What if I have no experience with Quant?

[audit_to_more_math]

Dear @Andy Nguyen

I'm currently a junior at UCLA, and I've already secured a regular audit internship with EY in San Jose in 2025. I've noticed that there is a position at EY called "Quantitative Advisory Service", and that historically they've recruited from MFE programs, including that of UCLA. My major is actually Math Econ, so I think in terms of the prerequisite Math courses, I should be covered (I'm also pursuing an Accounting minor which may be helpful).

However, I am worried that I have NO previous experience at all within any programming heavy financial work. My question is: how do you feel about the difficulty of securing jobs at Big 4 Accounting firms via MFE programs(per say at UCLA Anderson), and how much of a hinderance will lack of relevant internships be?

(Worst case scenario, I fall back and work as an auditor which isn't the worst thing in the world; however I do feel like my Math Econ degree maybe underutilized, which kind of sucks because math classes are way tougher than accounting classes.)

Many thanks!!

 

[arohan]

Afaik, you shouldn’t have too much of an issue getting into these roles. Quant roles at risk advisories aren’t the most competitive places to be in and any decent MFE program should, ideally, place you well in these. That being said, an MFE might be a bit of an overkill if these are the roles you seek. Imo having a math/econ degree should already make you eligible for a lot of these roles so you might be better served by directly applying rather than getting another degree. If you have to, maybe look into something like the CQF and/or FRM?