If you want to have a proper career in the Financial Markets, as an analyst or as a trader, in M&A, or with a VC firm - anything Finance, I'll share what I have seen and heard from industry insiders below.
MBAs right out of top IIMs go into the top Investment banks. This means look at no place beyond IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, and Calcutta.
Other than MBAs, top ranked CAs are also preferred. Having a CFA adds more weight.
Again, usually top MBAs, but CFAs are being given preference too prevalently these days.
MS in Finance from top universities (say Princeton) are also given equal preference.
Few other companies go for candidates with Masters degree in STEM (including quant finance, computational finance specializations).
Very few decent prop trading firms exist that give you a shot when you have no track record. But they usually look for superior math ability, fast to respond to stimulus, calm under pressure, more of a psychological fit to the culture of prop trading as a whole.
MBAs straight out of college, CAs, CFAs, MS Finance people, even STEM masters people go into sell side positions. These aren't trading positions, more of Sales & Trading, with more emphasis on sales. Read about this on WallStreetOasis website.
Quant trader as a role is fading away as there isn't a clear cut role anymore in many firms, as firms move to more systematic methods, with more emphasis on developers, data scientists, and quant researchers, and algos taking care of execution.
Usually most firms prefer someone with strong Python and C++ (HFT firms) experience, along with skills in using kernel and methods around it, low latency based coding, etc. This is usually a CS graduate. They take a math grad with coding skills too.
This role is mostly filled by PhDs. Usually PhDs in statistics (Columbia PhD Stats & Two Sigma is a love story unlike anything else), Physics, and very rarely those with CS PhDs are also hired for this role.
You can't become a junior VC right out of college. There are two routes. One is by interning with a VC (which is very very difficult unless you have personal strings to pull in the industry). Another is by working as a consultant for few years and then approaching.
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