what can I do with "R"

[pokerguy]

hi all,

wondering what to do - I am just about to complete a MBA in finance from a top 10 school and I have a problem that no one I know can help with.

my background is as a fixed interest trader, which i left for a cushy consulting job at one of the big four. recently I have been working for a tech company as an analyst where I have been using the R package to do a lot of the data analysis.

I don't know any quants and anyone do I try to ask about what I can do with a finance MBA and R skills just asks me "why do you bother using R, its too complicated."

So, any idea what I can do with this education/skills mix? is there any roles that might sound right, or a programming language I can learn to help me out (I taught myself Java back in the day)? In hindsight, I should have done an MFE rather than the MBA, but I think that I would be unable to cope mentally and financially with doing another Masters.

 

[Jose T]

I'm a little confused; is there a type of job that you're trying to get that you're not able to get? A background as a fixed interest trader / consultant does not seem particularly prohibitive on future opportunities.

Although R is used by a lot of companies, SAS still dominates in a lot of places. I have found the amount of SAS programming need exceeds the available programmers and has for some time. Learning SAS (there are student / independent Learning editions) might help you out if you like the sort of problems one uses R for.

FWIW, sometimes I think I should have done an MBA instead of an MFE, but no use looking back.

 

[ExSan]

what can I do with "R"​

probably less than you would do with C/C++

 

[Jose T]

probably less than you would do with C/C++

In the same sense that what you can do with a lighter is less than what you can do with a pair of sticks.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Take a look at http://www.rinfinance.com/
They have a community of people using R in finance. Lot of things going on.

 

[pokerguy]

I'm a little confused; is there a type of job that you're trying to get that you're not able to get?

Learning SAS (there are student / independent Learning editions) might help you out if you like the sort of problems one uses R for.

I have a history using SAS/SQL, but I find that writing R functions is much simpler and more intuitive than SAS.

In regards to the type of job I am after, that is why I am here. I am being gently pushed towards management (not a bad problem I know) but I am not at the stage where I want to deal with what, from my observations, is so much political crap. I am looking for a job, in finance where I can use a statistical background. After hunting around, I have not been able to find anyone that could assist, hence I found this forum. Any ideas????

FWIW, sometimes I think I should have done an MBA instead of an MFE, but no use looking back.

possibly, we are both suffering from the grass is greener syndrome

 

[pokerguy]

Take a look at http://www.rinfinance.com/
They have a community of people using R in finance. Lot of things going on.

Cool, thanks a lot.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Cool, thanks a lot.

A few people in this community are involved or know people running that R conference so just reach out to them.
alain can give you some pointers.
https://www.quantnet.com/threads/r-programming-language.8519/
https://www.quantnet.com/threads/r-software.6463/
https://www.quantnet.com/threads/any-resources-on-tickdata-analysis-using-r.11281/

 

[Jose T]

Very true about grass is greener syndrome.

As for a statistical background, statistics is not a particularly bad background to have for almost any white collar job. I recently had successful interviews for an equity research position wherein they were principally interested in my statistics background.

Many quant equity (hedge fund) jobs would use a lot of statistics. As does Risk Management. Possible financial software development could be another option if the product involves some statistics. The reason I asked, is because it seems like your options are there and it more depends on your interests.

R is easier all around than SAS. However, that is not that important if your employer or your industry uses SAS. Finding people who are willing to use R in professional situations is harder than you think, because of the copyleft nature of the GNU license.