Hey folks,I had one question (maybe, slightly hypothetical for these distressed times)What is the MOST FUN JOB, I could expect after I pass out from my MS in Financial Engg program? Thanks,T.

You're a nutter!!

tosh,I hate to sound a bit negative, but...If you want to find any job, you better get your act together. Today you need to add value - it's not like five years ago.Volatility smiles (under the great Emanuel Derman) ain't worth crap because he doesn't have a clue (If he did, he'd be crushing sticky deltas). Furthermore, you don't know enough math to fetch coffee for most quants.Still, I think you might have a shot in sales... bs counts and pay is in line with your expectations.N

N,Do you want to go into more detail? It seems your saying that not much of what this guy has learned can be applied. BTW, Derman is highly thought of at Goldman.

Do you want to go into more detail? It seems your saying that not much of what this guy has learned can be applied. BTW, Derman is highly thought of at Goldman. Applied to what? Calculus can be applied to FE problems, but it isn't nearly enough. You'll be surprised how off-the-mark Black is.Derman is highly thought of everywhere. That doesn't mean he knows the math behind smiles, which clearly (to at least a couple of us) hedoesn't.

Great.... I just spurted milk all over my screens..... and it's running out of my nose... thanks for that though, 'twas funny.

Hi tosh 137,probably a quantitative trader could be a fun job for you. Anyway I think Columbia Fe is not such a bad program, so may be Newton is a little bit to extreme when he says you cannot fetch a coffe for most quants. It's true that there are a lot of students coming from programs like yours and these days getting a job is not easy... For a master student to get a quant position a bit of C++ is extremely important, since you have just a basic math knwoledge you should be able to code.Anyway is it possible to have some notes from Derman course on volatility smiles?Thanks

Could you guys give me an idea of what your idea of heavy math for finance is?T.

FDAXHunter, nicobyron and N, Is the only "fun" job that tosh137 can get that uses the stuff he learned in FE, the quant trading job, or you don't know the answer?I'm interested because I'm considering this degree. Thanks.

I am also in similar shoes - any other options besides sales/trading?How about fixed income research? Equity strategy (a la Richard Bernstein) - granted, not quant heavy, but definitely fun and requires some quant background along with a general business application sense.