career change statistician into finance

[Dean]

Hi,

I am making a career transition from my current role as a biotech industry statistician (5 years experience using SAS, R and Stata) with and 2 years experience in the software industry (C++ and OOP and a short project using Python) to the financial sector. My degrees include a PhD, MS, MA in math with statistics (including numerical analysis, algorithms, computational modeling, measure theory based probability and pde). I realize this is a big leap and am willing to do whatever it takes to make this transition successful, short of getting another degree. I did spend the past 1.5 years reading up on stochastic processes and calculus, continuous time models, Hull and course notes on derivative securities.

Does anyone have recommendations on:
What segment of the financial sector to target?
How to best build a network?
What specific field(s) in finance should be considered?
What type of firms would be the most likely to consider this background for an entry level role?

note: I am requesting input particular to the financial sector, since I already have a career coach for general guidance.

thank you for your consideration

 

[Ken Abbott]

There are two basic quant career paths, the PDE route and the econometrics route. You seem to be a better fit for the latter, obviously. Many of them are to be found in risk.

The challenge for you won't be the math. It will be the institutional complexity. It's not uncommon for firms to hire good quantitative "athletes" and then mold them into the people they need, but the ones I've seen with no real experience have been economists who understand how the markets work.

PM me and we can chat.

 

[IntoDarkness]

ken is looking for talent!

 

[Dean]

Thank you for the response.

I have posted a resume on LinkedIn for consideration and would appreciate it greatly if you could take a quick look? I requested a connection. Regards Dean Leonardi