around, which is nice at times but not always. From my reading on this site and some others (quantnet for example), I get the impression that quant jobs are intensive so maybe this type of hyper work is meant for me. But of course, I want to hear your thoughts. Here are my questions:Is there quant position that is more geared towards statistical background me? Or I need to improve mathematical skills in a speakable way (C++ too of course).Will my data analyzing experience help (in finding a position)? if do, are there specific fields in quant field that I can target? I am still on a fulltime job, so going to MFE schools will not be possible. No I cant quit. I've got a house to pay mortgage for. So does it look possible that studying on my own can get me to somewhere?My thought about getting into the Quantitative Analyst field was actually turned on by a job AD by Chevron. Do you think energy firms are good ones to work as a quant for?A bit too many questions. Oh, I also read Dominic's interview at quantnet, and did see that female quants are kinda problematic. well, I happen to be a 30 year old female. thanks for your attention.

there are basically two types of 'quants', the traditional desk quant in an IB that focuses on derivative valuation and pricing, and those in a statistical arbitrage fund, where you estimate parameters and back-test your hypothesis.so when you say you are good at statistics, and have done considerable data analysis work, how good really are you? you should be familiar and able to apply knowledge in the following:- linear regression models- OLS / GLS / GMM- ARCH / M-GARCH- Markovs- Kalman filters

I'm not quite sure quite what you from the "problematic" women in this industry ?Certainly it is the case that fewer women enter this line of work than are present in the "feeder" subjects like maths, engineering, physics etc.But I have tried to illustrate my observation that a newbie woman is rather more likely to get a given job than an equivalent male. This seems to compensate for more variable performance at interviews.Certainly there are jobs involving analyzing data and forming models from your observations. Some MFEs can be done part time, and of course the CQF fits snugly into having a day job.With the CQF I have to declare an interest of course, since most of the C++ on this is by me.Some employers prefer people who have PhDs and hit the books to fill in finance skills, some don't, it is important to understand that finance is collective term for many different types of business.I am broadly neutral on the attractiveness of the energy industry. Oil prices have bounced around a lot, currently far down from their height, lots of ways to make and lose money there.My call is that you should first work on getting general quant skills up to speed, then lok at what specialities attract you. If energy looks good for you personally, go for it, but in your study you will learn of flavours of business that may suit you better.Energy differs from many types of quant work since typically you need to understand more about the mechanical aspects of the business. Some like that, some don't, your call.I guess you're roughly a year from your first quant job if things work out. The market will be different then, "different" includes both better and worse, and the relative attractiveness of any sector will change.

quantwannabe2, you are right. I guess my better bet will be to go with statistical arbitrage. Different people might have different standards in justifying "good". I view myself as having a good knowledge base in statistics because I know and can apply pretty much all the items in your list (never applied Kalman filters though). Also, by having a good knowledge base I mean maybe I am not familiar with a method or don't know how to do the application at this moment but I always can quickly put myself onto the learning track and get adapted. But of course, if real project experience is required, then I won't be so sure about selling myself on that specific skill. So at an interview, do we have to give real work experience (or publication examples) to prove we meet the skillset requirements?

and thanks Dom for your thorough and quick response. I apologize for using the bold word "problematic", but I guess at the moment when I was typing my mind was focusing on FQ more likely getting lower bonus and even being treated as of producing lower quality models. Would a FQ be better off by showing some upbeat type of personality in winning herself a seat in the team? As I am reading books about FE, DP, I feel it would be best to get the hang of the terminologies through practice. Although I can memorize the definitions, synchronize with the computing, I still think a newbie like me will better need some training before hitting ground running. Do most hire companies offer training or they expect a qualified hire should pick up speed right away?Well, another reason for me to be attracted to that Chevron position is it offers "expats" opportunities to other parameters, which is particularly interesting to me since I like a dynamic working environment. I was also thinking to give myself a year or so time before I give it a try. I hope the market will shrink to the level it deserves and then redeem its health in a year...

QuoteOriginally posted by: popviviA brief profile about myself:Have a Phd in Transportation Engineering (dissertation involved a lot of data analyzing work) I hear that Detroit is about to lay off 30,000 transportation engineers this month! Are they all planning to move over to jobs in the finance industry?!

QuoteOriginally posted by: deepvalueQuoteOriginally posted by: popviviA brief profile about myself:Have a Phd in Transportation Engineering (dissertation involved a lot of data analyzing work) I hear that Detroit is about to lay off 30,000 transportation engineers this month! Are they all planning to move over to jobs in the finance industry?! detroit doesnt employ 30k transport engineers (transport != auto)

popvini, I only know what I know...I don't know bonus numbers of men vs women, I don't get told of any systematic discrepancies, but the system is so opaque it could not only be invisible to me, but the firms that do it. What I can say with more confidence is that investment banking is less sexist than any industry I come in contact with. Media types who like to report on the more entertaining discrimination legal cases work in a business whose sexism and racism would cause widespread sackings in any IB.My standard line to women is that there is sexism everywhere, but the pay is better in finance, even if it is less.Women do a variety of things that cause their careers to not progress as fast as men's, my blog carries the issue of their pitifully bad networking, and I have to say, fully expecting to be shot at, that too many women have an attitude to computers that invites contempt. That's not just in banking of course, but you have to understand that a lot of quant work is in effect some sort of programming. When I talk to potential CQF students, some of whom are already in IT that the % of their time spent programming may well be higher than someone whose job title is already that of "Developer".Note I say investment banking, which includes HFs, prop shops and the IB part of general banks.It specifically does not apply to retail banking, especially European or British banks. Would a FQ be better off by showing some upbeat type of personality in winning herself a seat in the team?Umm, have to be careful with my words here...No.We already see enough personality in FQs. My counsel is to get a male friend to read your resume and point out the "personality" bits so you can delete them.

Thanks to all of you for replying to my message! Especially Dom, your words shed lots of light over here. I guess I really want to become a quant, not just a FQ. At least this should be the type of attitude I need right now. Wilmott is great--it gets me pumped up with energy and spirit every time I visit. BTW, pgeek, you are right, transportation engineers are totally different from auto engineers -- basically two different fields (Civil engineering vs. mechanical). And deepvalue, even if there were 30,000 transportation engineers being laid off, you don't need to worry about they all come to seek after quant positions -- I know most of them so well, they will just wait to be hired as a transportation engineer again.