Hi I'm new to this forum.
I'm looking for some career advice from quants. I'm a PhD in EE from a top 15 US university, with a focus on digital signal processing and wireless communications. I have 4 yrs industry experience which had a heavy emphasis on algorithm design, statistics, simulation and modeling. I used matlab as the main development tool with some C++. I have been thinking about making a switch to quantitative finance for some time and have studied a couple of books, Hull and Bjork, on my own.
I'm probably a month or two away from being prepared enough to interview for quant type jobs. However, I recently got a very good engineering job offer at a startup. A good salary (150K+) and a significant equity position. The role will also have lots of interaction with venture capitalists since its an early stage company raising funds.
So my questions are:
I'm looking for some career advice from quants. I'm a PhD in EE from a top 15 US university, with a focus on digital signal processing and wireless communications. I have 4 yrs industry experience which had a heavy emphasis on algorithm design, statistics, simulation and modeling. I used matlab as the main development tool with some C++. I have been thinking about making a switch to quantitative finance for some time and have studied a couple of books, Hull and Bjork, on my own.
I'm probably a month or two away from being prepared enough to interview for quant type jobs. However, I recently got a very good engineering job offer at a startup. A good salary (150K+) and a significant equity position. The role will also have lots of interaction with venture capitalists since its an early stage company raising funds.
So my questions are:
- Do I take the engineering job now and possibly delay a move into finance a year or two?
- Will age be an issue when starting a quant type role? I may be 35 when I consider making a move.
- What are typical compensation packages that entry level quants receive? How does this ramp up with experience?
- What are the markets currently like for entry level quant positions? With the credit crunch affecting many hedge funds and banks, is it wise to make a career change in this environment.
- Is there any value to heavy interaction with VCs?