I have given up on doing a PHD as I don't think I'm good enough to approach any interesting and important problem in maths.I would still like to do a job where I could use my analytical skills though.At the moment I have two offers from BB IB for a summer internship:credit hybrids and exotic trading or structuring (mainly in the rates, inflation and credit products)I'm struggling with the choice...Any advice would be really appreciated!!

It is hard to tell, but I would guess the former would be more "quanty", whereas structuring tend to involve a lot of accounting, legal, regulatory, etc. consideration, with the modeling being more of an afterthought (or, if not, outsourced to a proper quant group). Neither would strike me as being growth areas at the moment, so congratulations on having options in both! In your case I would put a lot of weight on the quality of the organization in general, and the people in the group you would be joining in particular.

you should consider job safety aswell. now a days is not uncommon for juniors to lose their job after 1 year in these areas.

QuoteOriginally posted by: gianluca19I have given up on doing a PHD as I don't think I'm good enough to approach any interesting and important problem in maths.those who do the best PhDs aren't always the same people who everyone thought were super-smart as undergrads.Imagination plays a role as well, rather than just solving standard problems by rote

QuoteOriginally posted by: ppauperQuoteOriginally posted by: gianluca19I have given up on doing a PHD as I don't think I'm good enough to approach any interesting and important problem in maths.those who do the best PhDs aren't always the same people who everyone thought were super-smart as undergrads.Imagination plays a role as well, rather than just solving standard problems by roteMy problem is mostly on the motivation side, I don't like maths enough to sacrifice all the rest. On the other hand I would feel bad working on some mediocre problem just to get a PHD.

QuoteOriginally posted by: gianluca19I have given up on doing a PHD as I don't think I'm good enough to approach any interesting and important problem in maths.I wouldn't give up on the PhD for that reason. How many maths PhDs are really important? 1-2%?There are many interesting modelling challenges in other fields too: materials science, cosmology, astrophysics, geophysics, oceanography etc etc where you can try to improve on existing models, write code, calibrate and run simulations. Not at all dissimilar to developing financial models.

You can try to tackle a topic in Game Theory (multi-player games with Bounded Rationality and Incomplete Information) or in Decision Theory under Risk and Uncertainty. The problems are much more interesting than what you would get in Empirical Finance or Corporate Finance which is mostly Statistics and Econometrics.

QuoteOriginally posted by: MattF There are many interesting modelling challenges in other fields too: materials science, cosmology, astrophysics, geophysics, oceanography etc etc where you can try to improve on existing models, write code, calibrate and run simulations. Not at all dissimilar to developing financial models.the problem is there are not many jobs in these fields.

QuoteOriginally posted by: lexingtonQuoteOriginally posted by: MattF There are many interesting modelling challenges in other fields too: materials science, cosmology, astrophysics, geophysics, oceanography etc etc where you can try to improve on existing models, write code, calibrate and run simulations. Not at all dissimilar to developing financial models.the problem is there are not many jobs in these fields.There are quite a few jobs, if you count a postdoc position as a job.

QuoteOriginally posted by: jimmybobQuoteOriginally posted by: lexingtonQuoteOriginally posted by: MattF There are many interesting modelling challenges in other fields too: materials science, cosmology, astrophysics, geophysics, oceanography etc etc where you can try to improve on existing models, write code, calibrate and run simulations. Not at all dissimilar to developing financial models.the problem is there are not many jobs in these fields.There are quite a few jobs, if you count a postdoc position as a job.postdoc is not a job. if postdoc is a job, then doing Ph.D is also a job.

QuoteOriginally posted by: lexingtonQuoteOriginally posted by: jimmybobQuoteOriginally posted by: lexingtonQuoteOriginally posted by: MattF There are many interesting modelling challenges in other fields too: materials science, cosmology, astrophysics, geophysics, oceanography etc etc where you can try to improve on existing models, write code, calibrate and run simulations. Not at all dissimilar to developing financial models.the problem is there are not many jobs in these fields.There are quite a few jobs, if you count a postdoc position as a job.postdoc is not a job. if postdoc is a job, then doing Ph.D is also a job.In the UK (and I think pretty much everywhere), a postdoc is usually an employee of a University. A PhD is not (at least in the UK, this is different in other countries). employee == job, so postdoc == job.

QuoteOriginally posted by: traderjoe1976You can try to tackle a topic in Game Theory (multi-player games with Bounded Rationality and Incomplete Information) or in Decision Theory under Risk and Uncertainty. The problems are much more interesting than what you would get in Empirical Finance or Corporate Finance which is mostly Statistics and Econometrics.this is not the area of mathematics I am interested in though (I like analysis, in particular PDEs, the stuff Nash was doing before surrending).I don't want to do a PHD to have the title or to get a better job.If I had enough interest and thought that I could really make a difference in maths then I would not hesitate.From the little I have seen in the financial industry it looked very interesting to me. Obviously is not the same kind of intellectual challenge, but it is also less frustrating than staring at a blank piece of paper for hours.

QuoteOriginally posted by: jimmybob In the UK (and I think pretty much everywhere), a postdoc is usually an employee of a University. A PhD is not (at least in the UK, this is different in other countries). employee == job, so postdoc == job.they may be TREATED like an employee. is it a permanent position? will they get pension from the university?in India a person doing PhD in some of the national laboratories are treated like an employee. basically it means they use the same procedure/forms an employee uses to get a job done.

QuoteOriginally posted by: gianluca19From the little I have seen in the financial industry it looked very interesting to me. How so? Have you spoken to anyone in the Finance Industry? If you mean it is well paid - it can be, but it also can be boring as hell if you are not interested in the subject.What do you want to do?? I would agree with BB suggestion: I would pick the better name of the two, if you don't get picked up at the end of the internship then the name will make your CV jump out.Compare:Summer 2013 - Intern at Rmax Hedge Fund - StructuringORSummer 2013 - Intern at Goldman Sachs - Structuring

QuoteOriginally posted by: rmaxQuoteOriginally posted by: gianluca19From the little I have seen in the financial industry it looked very interesting to me. How so? Have you spoken to anyone in the Finance Industry? If you mean it is well paid - it can be, but it also can be boring as hell if you are not interested in the subject.What do you want to do?? I would agree with BB suggestion: I would pick the better name of the two, if you don't get picked up at the end of the internship then the name will make your CV jump out.Compare:Summer 2013 - Intern at Rmax Hedge Fund - StructuringORSummer 2013 - Intern at Goldman Sachs - StructuringIt's the same firm, sorry for not being clear. Well yeah I've spoken to several people in the industry, and I've also been on some desks trying to understand what they were doing.What I like is the problem solving side of the job, putting togheter what you have and the client's needs to get the best solution, given several constraints (regulators, internal limits, reputational considerations etc).Obviously is not like pure math, but I think you need a similar mindset.