Most relevant BB analyst departments

[Daniel Chow]

Hi all,

I am finishing my undergrad degree from National University of Singapore majoring in Quantitative Finance and minoring in Computer Science. My current gpa is 4.6/5.0

I am somewhat considering doing a MFE eventually but will probably work for a few years first. Which departments in BB banks will be most useful/applicable? S&T? Risk? Markets?

Generally BBs in Singapore only look for postgrads for their Quant analytics departments.

 

[MRoss]

I am somewhat considering doing a MFE eventually but will probably work for a few years first. Which departments in BB banks will be most useful/applicable? S&T? Risk? Markets?

Which color is better green or blue?

You can get 25 pages of responses to this question and you still likely not have your answer. What does "useful/applicable" mean?

If you are asking what will help your chances of getting into an MFE program it really won't matter. Being in a BB will skyrocket your chances regardless of role (ex. Tech).

Unless you are asking which analyst role will build skills that will transition over to MFE nicely?

 

[Liam]

Which departments in BB banks will be most useful/applicable? S&T? Risk? Markets?

Useful to what? Your degree? Your plan to do an MFE? Useful to transitioning into MFE? To the universe? I'd work on communication skills first as these confusions are precisely the kinds of things that will cut any career short.

I think the role doesn't matter per se - just ensure you don't do something too far removed from your skill set so that you stay in the role until you enter the MFE.

Also, rather than going on about job titles or departments I'd pay more attention to job specs and particularly to interviewers and what they focus on in the interview. Job specs tend to be tarted up, but you can tell a role won't be useful to a quantitative career if you're interviewed by an MBA and get some farcical 'strengths and weaknesses' interview (instead of a mixture of technical and common sense interviews) and don't get asked about asset classes or markets you would cover. Looking at job specs and honing your search to job specs that match you is a standard careers advisor exercise - in addition to it cutting through BS, I find it gives people confidence going into interviews if done right.

Again, in case this isn't clear, I wouldn't worry too much about what you do in industry now, especially if you're planning to do an MFE in a few years time as employers will ask more about quant skills you picked up there. Just make sure you stay in the industry and are in a comfortable position (ie not on the verge of getting fired when you apply for the MFE) in whatever role you do. Most analyst roles a BA/BS graduate would do scratch the surface in terms of what quants look at and 'having worked' isn't as advantageous as people seem to think.

 

[BanachL]

Looking at job specs and honing your search to job specs that match you is a standard careers advisor exercise - in addition to it cutting through BS, I find it gives people confidence going into interviews if done right.

In what way do you mean it 'gives people confidence going into interviews' and why? Is it just because it amounts to 'knowing what you are doing'?