Hello, I've recently completed a PhD in Astrophysics. To briefly summarise my work; I wrote scripted codes to perform Monte Carlo simulations on large volumes of data. The program I primarily used was IDL which is a commercial programming language based on C and FORTRAN. However I've used some Python during my time and have currently been expanding my knowledge of it. Recently I've read 'Options Futures and other Derivatives - John Hull', and the next book shall be 'Paul Wilmott on Quantitative Finance' To enter the financial services industry as a whole, currently I am finding myself in a catch-22 situation. I do not have the relevant experience of working in the industry to apply for jobs that would suit my skill set. However I am also being told that I am overqualified for the more junior/assistant roles. I think I want to be a quant (however perhaps people will say that I should know that I want to be a quant?). My reasons for this are that the aspect of my PhD work that I enjoyed the most was the writing of computer modeling codes. I'm not afraid of working very hard and I'm also quite happy to sell my soul to the highest bidder - at least for the next 5-10 years.So my main question is what should I do next? - To increase my employability and/or increase my chances for the next wave of graduate jobs with the big banks, etc (applications start around Sept).As an example,1.) Should I begin teaching myself C++? (And perhaps drop the Python?)2.) Are there any other books people could recommend?3.) Should I begin teaching myself Stochastic calculus?4.) Or would it be a worthwhile investment to do a MSc in Mathematical Finance?I'm currently exploring the costs/likelihood of option 4, and I'm slightly worried about borrowing a lot of money/costuming another year of my life if it would not be worthwhile. Any general career advice would also be very welcomed.

You and a lot of other people are trying to break into a fairly crowded space. I have actually hired an astrophysicist (dark matter expert) into a finance quant role in the recent past, and my suggestion to you would be to play up your hard core research background, preferably by doing some real research in finance and writing it up as a paper that you can present. This is much harder than reading text books, but kind of what we are looking for PhDs to do. Python is useful, so don't drop it, but there are a lot of positions out there that requires C++, so that would be a sensible thing to study.

QuoteOriginally posted by: JosephJTo enter the financial services industry as a whole, currently I am finding myself in a catch-22 situation. I do not have the relevant experience of working in the industry to apply for jobs that would suit my skill set. However I am also being told that I am overqualified for the more junior/assistant roles.Have you talked to a good head hunter? It seems to me that you have exactly the right skills for some of the roles in finance. One thing that you do have to realize is that you are totally unqualified for 95% of the jobs in finance, but that's an irrelevant fact because there are 5% of the jobs that work just fine. Start with www.dice.com , www.efinancialcareers.com and www.phds.org. Start networking with head hunters.QuoteTo increase my employability and/or increase my chances for the next wave of graduate jobs with the big banks, etc (applications start around Sept).1) They don't. You need to start sending your resumes to HH's now.2) Avoid HR and the MBA hiring track. If you go into the standard hiring track for the big banks, you'll end up lost with a bunch of MBA's being considered for jobs that you aren't much good at.3) Don't think in terms of increasing your employability. Your goal is not to make yourself attractive for the maximum number of jobs. Your goal is to land the job that fits your background.Quote1.) Should I begin teaching myself C++? (And perhaps drop the Python?)Knowing some C++ is better than knowing no C++. Do not drop the Python. Scipy/numpy are very heavily used in finance. One thing that might be useful is to learn enough C/C++ so that you can program python extensions. If you aren't the world's expert in scientific computing with Python, become one.Quote2.) Are there any other books people could recommend?3.) Should I begin teaching myself Stochastic calculus?Yes. As with C++, don't try to be an expert. Knowing stochastic calculus is better than not knowing stochastic calculus. Quote4.) Or would it be a worthwhile investment to do a MSc in Mathematical Finance?Total waste of time and money.What people are looking for are people that are absolute experts at one or two things, and not totally incompetent at everything else. In six months, you aren't going to be an expert in C++, and you should aim for the "not totally incompetent" level. You could be a total expert in something python related.

QuoteOriginally posted by: bearishYou and a lot of other people are trying to break into a fairly crowded space.Also crowded is relative. Getting an entry level position in finance is a challenge, but it's a lot, lot easier than applying for post-docs.

0) start learning about the industry (book: The Complete Guide to Capital Markets for Quantitative Professionals, Alex Kuznetsov) and talking to people. 1) keep working on your python.2) Start learning C++ but reach for an achievable target that you can hit in 3 months. Reaching the level of C++ Design Patterns and Derivatives Pricing by Mark Joshi is doable.3) Don't read more finance books, if you already covered all of Hull. Try instead to find an area that you want to focus more on an go deeper in that by working on a project or research.

QuoteOriginally posted by: bearishby doing some real research in finance and writing it up as a paper that you can present.This is something I would be willing to do, however I must currently confess complete naivety as I've never even read a financial (academic) paper. Are there any 'free' journals for finance? In physics there is the arxiv.org archive where you can publish papers after acceptance whilst your paper is still going through the editorial process. Is there anything like that for finance? I've googled financial journals but I'd have to pay a lot of money to read each paper. I can print off several papers next time I call into my old university in a few weeks time. Could you recommend a short reading list of review papers, etc?QuoteOriginally posted by: twofishAlso crowded is relative. Getting an entry level position in finance is a challenge, but it's a lot, lot easier than applying for post-docs.This gives me more hope than I had before Thank-youI've been applying to many jobs on efinancialcareers.co.uk, and I've submitted my CV to paul & dominic. I'll check the other out though.Thank-you for your time so far.

finance papers can be found on:http://www.ssrn.com/

QuoteOriginally posted by: madmax0) start learning about the industry (book: The Complete Guide to Capital Markets for Quantitative Professionals, Alex Kuznetsov) and talking to people. 1) keep working on your python.2) Start learning C++ but reach for an achievable target that you can hit in 3 months. Reaching the level of C++ Design Patterns and Derivatives Pricing by Mark Joshi is doable.3) Don't read more finance books, if you already covered all of Hull. Try instead to find an area that you want to focus more on an go deeper in that by working on a project or research.4) Read the interview books (crack, wilmott, joshi, zhou) and achieve basic competency in every topic that has a question in those books, mastery in a few topics.5) For junior positions, contact several recruiters, 50 is a nice round number. 6) Learn often used computer algorithms and understand asymptotic complexity of algorithms.

QuoteOriginally posted by: JosephJQuoteOriginally posted by: bearishby doing some real research in finance and writing it up as a paper that you can present.Is there anything like that for finance? Duh!

Thank-you everyone for the advice so far, this has honestly been great. Just to clarify, when you say do some real financial research to present as a paper, are you suggesting that I perform a literature review, etc to present in the format of a paper to bring to an interview/link to a CV or actually try and do an original piece of work to write up as a paper and even attempt to publish it? Currently well out of my depth at the moment for something like that but hopefully that will change. QuoteOriginally posted by: AlanQuoteOriginally posted by: JosephJQuoteOriginally posted by: bearishby doing some real research in finance and writing it up as a paper that you can present.Is there anything like that for finance? Duh!Ha! forgive my ignorance I've visited that site 100s of times and honestly never noticed!

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