Virtue finds and chooses the mean.
Aristotle, Ethica Nichomachea
- #21
- Feb 22, 2008 7:01pm Feb 22, 2008 7:01pm
- Joined Mar 2007 | Status: we are stardust, we are golden | 1,364 Posts
- #23
- Feb 23, 2008 5:08pm Feb 23, 2008 5:08pm
- Joined Mar 2007 | Status: we are stardust, we are golden | 1,364 Posts
Ah I see now. When you mentioned Masters I assumed you meant an MBA.
Self-employed is always better. Contract out to big co's if you need to.
Took you a while! But what do you mean 'contract out'? I am very green to institutional workings, please elaborate.
Virtue finds and chooses the mean.
Aristotle, Ethica Nichomachea
- #24
- Feb 25, 2008 10:11am Feb 25, 2008 10:11am
- Joined Mar 2004 | Status: Magic Man | 3,220 Posts
Relax and be happy.
Remember me? 
I've now graduated and am moving to Chicago in a month. I'm shopping my (technical) skills around to various prop firms and financial software companies in the area, trying to find some good opportunities for a recent grad with development and trading experience.
Do you guys have any advice on how to go about the search? I've contacted a few financial IT recruiters in the area, and gotten a few good interviews, but I'd like to really get a handle on the overall market, both in terms of opportunities available and my skill valuation.
Plutonite- I'd especially like to hear some of your experiences and advice.
Thanks all
I've now graduated and am moving to Chicago in a month. I'm shopping my (technical) skills around to various prop firms and financial software companies in the area, trying to find some good opportunities for a recent grad with development and trading experience.
Do you guys have any advice on how to go about the search? I've contacted a few financial IT recruiters in the area, and gotten a few good interviews, but I'd like to really get a handle on the overall market, both in terms of opportunities available and my skill valuation.
Plutonite- I'd especially like to hear some of your experiences and advice.
Thanks all
- #26
- Aug 5, 2008 5:46pm Aug 5, 2008 5:46pm
- Joined Mar 2007 | Status: we are stardust, we are golden | 1,364 Posts
Here's my take, and I'm a 24 year old, so read with care:
I've decided to skip the banks for now. The comp.sci industry is doing great, and you can get a decent job doing something you enjoy with ease, without having to work 70-hour weeks wearing a suit and a tie. If you get a graduate degree you can go into research, and that's just incredible too. I'm in California right now, and I tell you, there's nothing better than leaving work at 5, driving down silicon valley in the sunshine and having a great evening with relaxed people who live wonderful lives.
For me, things have been a bit complicated due to the fact that I am heavily biased towards being able to do science/live an academic life no matter what I do in the morning. Unfortunately, working in quantitative finance usually means you will not have any time outside "what you do in the morning", because the job takes morning, evening, your first born, and candy. Sure, you make more than what you would at Google/Yahoo/NASA, but for me it wasn't worth it.
What I try to do is trade while I work, and at night when I get a chance to look at the screen. Once you migrate to flexible time based thinking in the long term and you no longer try to milk the markets for every cent you think you can milk them for, life becomes a lot easier. You begin to smile more often. I know you're also into the math and can appreciate the neutrality of emotion that comes with understanding the probabilities game, so take time to keep learning on your own money, and when the time is right, you can trade and compound with your own capital that you back with a stable job.
This advice does not benefit anyone who wishes to "trade the day", on intense analysis of human factors and what speculation might do to the market. Some people can do this very well and their place is on Wall Street. This is just for the folks who like to play with numbers, for whom it should not matter whether you are calculating at home or in the arms of the corporate moguls in New York.
I've decided to skip the banks for now. The comp.sci industry is doing great, and you can get a decent job doing something you enjoy with ease, without having to work 70-hour weeks wearing a suit and a tie. If you get a graduate degree you can go into research, and that's just incredible too. I'm in California right now, and I tell you, there's nothing better than leaving work at 5, driving down silicon valley in the sunshine and having a great evening with relaxed people who live wonderful lives.
For me, things have been a bit complicated due to the fact that I am heavily biased towards being able to do science/live an academic life no matter what I do in the morning. Unfortunately, working in quantitative finance usually means you will not have any time outside "what you do in the morning", because the job takes morning, evening, your first born, and candy. Sure, you make more than what you would at Google/Yahoo/NASA, but for me it wasn't worth it.
What I try to do is trade while I work, and at night when I get a chance to look at the screen. Once you migrate to flexible time based thinking in the long term and you no longer try to milk the markets for every cent you think you can milk them for, life becomes a lot easier. You begin to smile more often. I know you're also into the math and can appreciate the neutrality of emotion that comes with understanding the probabilities game, so take time to keep learning on your own money, and when the time is right, you can trade and compound with your own capital that you back with a stable job.
This advice does not benefit anyone who wishes to "trade the day", on intense analysis of human factors and what speculation might do to the market. Some people can do this very well and their place is on Wall Street. This is just for the folks who like to play with numbers, for whom it should not matter whether you are calculating at home or in the arms of the corporate moguls in New York.
Remember me?
I've now graduated and am moving to Chicago in a month. I'm shopping my (technical) skills around to various prop firms and financial software companies in the area, trying to find some good opportunities for a recent grad with development and trading experience.
Do you guys have any advice on how to go about the search? I've contacted a few financial IT recruiters in the area, and gotten a few good interviews, but I'd like to really get a handle on the overall market, both in terms of opportunities available and my skill valuation.
Plutonite- I'd especially like to hear some of your experiences and advice.
Thanks all
Virtue finds and chooses the mean.
Aristotle, Ethica Nichomachea
- #27
- Aug 5, 2008 5:48pm Aug 5, 2008 5:48pm
- Joined Mar 2007 | Status: we are stardust, we are golden | 1,364 Posts
By the way drummer, I haven't given up on the NN/AI stuff. I'm just waiting to finish my thesis and sit down with some good data. Hope all is well with you 
Virtue finds and chooses the mean.
Aristotle, Ethica Nichomachea
Thanks for your input. I can certainly appreciate your approach to life... I've been taking a break from trading for the past few months in order to focus more on my studies, my relationships, and myself.
Like you, I'm fairly certain that what I don't want is to work 12-hour days. I think that there is a happy medium though... I've been interviewing with a company that essentially outsources the technology aspects of automated trading for prop shops or hedge funds. They build the structures, code some of the strategies, and then step out of the way while the traders absorb the stress.
Might I ask where you're working in Cali? I've been thinking about doing a year or two in Chicago and then heading out there for grad school (Stanford if I can get in). I'm sure there's lots of great places to work...
Oh, and I haven't given up on the NN/AI stuff either. I actually just restarted development on a pattern-recognition engine I had worked on last year. Check it out: http://www.symbiosisdev.com/markets/
Like you, I'm fairly certain that what I don't want is to work 12-hour days. I think that there is a happy medium though... I've been interviewing with a company that essentially outsources the technology aspects of automated trading for prop shops or hedge funds. They build the structures, code some of the strategies, and then step out of the way while the traders absorb the stress.
Might I ask where you're working in Cali? I've been thinking about doing a year or two in Chicago and then heading out there for grad school (Stanford if I can get in). I'm sure there's lots of great places to work...
Oh, and I haven't given up on the NN/AI stuff either
. I actually just restarted development on a pattern-recognition engine I had worked on last year. Check it out: http://www.symbiosisdev.com/markets/