The Beginning

By Joy Pathak - Updated 1 year ago

Me at Huntington Beach, California

“There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth…not going all the way, and not starting.” – Buddha

With these inspirational words I will begin the first post to my adventures in the field of Quantitative Finance. I start my Masters of Science in Finance – Financial Engineering/Programming concentration at Illinois Tech (Chicago) in 2 months (May 24^th). In terms of content of the blog, I will be posting everything about my classes, the program, the city, the culture, the environment, the lifestyle, etc. I anticipate that the creation of this blog will assist future students who enter this field. They will be able to learn about what it takes, how it is, and how to survive hopefully. They will get REAL FIRST HAND experience from my posts that I believe is just invaluable. I will be posting tons of pictures also to accompany my posts to give a better feel of my experiences. The blog will provide my experiences in real-time rather than thoughts accumulated after the program. As I learn, so shall you…

A bit about me:

I am a fresh Mechanical engineering graduate from University of Windsor, Canada. I was for a brief point a PhD student at University of Wisconsin-Madison in Materials Engineering. It was a truly amazing experience. Unfortunately, even though I did some excellent research and performed well in my classes I did not feel like this is something I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I went by the career fair at Wisconsin and secured interviews from ExxonMobil, Schlumberger, Lockheed Martin, and a few other major firms. Getting a job was not an issue for me as I had done several highly coveted internships in my undergrad and my resume was rock solid. One of my research papers in Undergrad was also selected as ‘top 5 papers in the world by a Young engineer’, as chosen by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. I still believed that doing a Mechanical Engineering job or research in the field was not something for me. Computational Fluid Dynamics was my passion. Although in the field of CFD I would still not be able to grow and be successful as I wanted to be I had to look for alternatives.

Then it happened; I came across Financial Engineering. It was the perfect blend of programming and advanced mathematics that CFD provided. It was an intense game and I wanted to be it’s dominating player. I picked up Hull’s book and fell in love instantly. I applied to several universities, and was given admission also to many. I also made the unfortunate mistake of applying to more Masters in Finance programs rather than Financial Engineering as I should have, but it all worked out in the end. Although I was given admission to many universities as far as California, New York, Georgia, and New Jersey I had to stay closer to home for my girlfriend and family and Chicago was ideal. I took the chance of getting admission at Illinois Tech and also asked if I could start earlier in the Summer semester rather than Fall. They have an excellent program with excellent faculty. The city of Chicago is perfect for an energetic individual like myself in addition to Chicago being the Derivatives Capital of The World was a good bonus. The curriculum involved a STRONG quantitative focus for who desired it. The curriculum I selected involved the two strongest concentrations they offered: Financial Engineering and Financial Programming. I am also going to take courses in Econometrics and Financial Economics to have the base, in case I pursue a PhD Finance in the future.

I have returned to my undergrad university and am taking courses to prepare for the MSF program. I have two midterms coming up. I am currently taking 3 courses. One of them is in Statistics and other in Mathematical Economics. I am auditing a Derivatives and Risk Management course also. In addition, I am also conducting research with a professor in the Finance department in Capital Structure. The research will produce a publication with me as the Lead Author.

In terms of extra-curricular activities, I am an avid snowboarder,surfer and also a electronic DJ. I produce and mix electronic music. Here is my podcast : http://joyryde.mypodcast.com/. It can also be downloaded from iTunes. I haven’t put anything new in a while due to my academic ventures. I also like being taking part in conversations within the online community and am an frequent poster on several forums.

This first post is just to give an idea of what can be expected in this blog. Feel free to give me suggestions on what you would like to see in future posts.

And so it begins…

Tags: asme, financial engineering, illinois mfe, introduction, Joy Pathak, life of a student, programming, quant

Great post Joy. I am very interested in seeing your future posts. It would be good to know what courses you’re going to be taking and what refresher courses you believe would have helped you in those courses.

Christina, 1 year ago

Good first post, Joy. I’m curious to see the pics and hence the size of your railroad studio. It would be cool to compare how far money can go in Chicago and New York City rental.

Andy, 1 year ago

Great post. It’s great effort you made, and hopefully you would still have the time for it when you begin to study with Illinois Tech. I am sure many will find your inputs quite helpful like i do.

chival, 1 year ago

Joy, your first blog post is great. I believe in the power of social media, and wish you all the best with this blog, as I am sure it will indeed serve as an inspiration to those who strive for success in the world of finance. I look forward to following up with your experiences. In the meantime, Happy Blogging!

Jaclyn, 1 year ago

Great post, just keep em’ coming. Hopefully folks can learn from your insights

atreides, 1 year ago

Good post bro.. Way to go!!

Anyway, I’d say we are so very like each other in terms of our profiles.

kbharadwaj, 1 year ago

Nice. I’m an old hand in a downscale version of the quant world – enterprise business intelligence and performance management. I’m looking for some new ideas and fresh blood. I’ll be following silently.

Cubegeek, 1 year ago

Thanks for the comments everyone. I have taken your comments and will be including your suggestions in my future posts.

Joy Pathak, 1 year ago

Hi Joy this is Vipin and i am doing undergrad in Comp Sc at Univ of Texas. I have Finance as my minor.
Keep me posted up on MFE since that is what i plan to do next. Your post are very helpful.
Thanks
Vipin Bhati

Vipander Bhati, 1 year ago

Great Post brother. You are really going on a good way.Best of luck….

Madhusudan Mishra, 1 year ago

Hey Joy,
I found your post very encouraging and real. I am also a mechanical engineer with almost 3 years experience in the industry. I want to switch into quantitative finance as I find it more sufficing. What do you think about the MSc Finance program at Imperial College of London? Although called MSc Finance, the program has quite a strong finance inclination..

MTU, 1 year ago

Hey MTU,

Great to meet another Mech Eng. ERTW! Haha.

Imperial college of London is a very strong school. Any program from there will be good for you to get a leg into the financial industry. As far as I know , Morgan Stanley and few other banks recruit there so you should be good. MSc. Finance should be a good program.

Joypathak, 1 year ago

The Beginning

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