Mid - Career change

[Ankur]

Dear All,

I am a new member here and looking forward for some advise on it this is going to be a place for me to stay or go.

I have been looking at some of the jobs Quants do and am very much attracted to high salaries.

Here is my profile for you to suggest if you think I can make it to successful Quant career at this stage (I am already 33 Years) ...

1) Graduate of Business Studies (Finance) University if Delhi India
2) MBA (Marketing ) Full -time
3) Executive program in Quant applications in Business. Indian Institute of Management Kolkata (Part time)

Programming : Expert Excel and VBA developer & worked on Objective C, VB .NET (But not an expert in C and .NET). I do Excel and VBA all the time.

Experience :
I am working in a technology company as a Commercial Pricing Analyst (in Chennai India) and help them price their products that include basically computers etc. But for last 4 years have been developing and developed various pricing applications, profitability analysis tools, cash flow modelling, mostly Capital budgeting stuff. Before that I have been in Marketing Research and Analytics for about 5 Years.

I am quite keen to get started with this new field where I am hoping to use my love for programming and some background in Commercial, general management and pricing. (not hard core finance, but I am willing to learn). And I want to get started on this with a an MFE course.

I do see that most of the top colleges accept only candidates with financial market backgrounds but I do not have that. I am in a Commercial Pricing role in a technology company with Great Excel and VBA programming skills and experience.

As I guess you guys are already into this (Quant) for some time, please suggest if I put in all my efforts and energy may I be able to secure admission to a good college and will my past experience in Pricing and VBA help me land a new job in this new field? And also as per your opinion would you do this if you were in my place?

Thank You

 

[mfegrad]

I have been looking at some of the jobs Quants do and am very much attracted to high salaries.

this is the wrong reason to go into a field.

 

[marina]

if you are in Chennai, check out http://www.ifmr.ac.in/
they offer masters in financial engineering.

 

[mfegrad]

Is it necessarily wrong to have a purely financial motivation for entering a field? I would be curious to know how many would choose to work the long hours in finance if the total pay was capped at 50K. How many would choose to fork upwards of 70K for MFE if the resultant pay was not commensurate with the fees they charge?

When a high-schooler (or a PhD) says (s/)he is "passionate about markets", is that passion an innate liking or is it an acquired taste (acquired because of the resultant high salaries)?. I do not doubt that there are folks out there who indeed have genuine passion for finance, in the same sense as artists, social workers, and sportspeople have for their respective vocations. But the majority acquired a taste for finance out of more mercenary motives. And as long as they are good at it, its okay.

sure, but you're ignoring two very important points (and possibly more, but these are the ones that come to mind).

a) the long hours might very well kill you if you're not actually interested in the subject.

b) you're less likely to be "good at" something you don't find interesting. you're highly unlikely to hit gladwell's threshold of 10k hours practicing something you really don't care for.

 

[Ken Abbott]

Most people working in finance come here chasing the money, not their passion. To argue otherwise seems almost delusional.

That may or may not be true, but in my experience, most successful people in the business came chasing their passion.

The people chasing the money are at a disadvantage. Finance is intense and grueling. Those with a fire in their belly are usually more willing to put in the extra effort.

 

[mfegrad]

I never said about not liking the subject. I was arguing that this liking is almost always "acquired" because of the anticipated reward. If it were not the case, we would see far lesser number of people, spending their time (and money) chasing after it. Most people working in finance come here chasing the money, not their passion. To argue otherwise seems almost delusional.

actually, you posed the question: "is that passion an innate liking or is it an acquired taste." no need to split hairs, though, as ken connected the dots for you.

i see that you're interested in applying to schools. you haven't yet been there and seen the difference in interview success between those who chose this as a career because they're genuinely interested in it and those who chose it to chase the bucks. sure, there are other factors at play, but to argue that this doesn't play a role actually is delusional.

 

[Ankur]

Guys, Thanks for your comments. I guess this discussion is going to a different direction because of probably the way i started my question. I am not asking your feedback on if it is good to be chasing something only for money even if you do not have any interest in it. I agree if you work to a goal and love what you do money comes automatically.

And to clarify, money is not the only motive for me to look to get into this field but the fact that this is the only field at the moment which seem to help me consolidate my experience and my love for programming in a more meaningful career.

And that is on what i was looking for a feedback from you, like is my background and my existing profile will be looked on preferably by employers or the universities for Qaunt roles provided I prove my abilities in Finance, Maths and programming?

Thank you