Will I find job opportunities as a quant?

[philips]

Hi,

I wanted to gauge the job opportunities available as a "quant" for someone of my experience and background, particularly in Canada, preferably in a smaller city. I have a degree in mathematical physics, did a Masters in theoretical physics. Used C++/Matlab for modelling and creating algorithms most of my Masters. I also have 2 years of experience doing as an analyst/statistician of some kind.

So hard will it be for me to enter this field from where I stand?

About why I'm doing this and why I didn't do a PhD:
I decided against doing a PhD because life in Academia was a major turn-off, languishing in years of post-doc'ing and tenure-tracking. Also, I didn't think a PhD would give me any additional knowledge or skills for life outside academia or enrich my mind because it would have been only research focused and give me experience only useful for academia in that specific field. If I did a PhD in experimental, it would take off another year or two off my life and as fun as it would be I dreaded being like some of those experimentalists who slave in a windowless lab from morning till night, 80+ hours a week, and ride their bicycle home to their apartment they share with 4 other people. What a life...

So basically the only skills I can apply to industry are mathematical and computational, physics being not useful unless you have practical skills.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Yes, you will be able to find a job using your technical skills. Would it something can be characterized as "quant", it's hard to tell.
Whether you like "quant job" is a big question but common advice is to not doing what you hate, regardless of the pay.