Any views on the following statement..."If you want to get a job as a Quant in say a (top) UK Investment Bank you must do your Phd at Oxbridge, LSE, LBS or maybe Imperial."(assuming one must have a Phd to pass the Education filter, even though this may not be a true assumption)Could one get a first round phone interview with a Phd in Financial Mathematics from a top 15 UK Uni?

I got interviews for quant (front office and model) positions at Goldman, MS, JPM, DB... And I have 2 MS but not a phd (I failed all my interviews though )

I'm beginning to wonder about this myself. I have a phd in the hard sciences from a non UK university and nobody is exactly knocking down my door. I had one series of interviews with one of the aforementioned banks for a front office role, it went ok but didnt lead to an offer. My applications with the other banks are just gathering dust. Maybe there is nothing unusual about this but when you hear about 102% of MFE employed by big banks -2 months after graduation it is quite frustrating. I cant help but feel that a phd from one of the UK elites is almost like a magic ticket to success, seems ridiculous Ive worked with many phds from Oxbridge etc, perhaps the faculty are world beaters but the students arent necessarily. That said I dont know, perhaps the students in the other UK universities are rubbish because everybody in the UK wants to go the Oxbridge. Perhaps its standard for big banks to take a long time to reply to applications, by long here Im talking about 4 months+? Actually I got a rejection from RBS without even an interview!?

I dont think that recruiting managers care about where you got your PhD or MSc. It is all about your skill set...

Nonsense, you don't need a top Uni PhD to get a job. Any hard science PhD from a real university will be good enough.

QuoteOriginally posted by: screwlooseI'm beginning to wonder about this myself. I have a phd in the hard sciences from a non UK university and nobody is exactly knocking down my door. I had one series of interviews with one of the aforementioned banks for a front office role, it went ok but didnt lead to an offer. My applications with the other banks are just gathering dust. Maybe there is nothing unusual about this but when you hear about 102% of MFE employed by big banks -2 months after graduation it is quite frustrating. I cant help but feel that a phd from one of the UK elites is almost like a magic ticket to success, seems ridiculous Ive worked with many phds from Oxbridge etc, perhaps the faculty are world beaters but the students arent necessarily. That said I dont know, perhaps the students in the other UK universities are rubbish because everybody in the UK wants to go the Oxbridge. Perhaps its standard for big banks to take a long time to reply to applications, by long here Im talking about 4 months+? Actually I got a rejection from RBS without even an interview!?UK firms are just like that, they think their system is better and unless you have it from harvard or princeton it's not particularly impressive. Some of the british graduates in my program think much higher of their oldies like trinity dublin, glasgow, aberdeen than most ivies here. Likewise I think most american firms feel the same way but the list is a little more expansive and less pedigree based. The french firms don't even care if you got your phd from harvard just which of the ecoles you did your engineering degree. They are not rubbish it's largely a cultural thing. These prejudices put to scrutiny whenever new european students come over every year always debunk old generalizations and set new ones for both sides of the atlantic.