hi all i was wondering which background is better for a career in financial engineering: physics or math. Now i know that both fields are related for obvious reasons, and you can do well with either and a more important question would be which field interests me the most but just for the sake of others opinions, which area is the better choice and the area that will be a better adjustment to the topics in FE?
which background is better?
- Thread starter Authentic
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Either is fine, with several caveats. I would put more emphasis on Physics over Math. With either, the more that is involved with application over theory the better. Wall Street wants people who can code as well as who can think and think efficiently.
And INTERNSHIPS are an excellent idea, either way. Get your head out of the books and see how people are using their degrees. It will also make you more marketable when you are looking for a job.
And INTERNSHIPS are an excellent idea, either way. Get your head out of the books and see how people are using their degrees. It will also make you more marketable when you are looking for a job.
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You should be knowing this yourself. Things like computational fluid dynamics, computational plasma physics. Where 1) you play with PDEs, 2) you play with concomitant numerical techniques, 3) you do a fair bit of coding, and 4) you can think like a physicist (i.e., approach problems heuristically, make do with approximate answers, have some idea of error estimates). Mathematicians -- particularly the "pure" breed -- are often poor at this, or lack the requisite skill set and experience. If I here hiring a quant and had two applicants about whom I only knew that one was a mathematician and one a physicist, I'd choose the latter.
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