<p>If you were in my shoes, would you prefer Insead MBA (Singapore) offer or Haas MFE?</p>
<p>I like the adventure of the high risk - high reward characteristics of front office position in the investment banks, but I am somewhat a bit risk averse and would like to have an exit if financial market is abysmally bearish. Three positions that I am chasing are investment banking, trading, and management consulting. Eventually, I would like to move/find a job in Greater Asia either for Capital Market/Management Consulting.</p>
<p>Some points of consideration:
Insead MBA gives more career flexibility, but hard to penetrate Wall Street
Haas MFE degree has much narrower scope, but provides better chance in Wall Street to start with.</p>
<p>Consequently, my further questions are:
Will Wall Street experience be perceived highly in the greater Asia (Hong Kong and Singapore)</p>
<li><p>Would someone have a good chance to get into investment banking (I mean as a investment banker, and not equity analyst, risk analyst, etc) with an MFE degree? How about to management consulting, s.a. McKinsey?</p></li>
<li><p>What are normally the exit job for Trader?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I tend to agree with dcfa, it really depends on what your career objectives are.</p>
<p>There is not necessarily a good path to go from a staff job-quant, to a general line job- investment banker. You might get in easier, but slotted as a tech from which there is no escape. Which is perfect, if you don't want to escape.</p>
<p>The way out for quant is quant trading or quant fund. If that's what you want, it's probably more feasible, but hardly guaranteed. But IB side is much tougher via this path than MBA. I think.</p>
<p>Hi thanks monydad, to be frank, I don't have a preferred career objective. I have a rigorous engineering background so I am comfortable with quant job, on the other hand, I am fine too with non-technical/operation job. Being in the field, can you help me answer these questions:</p>
<ol>
<li>What are the exit options for Traders?</li>
<li>Is it true that the profit (i.e. compensation) from IB is becoming smaller and smaller?</li>
<li>How do you perceive compensation/risk ratio between Trader and IB?</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>I know a couple highly successful traders who became managers of their trading floor. Then managers of their firm</li>
</ol>
<p>I knew one trader who actually made it to age 65 and then retired</p>
<p>I knew a couple securities traders who were let go, then later went to the energy industry & traded there.</p>
<p>The rest I have no idea.</p>
<p>These so-called "exit strategies" are the dirty secret. Exit is frequently not at your election or preferred timing, and there is no "strategy" unless you make one for yourself. I know people who have been basically scattered to the winds. Based on their prior salaries, and lack of relevant skills, they are basically unemployable elsewhere; yet they don't have a big enough stash to just retire.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I am not currently in the business, have no idea. However, just a caution, profitability of various business areas changes over time, and periodically. IMO best strategy is go with what you are best at and most interested in, because if you are not good you will not necessarily commensurately profit anyway.</p></li>
<li><p>I don't know about compensation, we didn't discuss it. I think employment risk is comparable. Hours in trading are much better, so long as you're an early riser.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>understand that unless you want to get into quant trading there is really no reason for you to do the masters in FE, it's really as simple as that.</p>
<p>as for exit ops for traders, most will go on to hedge funds or related entities, or they'll head up trading desks, groups, trading overall. they don't switch to say management roles in fortune 500 companies, or mergers & acquisition type roles really.</p>
<p>i wouldn't say that profit from IB is getting smaller, this year was a record year for deals, it could mean we're going to see a decline but even in declines certain bankers will be making money (for example bankers in restructuring)</p>
<p>overall great traders will make more than their banker peers. the head of prop trading at goldman sachs is rumored to be getting a $100 million dollar bonus this year, there are some 25 year olds in trading who take in over $1 million a year, but for every trader to make money someone in the market is going to have to be on the opposite end LOSING money. that is where the risk is in trading. In some situations things can go very wrong and lots of money will be lost and you'll probably be fired for that. If your group's product doesn't perform well that year then you're probably not going to be taking in as big of a bonus as you did in previous years. Those are just some of the factors involved with trading specifically. </p>
<p>Really you should just hit up google and search for a few different things, I'm sure you'll find more answers to your questions.</p>
<p>"understand that unless you want to get into quant trading there is really no reason for you to do the masters in FE, it's really as simple as that."</p>
<p>Perhaps a modification/clarification based on my experience. We had people with this background, at my last firm, who worked on structure desks marking transaction transfer values, and in risk management- quantifying & managing firm risk exposure, trading floor value at risk, etc. These individuals were not traders at all; they were quants that supported the trading floor. </p>
<p>A few of these individuals did cross over to trading, eventually. Mostly quant trading, but not exclusively. Most of them did not become traders, though; didn't have the right mental attitude for the job. Different skillsets required.</p>
<p>moneydad, you're right -- I guess what I really meant is that unless you want to be actively working on the quant side of things you should reconsider the MFE, it shouldn't be thought of as a way to do a 1 year master's program and hit up wall street and do whatever you want as opposed to a 2 year MBA progam that may or may not require extensive work experience.</p>