<p>This is for those actually in the industry</p>
<p>what advice would you give to someone going into college</p>
<p>majors
clubs
internships</p>
<p>life in general</p>
<p>I have a question for those in the industry too....I have been reading numerous articles on how major financial firms are laying off several workers and are cutting back on recruiting...i recently met a U Chicago MBA alum and he told me things will be fine by 2012-2013...is this true? how long do you think this "recession" is going to last?</p>
<p>Majors: Depends where you're going. Obviously somebody at Harvard would have more "options" in terms of major than somebody from Wisconsin. That being said something finance/math related is always good. No it doesn't matter what, finance/econ/math/engineering. Something that shows you can work hard and are good with numbers. </p>
<p>Clubs: Do something that you enjoy and try to be a leader. Remember in HS when you were told it's better to be a leader in 2 things than a member in 4 or 5? Same thing applies. Do what you want because, to be honest, your club membership isn't going to make/break you. Sure it helps to do something finance related but no bank is gonna want a kid who is 100% finance. I mean, you're going to be working alongside these people for 80-120 hours a week...you want them to be people you can hang with. </p>
<p>Internships: Get them, anything finance related is good. Anything in business is good. No don't expect to get an IB gig after fresh/soph year. Try to snag one in between jr/sr year cuz you'll have a huge leg up for fulltime hiring. </p>
<p>Life in general: If you're talking college just enjoy it. You have 4 years before you start in the real world, if you enjoy college it'll show. If you're miserable it's going to reflect itself in your performance both in and out of class. </p>
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I have been reading numerous articles on how major financial firms are laying off several workers and are cutting back on recruiting...i recently met a U Chicago MBA alum and he told me things will be fine by 2012-2013...is this true? how long do you think this "recession" is going to last?
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</p>
<p>Things are going to get better. This has happened before (00/01) and it will happen again. If you want my honest opinion on the future of IB I'd say it's going to regress a little. It will still be a prestigious profession, still work on huge deals, still get paid good money....but I don't think we're going to see salaries as high as they were this past year. I know I've been assaulted on this board because of this view but think of all those computer "consultants" and vc guys making 200/300k in the late nineties. They were overpaid becasue it was the .com era...well I feel like post 2000 was the IB era. Why do you think everybody wants it? Don't get me wrong, I expect IB are still going to be among the best paid people in the world, just not as crazy/high as they have been in the past couple of years. </p>
<p>FWIW I did a SA stint and know many people in IB. I don't know if that counts as being "in the industry" but I doubt there's a fulltime analyst/associate who's on this board and I feel like I have a pretty good grasp of what things are like, whether it's my personal experiences or what I've heard from numerous analysts/associates I've worked with.</p>
<p>hmm...that makes me feel better lol...I've also been reading articles about how the hiring for quants has been slightly higher compared to those in regular IB...im quoting directly from the article: "While many financial professionals are concerned about job security and plummeting compensation, at least one segment remains healthy: quantitative analytics."</p>
<p>here is the link to the article:
TOP</a> STORIES: Quantitative Analytics Hiring Strong in Chicago</p>
<p>That article says that the "recession" has not negatively impacted quants as much as it has impacted the IB people....
Lax, what are your views on the future of quants and, from your experience, how have quants faired in the recruiting process and the "recession"?</p>
<p>quants aren't nearly as vulnerable to recessions as everybody else. Sure, you can expect to see some people get laid off, but nothing that would be out of the ordinary for any industry. The people who do quants, even when they are laid off, have no problem finding work because these are some of the most vital people to any IB. They are the hardest to find because you can't teach what quants have...you can stick anybody in as an analyst and teach them about IB. With quants you have to have crazy math skills before you even get to the bank. </p>
<p>That being said, quant jobs are about 10x as hard to get as normal IB jobs. They are insanely hard...</p>
<p>do you use accounting at all in IB
i heard majoring in statistics(stochastic calculus) is pretty much useless in IB
economics i know you have your basic financial/economic models but if i am already majoring in finance, isnt that redundant</p>
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do you use accounting at all in IB
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</p>
<p>Do you even know what investment bankers do? Seriously kid, do some research before you ask any more stupid questions.</p>
<p>someone told me it isn't worth double majoring in</p>
<p>Zoolander, come on. You're at Stern and asking questions like that? That's embarassing man. Go read a vault guide or something. And go google the difference between IBD and S&T while you're at it. And have a nice day.</p>
<p>^^lol......you dont need advanced math at all for IB...the level of math used does not go beyond pre-calculus....the advanced math concepts are used by quants....zoolander you dont even have to major in finance to do i banking.....my friend was an engineering major and he told me that in his first week at Lehman, he was told to read an accounting text book to learn all the basics of finance.....all you do in IB is crunch numbers in Excel, which, in my opinion, any high school senior who's taken calculus can do if trained properly</p>
<p>that is what i thought
i heard finance math was easy as hell so i was wondering how calculus 4 and real analysis would help</p>
<p>it won't.....I'm planning to double major in finance and math because I'm more interested in being a quant and applying to graduate programs in Financial engineering and quantitative finance....for regular IB, you dont need all that math AT ALL....</p>
<p>Only thing you need math for is quant jobs. Would a 3.8 in something math related be better than a 3.8 in history? Sure, but it's going to be a helluva lot harder to get. You don't <em>need</em> anything for IB except a pulse and the ability to work 80-120 hr weeks.</p>
<p>what about risk managment</p>
<p>You're paying $55,000 a year to go to Stern so you can pursue a career in risk management? My friends at JPM say they hire kids from CCs to work in back office positions. Yeah, good luck with that.</p>
<p>do quant jobs in trading, quant research, derivatives pricing etc pay more than an i banking position? most of the graduates from mathematical finance programs seem to have worked somewhere along the lines of quantitative research analyst, trading, asset pricing, or even risk management, as aworldapart points out....arent these positions well paid too?</p>
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You're paying $55,000 a year to go to Stern so you can pursue a career in risk management?
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<p>maybe that person wants to pursue a career as an actuary which is basically a sort of risk management.</p>
<p>Risk management isn't back office noobs. It's middle office and certain areas of risk management are very very well paid (ie market risk).</p>
<p>Trading and derivatives pricing (structuring) both pay slightly better on average than IBD, and at top levels pay waaaay better than IBD. They also work far fewer hours (no weekends, work market hours +4 or so). IBD sounds horrible to be honest. But I may be a bit biased. ;)</p>
<p>
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Trading and derivatives pricing (structuring) both pay slightly better on average than IBD, and at top levels pay waaaay better than IBD. They also work far fewer hours (no weekends, work market hours +4 or so). IBD sounds horrible to be honest.
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</p>
<p>If quants earn more money than those in IBD, the downside is that becoming a quant is pretty hard relative to becoming a general financial analyst...most quants have some pretty quantitative major, such as math, statistics, and graduate degrees in financial engineering etc....all those majors are much more difficult than a business major...the upside is that quants are generally less vulnerable to recessions than general analysts, i.e. not as many quants are laid off as are IBD people....so it's a tradeoff</p>
<p>i know bulge brackets are hard as hell to get into </p>
<p>are boutiques just as hard</p>