So you got into a MFE Program… Now What?
There are plenty of articles on how to get into a MFE program… but how do you prepare for the intensely competitive internship recruiting that comes with a graduate program in quantitative finance?I’m happy to share some insights from my three years of experience working in Career Services for Carnegie Mellon’s MSCF (Master of Science in Computational Finance) program.
The Reality of U.S. Recruitment
*Note: As majority of my students have landed internships and full-time roles in the US, I will focus on how to prepare for U.S. recruitment for Master’s level roles.
I can best describe graduate-level internship recruitment in one word: BRUTAL. And the competition has gotten even tougher in 2025 with more students competing for fewer opportunities.
Even attending one of the top-ranked MFE programs in the country, with an impressive GPA or quant score, and working closely with a career services team, it can take Master’s students:
- 2-9+ months to secure a summer internship in the field,
- 20-200+ job applications,
- Over 10 hours per week in technical interview preparation,
- Between 20 minutes to 2+ hours per online assessment (usually the first step in the interview process),
- Multiple superdays and lengthy interview processes,
- And significant stress balancing graduate school coursework and the demands of recruiting.
Keep in mind: These are general trends. Every company — and each role within that company — can have its own unique timeline, which may also vary from year to year.That being said, do not panic. This is why many MFE programs have their own career teams, recruiting events, treks, and employer contacts in the field.
While the internship search is stressful, and you may be tempted to take a return offer from your undergraduate internship, I advise waiting. Accepting a position before the on campus recruitment season starts might result in you missing out on opportunities or employers you weren’t aware of.
5 Ways to Become More Competitive as an Internship Candidate
So what can you do between now and the start of your program?
- Start creating a master copy of your resume/CV.
This should be a document that includes any past/current projects, internships/experience, research, etc. Be sure to include techniques you’ve used, results you achieved, and problems you solved for each of these experiences. Update this document quarterly for your own records, so you can reference this information for future resumes/CVs and interviews. - Explore career interests and begin networking now.
You are probably already reaching out to former classmates or alumni to hear about their experiences. Don’t forget to use your current connections (classmates, faculty members, peers from other institutions) to get introductions with other professionals in the field and build up your LinkedIn network.
Once you get someone to agree to chat with you, ask them about their current role, most used skills, and past work experiences that helped them get where they are today. This technique is called an informational interview, and can be incredibly useful to start learning about different desks, financial products, companies and their cultures. It’s also helpful to identify how much programming, math, statistics, or market knowledge is needed to succeed in a particular role.
Don’t forget to use a Networking Tracker (here’s one from Handshake) to document these conversations so you can reach out again in the future. By the time you get to graduate school, you can send them an update about the search, what you’re looking for, and ask about the latest industry trends. - Build up your technical and coding skills.
Most investment banks will have some sort of HackerRank, programming, or combination (probability/stats/math/coding) assessment as a first round screening after you submit an application.
Go ahead and sign up for a free account on LeetCode or HackerRank before summer starts and build practicing coding problems into your weekly routine: ideally every day, but even 30 minutes a few times per week is a good start!
You want to work your way up to tackle medium and hard questions by mid-summer to prepare for online assessments and screens. GeeksforGeeks and OpenQuant offer helpful practice questions too. While you can choose your programming language, most roles still involve Python to some degree, so I recommend building your proficiency there first.
Keep in mind: not every role is going to require the same level of programming as others. For example, quant trading roles might require more practice in mental math, probability, and open-ended market making games. - Gain relevant, technical experience for your resume.
While MFE programs care about research and high GPAs, employers would rather see multiple technical internships that demonstrate your skills in a real-world environment. They want to see how well your past experience aligns with the position(s) they’re hiring for. This is why those with backgrounds in fundamental finance will get called back for fundamental roles and why software engineers are noticed often for quant developer roles.
If you are transitioning from a different field, or are unable to land a technical internship, focus on completing a project that involves the skills you need for the role you want. This can be a course project, an independent one, or a competition. Sites like Parker Dewey (consult your international student office), Forage (open for any students, regardless of visa status), or entering a Kaggle competition might be options to help you build project-related experience.
Having a sense of direction, and taking the initiative to build the necessary skills to succeed, makes a candidate stand out compared to the competition. - Strengthen your communication and presentation skills.
Technical skills, experience, and education might get you to the interview, but it’s often your communication and presentation skills that will determine how far you advance.
In your career, you will likely need to explain your thought process cross-functionally to less technical teams, present your results to leadership, or convince a client to take action based on your recommendation(s). They may want to understand what you did, how you did it, and why you did it - but in simple, everyday language. They might not know or care what ARIMA, Monte Carlo Simulation, or XGBoost is. Asking ChatGPT to explain these concepts in simple terms can help you hone this skill (just do not repeat it exactly).
This is also why doing all the problems in the “Green Book” or memorizing all the answers, will NOT be enough to land you a Master’s internship offer in the U.S. Instead, partner up and practice these questions aloud, along with follow up and variations on the questions, like “Why did you choose to use this method over another? What variables did you consider? What if you did ____ instead of ___, and how would that change the result?”
Incoming MFE students should implement the following practices to prepare for US recruitment:
- Update your master resume.
- Refine your career interests and start building your network.
- Practice coding weekly.
- Get technical experience (relevant to the role you want) - through an internship or project.
- Work on your communication and presentation skills.
I hope you find this information helpful. Best of luck!
