Hi all, hope you're doing well.
I'm an MFE student at a target school in Canada and am having trouble figuring out where I fit in this industry.
I have a masters degree in pure math and no previous work experience (except RA/TA during masters if that counts).
I've been looking for internships for summer 2025 and have had remarkably poor luck compared to my colleagues, some of who have already placed while I've gotten over a dozen rejections and not a single interview.
Assuming my resume is OK (I improved it a lot with the advice of my program director) I'm looking for advice on how else to improve my chances.
What kind of roles would like someone with my background? I assume stuff related to derivative pricing but these roles seem few and far between. Is there anything else I should be on the look out for? Research? Risk? Model validation?
I am reasonably comfortable with Python and spending my (limited) free time working through Armstrong's "C++ for Financial Mathematics", am open to alternate suggestions (leetcoding?) if this is a poor use of time.
I'm not at all picky about the type of role I land in. As long as I can do some math and solve interesting problems I will be happy even if the pay is lower than usual.
Cheers and thanks in advance.
I'm an MFE student at a target school in Canada and am having trouble figuring out where I fit in this industry.
I have a masters degree in pure math and no previous work experience (except RA/TA during masters if that counts).
I've been looking for internships for summer 2025 and have had remarkably poor luck compared to my colleagues, some of who have already placed while I've gotten over a dozen rejections and not a single interview.
Assuming my resume is OK (I improved it a lot with the advice of my program director) I'm looking for advice on how else to improve my chances.
What kind of roles would like someone with my background? I assume stuff related to derivative pricing but these roles seem few and far between. Is there anything else I should be on the look out for? Research? Risk? Model validation?
I am reasonably comfortable with Python and spending my (limited) free time working through Armstrong's "C++ for Financial Mathematics", am open to alternate suggestions (leetcoding?) if this is a poor use of time.
I'm not at all picky about the type of role I land in. As long as I can do some math and solve interesting problems I will be happy even if the pay is lower than usual.
Cheers and thanks in advance.
If you haven’t already, it might also be helpful to add some leetcode practice to round out your coding skills, especially for interviews at firms that value algorithmic thinking. Also, keep an eye on data-heavy roles, even in portfolio analytics or financial engineering, as they often seek strong problem solvers with math skills.
