career options for a physics grad

[Terrence]

Hi guys,

I've got about a year left in my grad program, and I've been thinking about the road ahead. I have decided that I no longer want to stay in academia (too many headaches with funding, politics, location, etc.). I'm interested in exploring careers in consulting and finance.

My background is in physics. I did my bachelors in physics at NYU (full scholarship) and then I went to pursue my DPhil (PhD) at Oxford in magnetic resonance physics, also with a full academic scholarship. And during my time in academia, I have had a few scientific publications.

I have experience in programming (mostly matlab, mathematica, and some python), statistical analysis, linear algebra, parallel computing. I have absolutely zero experience in anything outside academia. Anyone have any thoughts on what sort of positions I might be qualified for in banking/finance?

I'm so green my number one source of information is right now from this forum. I've read about what quants do in hedge funds, which I think is pretty cool.

Another career option I'm thinking about is consulting. Again, I know next to nothing about consulting. I will admit, I only heard of "McKinsey" last week when they came to Oxford to recruit. This is what happens when you're surrounded by academics. Would there be anything for someone with my background in consulting?

Thanks in advance for any input.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Start out by reading as much as you can on this forum and any other related quant forums.
This quantnet.com/guide gives you lot of things to get started. Once you have a good handle of the roles of each player in the financial market, you can explain better where you want to be i.e sell-side or buy-side, research vs development, middle office vs back office vs front office, etc.
Your academic credentials are a big plus. Your programming language is essential but I would greatly expand it beyond the academic tools. Learn C++, sql, vba as a start. Once you narrow down your career path, you can see what the important tools of the trade are.
This may take a whole year while you finish your grad program. By then, you are better prepared to talk to recruiters since you have a degree from Oxford, know some hard-core programming language and know their lingo.

 

[Terrence]

great. thanks andy! I'll pick up a cpp book and start some light reading

 

[Daniel Duffy]

great. thanks andy! I'll pick up a cpp book and start some light reading

And some non-light programming. Just reading C++ is a waste of time.

 

[Terrence]

And some non-light programming. Just reading C++ is a waste of time.

haha. i figured that.

 

[Daniel Duffy]

haha. i figured that.

You had me worried for a moment :D

 

[Andy Nguyen]

We do run an online C++ certificate affiliated with Baruch MFE program and Daniel Duffy is the course author which you can go through the first two levels at no cost. It should give you a good motivation to learn C++ as you will join hundreds of other members here who have learned C++ to join quant programs or get quant jobs.
https://www.quantnet.com/forum/c-course-info.2/