Careers in Mathematics, Sponsored by Jane Street Capital

[rrusczyk]

[ffdbzathf]

what is a series 7 license?

[rrusczyk]

Series 7 is a brutally boring standardized test that you have to pass in order to be able to perform certain functions in the financial world. Not all people involved in trading have to take it.

[darktreb]

How much Comp Sci is *required* (strongly strongly recommended)? And what aspects of compsci are most important? For example, actual literacy in a language, compared to the right "style of thinking" in terms of approaching problems (but possibly still needing to look up specific commands, etc.). I think literacy comes with experience, so it's not exactly two separate things, but still.

Also, say I am going for a math/economics double major at MIT. How big of a deal would a Business (specifically called Management here) minor be?

[rrusczyk]

[ffdbzathf]

how exactly would one gain programming ability/experience through college without working in comp sci?

[MCrawford]

[rrusczyk]

[bchui]

Seems most interesting but I have never got a chance to get in touch with those people doing research in the investment bank here in Hong Kong. I wonder if there are any chance of S.O.H.O. type analyst job available on the web ?

[maokid7]

well i have read previous post and have heard you often say try to get an intership. I am wondering how competative is it to get one of these internship positions?

Aslo I dont attend a big name school (like MIT, Harvard, Princeton, ect.) but plan to go to try and get into a grad school that is in that prestiege class. do you think this will hurt me if i try and become a quant?

[rrusczyk]

[MCrawford]

No matter what school you go to, making connections will probably do you more good than any university name on your resume. I've worked for 8 different companies (some as a contractor for short periods) in 11 years since graduating high school. With the exception of the actuarial job I worked for over 2 years in college, my initial contact with all of them was through somebody I knew who believed I would be a good hire (including AoPS -- though more directly than in the other cases). I've been offered about two dozen jobs that I didn't take during that time and in every single case, the initial conversation arose as a direct result of previous connections.

So, get to know the people you work with in any capacity. That way there will be people out in the world who know what you can do. The fact is, there are only a tiny number of resumes in a large stack that say more than when somebody I trust says to me, "I know this smart guy who..."

[yeeleeen]

Hi, Is statistics by itself too narrow a specialisation (without finance/ economics and the like) to find a job as a Quant?

Thanks

[MCrawford]

[yeeleeen]

Hi, thanks for replying , the statistics course i've been offered would cover medical statistics at a deeper level than stochastic finance. This being a second degree, i was wondering about the mobility between fields and what kind of postgraduate course would be versatile but yet provide strong fundamentals for research and trader type positions? Would the statistics course be too narrow in that it does not cover multivariate calculus, differential equations etc..etc..etc..

Many thanks!

[MCrawford]

[maokid7]

as stated before the level of competition for internship positions is very high.
I assume that after u send in a resume w/ you initial application they then select a few to conduct interviews with, how hard is it to get an interview if you don't go to a school like Harvard, MIT, and other schools with that kind of reputation.

[MCrawford]

[maokid7]

[drunner2007]

This all looks really interesting. I'm thinking about learning something about finance and programming as I major in math, so that perhaps one day I can work for a big firm like this.