Masters Student in EE, looking to get into quant finance

[iota]

Hey everyone,

I'm a Masters student in Electrical Engineering at a UC school. My focus is on signal processing, and communication systems.

However, I wish to get into quant finance. I'd like some advice on how I should go about applying to these firms, since I am not a student of MFE. I have started reading the reference books that have been listed on this website, but it will take me a while to go through them. Since, companies hire internships around now, I need some guidance as to how I plan the rest of my time in the university in order to get into the field (either through an internship or directly full time). I would be graduating in March 2014

My profile is like this:
Have worked on: signal processing, speech/image processing.
I'm quite strong at Math/Probability, but I'm rather new to financial mathematics

My coding skills are in C++, Matlab and Python. I would say I'm average here

So how should I spend my time?
Programming/Algorithms?
Or Financial Math?

What are my options, given my background?

Summary:
MS Student in Signal Processing.
What should I do now (and for the next one year) to get in the field? I will graduate in March 2014, so I have one shot at an internship (now) and one at full-time.

 

[shivgan joshi]

Finance is a dealy path, I also am from EE/Nano electronics/MEMS and now moved in quant finance.
All of the peace of life is gone, and all what I have is future expected cash flows with probabilities attached.

 

[iota]

Haha, thanks for the input.

Any tips on how to get in though? How did you manage to get in?

 

[shivgan joshi]

I am in India, I got in through KPO concept in India where I am international external researcher for bank.
I am billed 100k but given 10k only per year and rest is earned by KPO company. Also there is no working hours limit and Saturday/Sundays are not off. I work for over 70 hrs a week many of times.
Hell of a job but the job is for top US very conservative bank in IB team with very good exposure and knowledge on Quant corp finance. I get to see many good models and pitch books. Before this I was working on a german bank as international contractual exployee in index quant where I learend about various indices based on equity.

I got in by doing 1 year PG diploma finance in india, passinng cfa l1 and frm 1.

 

[addcapital]

Hi Shivgan,

I am also working here in KPO for last 4 years into Risk & Analytics. I am trying to make move to Quants but finding hard time to reach there. I have completed Financial Engineering & Risk Management from NISM (SEBI India) and MBA (Finance). Can you please suggest what else can be done for Entry level quant profile particularly in India ?

Thanks