what the fuck am i getting myself into with this grad school stuff

i wonder if they still give those jobs to any one with a good degree and the ability to solve differential equations

i mean this is pretty much the ultimate first world problem, but the main thing that worries me about going the finance route is i know so many people who said "i'll do it for a couple of years and then may my movie/write my book" whatever, but you get used to this standard of living or, even worse, you take out a mortgage, and then you're trapped. nearly 10 years later, none of them left. (although tbf one has retired.)

xp, they do.

yeah tbh i've done a couple years out of college and am no nearer to writing that book or making 100k so i mean either way

don't do it caek!!!

in quant the salaries are big, but they're not "never work again" big afaict.

i did get cold called a couple of times when i was in the uk, ca. 2007 (so pre-lehman bros). guys would ask me about diff. eqns, what languages i knew, and starting salaries which sounded pretty good to me. i don't think the cold-calling is back, but the jobs are totally still there.

yeah i mean if i did it it would be because it became clear in the next year or two that academia wasn't going to work out via not being the one. fingers crossed. my main concern is in 3 years time i take "maybe" for an answer, and then by the time i'm 40 i'm fucked.

fwiw i worked in finance for a p long time and ended up hating it and quitting, it does happen. i mean i was p young tho too, which makes it easier to walk away from the security/money

xp - yeah when i was in finance recruiting was p aggressive, big signing bonuses &c &c i had sorta assumed the market was less 'frothy' atm tho

i kind of wish my tenure review was next year so i knew one way or the other

you should just take the plunge, embezzle a few billion and then chill out in st. kitts for the rest of yr life

i wonder if they still give those jobs to any one with a good degree and the ability to solve differential equations

― Lamp, Thursday, September 15, 2011 1:34 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark

ime they'll take anyone from a top school with a high GPA, no matter your major. they're looking for people who are able to cram a massive amount of information in a short amount of time and then be able to perform up and above that standard (i.e. what a GPA shows.)

strangely enough they'll also take athletes from top schools w/ average GPAs, because being an athlete shows 'commitment' and a willingness to 'put in the time'

the terrible terrible thing is if i did that i would probably do an mfa rather than chill out in st kitts xp

there's also sorta the athlete = alpha male thing.

I met somebody from my year from undergrad a year later after he had started working in finance. he was built but skinny during undergrad, when I talked w/ him his stomach had at least tripled in size. all those kobe steak dinners, man

i think that kind of recruiting is trading and sales though, dayo?

quant is supposed to be different. they are a lot more comfortable with beta males (they basically won't recruit without a phd so lol they pretty much have to be!) and, nominally at least, a bit more relaxed about working hours.

ime they'll take anyone from a top school with a high GPA, no matter your major. they're looking for people who are able to cram a massive amount of information in a short amount of time and then be able to perform up and above that standard (i.e. what a GPA shows.)

this is really only true on the commercial and investment banking side. hedge funds, pe, merchant banks &c &c are a lot more selective (and remunerative) about who they recruit and are more interested in math/physics/engineering majors than any random yalie w/ a 3.8

this is a surprisingly interesting book btw http://www.amazon.com/My-Life-Quant-Reflections-Physics/dp/0471394203

^ subtle dayo diss xp

lool

yeah but those people also make 100k out of undergrad, no need for a phd

armscrossed.gif

my biggest failing as an azn is that I am terrible at math

dayo are you working at the moment?

nope

L I V I N.

yeah i mean if i did it it would be because it became clear in the next year or two that academia wasn't going to work out via not being the one. fingers crossed. my main concern is in 3 years time i take "maybe" for an answer, and then by the time i'm 40 i'm fucked.

This is basically my fear too.

all my friends are unemployed too. I think I made the wrong kinds of friends in undergrad. ;_;

haha that's why they're all likable tho

pro-tip: having half your friends go into finance is not a good thing.

haha yeah

guess nobody is ever gonna invite me to go snort coke off a gold toilet seat *sigh*

armscrossed.gif

haha sorry!! i had no idea you went to y4le!

anyway in the coming economic collapse well all be glad we dont work on wall st. imo

haha no offense taken

my point was more that if you just wanna make 6 figures out of undergrad, ibanking/hedge fund is probably the way to go

i mean this is pretty much the ultimate first world problem, but the main thing that worries me about going the finance route is i know so many people who said "i'll do it for a couple of years and then may my movie/write my book" whatever, but you get used to this standard of living or, even worse, you take out a mortgage, and then you're trapped. nearly 10 years later, none of them left. (although tbf one has retired.)

― caek, Thursday, September 15, 2011 1:34 PM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah my friends boyfriend works in finance, he's from this really small town in saskatchewan, totally unpretentious/salt of the earth type dude. but about six months in he started wearing a movado watch (that clashed horribly w/ the plaid he would wear when not working), started talking about buying expensive jackets, etc.

there was some article about how it's less that the random yalies really wanted to work in finance and more that they have big companies approaching them w/ paychecks and even if they would prefer working in a nonprofit or something, it'd actually be *more difficult* cause you can't jut expect a job out of undergrad

just

ie sorta aimlessness / laziness / competitive job market and less that they're inherently bad people (tho don't hold that out either)

yah ime finance is p attractive industry especially if you have any kind of student loans. i started as a summer associate after my first year of college and stayed on for the next four and half years. i got regular raises and bonuses and made more than enough to cover my private colleges tuition. compared w/ almost any other industry where i would have been working unpaid or lowpaid internships and still tossing a coin on postgrad employment. for all its flaws ibanks take care of their workers

I tried to make this point in the generation limbo thread but yeah I think finance is probably one of the few industries left that still hire based on a 'meritocratic' system i.e. hard work in undergrad will correlate w/ high salary

in a lot of other industries yeah you are fighting for scraps & doing something that a high schooler could do in starting positions

whole generation's most valuable minds goin into invisible money & trying to find ways to make ppl click ads

what a fucking world

the prob is it's not really *in spite of* their flaws that they can pay well - their flaws lead to the gobs of money, some of which they'll toss to an intern. some random govt agency or nonprofit with a stretched budget will never afford to compete.

looking back I should have probably tried to get placed at a tech company str8 out of undergrad, huh

it's boring but it helps

hedge funds, pe, merchant banks &c &c are a lot more selective (and remunerative) about who they recruit and are more interested in math/physics/engineering majors than any random yalie w/ a 3.8

― Lamp, Thursday, 15 September 2011 18:47 (16 minutes ago)

do many of those recruit straight from undergrad tho (esp hedge funds)

yeah my impression was the focus of your degree wasn't so important for recruitment out of undergraduate.

like me having a physics BA wouldn't have done me any harm, but it wouldn't have opened any more doors than PPE

like I just said they just care about your ability to cram huge amounts of info + apply it - so major is not really important

subtle zing ^^

ok I guess if you were a psych major you're SOL

haha this conv prob shoulda happened on dayo's wall street thread

nahk it depends on the size and the strategy of the fund but ime the bigger hedge funds and pe firms do some undergrad recruiting. even w/in the big banks different depts. will have different recruiting strategies/needs