When is it too late to pursue an MFE/quant career?

[Dave F]

Hi All Im new to this forum and have found the discussions posted here very useful and informative, so I was hoping I could get some opinions from the knowledgeable folk here on whether it makes sense for someone in my position to get an MFE and how realistic it is to try to get into quant finance at 34-35.

Im currently 32 and really interested in trying to get into a quant finance role. I have a solid quantish educational background (more info on my background below), but have been working in non-quant roles at an IB for several years and dont have (or have forgotten from disuse) many of the specific skills/knowledge that many quant roles require (no C++/Matlab/S+/etc, rusty at best in Fortran, java, only informal overview of financial mathematics/black scholes/etc).

I am confident in my ability to learn all of the needed skills, but was wondering if it makes sense to pursue an MFE to do that at this point. Since I cant start until Summer 10 at earliest in any of the NYC programs Im looking at, Id be 34-35 by the time I was back in the job market again. Is that over the hill to be starting a quant career? Does anyone have experience/stories of people getting started that late? Im wondering if it would be difficult to even get into interviews just based on age

If you think an MFE is not a good choice, how about self-study? I think I could teach myself a lot of the needed skills on a shorter time scale than waiting to get an MFE, but am not sure if that would get me into interviews either. If I taught myself C++ and the recommended reading lists on QN forums, but didnt have any formal coursework or job experience on my resume in those areas, would it actually help me get an interview/land a job?

(MORE INFO ON MY BACKGROUND:
I have a BS (95) in Math & Physics and MSc (02) in experimental particle physics all from top tier schools and very good GPAs, but that was several years ago. Ive since been working at an IB in RMBS, but most of that time was in back office data work, and then business analysis/project management work, not in quant roles. I did do about year of building Excel/VBA cash flow models for a new RMBS product, but Ive been unable so far to parlay that experience into other modeling/quant work since that product area disappeared (along with my job) in the financial crisis.)

 

[alain]

If you can probe that you are good and you are willing to outwork your peers and show it, there is no age limit (at least not at 35).

I finished the FE degree when I was 34.

 

[Dave F]

Thanks for the quick reply, Alain.

Just curious: what were you doing before the MFE? Was it a change of career for you? Also, did you find lining up interviews and landing a good job easier with the MFE than before (or compared to learning the material self-study)?

Thanks,
Dave

 

[dstefan]

Given an appropriate background (which you have), age is not such a big problem.

One advice: start improving your (C++) programming skills as soon as possible.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Many of my classmates are 30ish and I don't remember once anyone was asked for age at the interview.
For a bit of the background of people here, you can take a look at Entering class of 2006 - Quant Network - Financial Engineering Forum

 

[DominiConnor]

Quant work is not especially ageist, the current record we have is someone who switched from being a non-financial civil servant to GS at 41.

But...
There are costs and risks in this transition, which include lost pay for a year + fees.

You can do a part time MFE or the CQF which mean that you don't lose pay, but financial education is rarely cheap.
(standard CQF disclaimer)
Certificate in Quantitative Finance (CQF) - Quantitative Finance Course | CQF.com

My standard first advice is to get Stefanica's primer book and see how you find the math. If you struggle with that, then begin to doubt this is an efficient use of a year and that much money.

Dan is right that C++ will be a big step for you, or perhaps more like entering Total Wipeout. It will certainly feel that way, it is not unknown for people to argue out loud with the bizarre cryptic error messages.

Also you need your math to be sharp enough to beat others, not just competent.

I would start from your Excel / VBA work and push out from there. There exists a market for quants who drive Excel hard, which means mastering it. You haven't done that yet, trust me I know. Get Walkenbach and beat VBA to death.

It is possible you're good at getting VBA to work with (in spite of) Bloomberg, certainly working at a bank you can build that skill. BB offer training, and it can be a hook to hire you.

As a headhunter, I look for hooks to sell people on, and I have not seen yours yet. Obviously I have a dozen lines describing you and I trust there is more to your life than that.

Your mission over the next two years is to get me to like you
...or some HH like me.

You need to work out a headline for yourself, something I can say to a client,"we've got this guy who ...."
Obviously it's too early to say what that is precisely, but a discipline is to build some headlines for yourself.