Hi,Anyone (with experience or knowledge) have advice for how to sell yourself to the big Canadian banks (RBC Capital markets, TD Securities and the like)? I'm typical eng/physics background. Didn't like my eng. job, so I quit. Now i'm thinking of trying to find something at the big Canadian banks as i'm currently in Calgary. Don't care whether it really has anything to do with derivatives or if it's something totally different in i-banking -- just figured derivatives related work would be more likely with my background and since i know a bit about them. So i plan to find their Calgary office number, call them, get HR on the phone and give the my backgammon and play up the fact that i do know something about derivatives, am studying CFA, got good GMAT score. Anythign else I should be doing, or am I just wasting my time trying to get a position with them?

You might have more luck with an energy group of a foreign bank based in Calgary. Canadian banks seem a bit stodgy and not very quant friendly.

Well investors in Canada are very passive and hence, don't invest in products they don't understand. That's why quant work isn't that big there. This doesn't mean there's no quant work at Canadian banks - after all, RBC ran one of the biggest index arb groups on wall st with some very well trained quants - from what we in the US are observing, that bank has already started competing with top shops in several businesses. But within Canada, it's generally very hard to get into these banks: top 5 banks control the market and each hires around 10 entry level candidates every year in sales and trading area. Having said that, how do u know you're interested in finance? Work hours are quite different from engineering firms and you may quit even that after a few months. So you need to somehow convince yourself and prove to others you're interested in finance before you can start applying to financial firms. There're several non-bank trading shops in Canada.

Dont be Canadian. Thats a waste of time!

QuoteOriginally posted by: yaourtDont be Canadian. Thats a waste of time!Sorry, I made a mistake here. I confused Canada with Denmark. It is great being a Canadian. But, dont be Danish. Thats a waste of time!

you might find some energy traders in calgary.The bank-quanting would be more Toronto