[R-SIG-Finance] Career/Educational Advice - First Post

[Dale Smith]

You are apparently working now. I agree, get involved with QuantLib or
an R project and learn what you can. If you know any C++, get Joshi's
"C++ Design Patterns and Derivatives Pricing" (2nd edition). Be prepared
to answer questions about R, C++, and quantitative analysis. RServe is a
fine project to investigate for distributed R calculations: distributed
calculation services may not come up in your interview but it's worth
knowing something as it may come up on the job.

It's going to be a while before hiring picks up.

Dale Smith, Ph.D.
Vicis Capital LLC
Voice: 212-909-4635
Email: dsmith at viciscapital.com
AIM: dsmith11701

-----Original Message-----
From: r-sig-finance-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch
[mailto:r-sig-finance-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch] On Behalf Of David Kane
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2008 3:17 PM
To: Julian Lee
Cc: r-sig-finance at stat.math.ethz.ch
Subject: Re: [R-SIG-Finance] Career/Educational Advice - First Post

My personal opinions . . .

> 1. I have been looking at some masters graduate programmes and they
> come in all shapes and sizes. ...  As
> a quant in the industry, does the content of these degrees matter?

No.

> 2. How much of open-source technology, R/Rmetrics is being used by the
> financial industry?

Lots. If you aren't using R now, you will be someday. Further thoughts
at:

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=966354

> 3. Is it possible for someone to be a quant without any post-graduate
> training?

Yes. Your best bet is to get involved with an open source finance
project. That will allow you to build your skills and gain some
expertise, thereby making a job search much easier (although no job
search will be easy this year.

Good luck,

Dave Kane

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