I will have an interview next week in a quant group in a bank in Chicago. The groupspecializes in interest-rate derivatives modeling. I was asked to also state my salaryrequirement on the interview. What in your estimate could be an average compensation(in Chicago) for a person that has absolutely no experience in a financial industry, has recentPh.D. in math, Masters in financial mathematics, and a couple of years of industry programming experience?My purpose now is to get a first finance job, and I am not too picky about a starting salary, butit would be nice to know the rough estimate.Many thanks.

QuoteOriginally posted by: pursI will have an interview next week in a quant group in a bank in Chicago. The groupspecializes in interest-rate derivatives modeling. I was asked to also state my salaryrequirement on the interview. What in your estimate could be an average compensation(in Chicago) for a person that has absolutely no experience in a financial industry, has recentPh.D. in math, Masters in financial mathematics, and a couple of years of industry programming experience?My purpose now is to get a first finance job, and I am not too picky about a starting salary, butit would be nice to know the rough estimate.Many thanks.Well, if you are going to weight the estimates you get to get a decently realistic number, then weight mine lightly.I would say that you should ask for $60k, and mention that you'd hope for a bonus of at least $10k in your first year.

i would add abt 20% on nj's estimate. best of luck

Thanks for the replies, folks!

I'd say 80k min. Of course this depends on the school and whether your programming experience was with a financial firm. A good phd with "academic experience" in finance should warrant more than 60k in Chicago. I am not sure what effect the economy has had on starting salaries, though.In fact, I bet if you say 60k, they won't hire you. They'll wonder why you are asking so little.Put it this way...I understand you don't have industry experience, but you do have some work experience (programming)....The starting salary for many non-quant finance ms degrees is about 60k.Overall, in situations like this, and I think there are other threads on this, I'd state something like "I will consider any reasonable offer, but I would need to know more about the job requirements to determine a fair salary. Also, salary is not the only consideration in choosing a job. I would need to know more about benefits, potential coworkers, room for job growth etc. before making a decision."You have to decide how firm you want to stick to this line of "non" communication. They know how much they want to spend. You say too high, it goes no further. You say too low, that's what you get. I'd try to get a feel for what has been allocated for the position.good luck.