I am an academic mathematician (PhD 1999) in the U.S., looking to switch to finance.Because of my family situation, I would prefer not to live in a huge city, or its immediate suburbs.In fact, my wife has said she wants to live where she can see the stars at night. But it seems to me that most of the quant jobs in smaller places are for people with prior finance experience. Does anyone know of any funds in smaller places which hire academic-types?

divorce is always an option!

Just a thought -- maybe you can find a small college town where youcould apply for double duty -- work part time in their endowment office and teach a few math classes.regards,

Thanks... I should clarify that, while a bucolic college town would be nice, "smaller" could also mean "not New York, Chicago or Houston". If I could commute 45 minutes and be out of the built-up area, that might work.

Depends upon what you mean by "bucolic".I live 25 (on a good day) minutes from the centre of the financial centre in London.A good run will get me door to door to Bloomberg's City office in 40 mins.Our garden merges into Epping forest, and deer have been seen at our back gate.We see stars, even when sober.

Prediction Company: http://www.predict.com/html/introduction.html Or there's always East Setauket, if it's not too close to NYC for you...

You might take a look at Charlotte North Carolina -- a medium-sized city with about 1.5 million in the area. I've not been there myself, but have heard favorable things. It has a cluster of financial services companies and both Bank of America and Wachovia have their headquarters there.Otherwise, you might try finding a directory of financial services firms and spending quality time with that and Google Maps....

Thanks for the feedback. Charlotte and Santa Fe had actually been on my radar. (What is in East Setauket?) What I wonder though, is if firms in places like that are willing to train PhD's for entry-level quant. analyst roles? My impression was that the banks in big cities were more willing and able to train new guys.

QuoteOriginally posted by: mathtypeThanks for the feedback. Charlotte and Santa Fe had actually been on my radar. (What is in East Setauket?) What I wonder though, is if firms in places like that are willing to train PhD's for entry-level quant. analyst roles? My impression was that the banks in big cities were more willing and able to train new guys.That is partly true. There are some firms in Hartford, CT area, where you can try. In fact, there are many hedge funds out there. If you are not particular about being in the east coast, then you can even try San Francisco. San Fran downtown is not that bad as NYC and you can commute to the city in around 40 mins. And your wife and kids still get to see the stars at night. And the weather is nice all through the year.

QuoteOriginally posted by: mathtypeThanks... I should clarify that, while a bucolic college town would be nice, "smaller" could also mean "not New York, Chicago or Houston". If I could commute 45 minutes and be out of the built-up area, that might work.You need to find a local library with a copy of the Money Market Directory (there are 17000 investment advisors, in it, for example).

QuoteOriginally posted by: mathtypeIn fact, my wife has said she wants to live where she can see the stars at night. But it seems to me that most of the quant jobs in smaller places are for people with prior finance experience.Been there, tried that, didn't work. Now in NYC.I found that one huge difficulty in getting quant work in a financial backwater is if you are on the ascending part of your career with both ambition and ability, people will look at your CV, figure that you'll end up in a financial center in a few months after you start working for them, and then pass on you because they figure you won't stay around if they hire you. This was the story I got from pretty much all of the financial firms in the Austin area, and I finally took the hint.The reason that smaller places look for experienced people is because the experienced person looks at the small place either as a place for semi-retirement or as a pioneer in a lone wilderness and the company figures that they don't have to spend that much effort in training. The other problem you'll find in backwaters is that the level of ambition and ability can be much lower than in the major centers. This can cause big problems because if it turns out that you are ambitious and able, you scare people in a way that won't happen in the major centers (because by NYC-standards, you aren't particularly ambitious or able). Something you might want to consider, if you want to see the stars, is to buy a second house in some very cheap out of the way place, and fly there every weekend. If you look at the cost of getting a second home in some out of the way state (rural Mississippi for example), the cost of round trip plane tickets, versus the extra income and career benefits of living in NYC, Chicago, SF, the difference is rather scary.

i heard there are some companies in philladelphia. I would suggest Charlotte. i was there two weeks ago and met some Wachovia associates and thought Charlotte was great. The 5pm traffic was easier than Charlottesville (a town of 50 000 in Va) at 5pm. Perhaps I got there on a lucky day when traffic was good or perhaps everyone was still working hard at the banks.There are also some companies on the west coast that you might like to try.Good luck

Get a planetarium.

QuoteOriginally posted by: mathtypeThanks for the feedback. Charlotte and Santa Fe had actually been on my radar. (What is in East Setauket?) What I wonder though, is if firms in places like that are willing to train PhD's for entry-level quant. analyst roles? My impression was that the banks in big cities were more willing and able to train new guys.Yes, as I understand it both Prediction Company and Renaissance are known to be very academic-friendly. Verging on a bias against people with a finance background. Prediction Company's been through a lot of changes, though, and I don't know the present situation.Someone mentioned Philadelphia. While I wouldn't want to work in that city, I have a couple of friends at Susquehanna who like working there. You could live in Bucks County and commute.

Walter Muller's Bank of America group in Atlanta would be very good. However with his recent promotion he may have had to move to Charlotte---even so his group in Atlanta may still be good. BofA moved most quant work to NY---even the Chicago people. I know of several entry to mid-level quants who worked in Chicago but had families as far away as remote Tenn.. One took the train home each Friday and returned Monday. There have been big name quants who commute large distances but of course the company gives them a first-class deal.