Risk Management in Banking/Finance (1 Viewer)

[bored of ur mum]

their stupid 8+ years qualification time and capped 200k (moar like 150k) pay! !

As opposed to doctors right.

Most high end finance/accounting positions will require you to take additional education (CA, CFA, MBA), it is no different with actuaries.

Finance/Accounting vs Actuary - if you are confident of completing actuary with great marks then do it. A actuary grad will be looked upon better than the hundreds of finance grads just due to the sheer diffcuilty and competition. Yet there is no grad jobs a finance grad can attain that an actuary grad cannot.

Actuary vs Maths - both are great if you're looking into risk managment/quantitative kinda stuff. Since most of what you learn in uni won't transfer over to the real world, just do whichever interests you more. Apparantly it's easier to get higher marks in maths though. At the end of the day the degree/major won't matter to an extent, just how well you do in them.

 

[seremify007]

What I don't get is why people on this board are so concerned about how others perceive the job etc... as far as I can tell, the people who whinge and complain about stereotypes, caps, etc... are people who are either still studying their degree or in high school. Seriously guys, as long as it's something you are enjoying then don't worry so much. And it's not like you'd go hungry on $200k or struggle with purchasing anything you need (as opposed to unrealistically want).

I was thinking more quantitative side

The quant guys I know all did economics degrees in decades gone by and noone other than they can really explain the black box models they use to determine if they have sufficient capital and whether the limits are appropriate. I find it interesting that it's one of the few Commerce areas which is actually dominated by people who aren't young/fresh grads. From what I can tell, there's not that many different models out there which are utilised by the big banks/FI's and they are all just sold by consulting firms. To work in this field you just need to have some kind of understanding of it and know what you're manipulating and trying to achieve to reach certain levels/thresholds/etc. So back on topic to the Op's original question, a finance major great and you can just focus on the quant electives rather than qualitative, but I suspect the career path will probably involve a bit more qualitative or reporting-style roles before you actually get to really make use of quant knowledge/skills.

* note the above is based on what I *think*- I don't actually work in this area and am basing it on limited experience/exposure.

 

[qwerty44]

What I don't get is why people on this board are so concerned about how others perceive the job etc... as far as I can tell, the people who whinge and complain about stereotypes, caps, etc... are people who are either still studying their degree or in high school. Seriously guys, as long as it's something you are enjoying then don't worry so much. And it's not like you'd go hungry on $200k or struggle with purchasing anything you need (as opposed to unrealistically want).



The quant guys I know all did economics degrees in decades gone by and noone other than they can really explain the black box models they use to determine if they have sufficient capital and whether the limits are appropriate. I find it interesting that it's one of the few Commerce areas which is actually dominated by people who aren't young/fresh grads. From what I can tell, there's not that many different models out there which are utilised by the big banks/FI's and they are all just sold by consulting firms. To work in this field you just need to have some kind of understanding of it and know what you're manipulating and trying to achieve to reach certain levels/thresholds/etc. So back on topic to the Op's original question, a finance major great and you can just focus on the quant electives rather than qualitative, but I suspect the career path will probably involve a bit more qualitative or reporting-style roles before you actually get to really make use of quant knowledge/skills.

* note the above is based on what I *think*- I don't actually work in this area and am basing it on limited experience/exposure.

Thank you so much on your help. What do you think about a Finance major with an Applied Math (Financial Maths) major as a double degree?

 

[seremify007]

Thank you so much on your help. What do you think about a Finance major with an Applied Math (Financial Maths) major as a double degree?

Not a bad choice but if you're doing it with the sole focus of getting into risk management, you might be better off with economics or something more relevant to the topic of risk management rather than focussing on maths. Trading on the other hand would work well if you were interested in that path and utilising your maths skills.

 

[qwerty44]

Not a bad choice but if you're doing it with the sole focus of getting into risk management, you might be better off with economics or something more relevant to the topic of risk management rather than focussing on maths. Trading on the other hand would work well if you were interested in that path and utilising your maths skills.

What do you mean by trading?

 

[seremify007]

Working in a trading role in a financial institution where you either buy/sell for clients, or you do proprietary trading where you buy/sell for the bank (i.e. you gamble using the bank's money).

Both are very competitive and highly paid jobs, but they really look for people who are extremely good at maths. I remember one of the interview questions is they'd have a room of people and would shout out five or six two-digit numbers and then ask everyone to add, subtract, multiply, etc. Whoever got the answer right basically got to go through to the next round.

 

[Bobbo1]

Working in a trading role in a financial institution where you either buy/sell for clients, or you do proprietary trading where you buy/sell for the bank (i.e. you gamble using the bank's money).

Both are very competitive and highly paid jobs, but they really look for people who are extremely good at maths. I remember one of the interview questions is they'd have a room of people and would shout out five or six two-digit numbers and then ask everyone to add, subtract, multiply, etc. Whoever got the answer right basically got to go through to the next round.

Ooft, that's intense. But I keep hearing everyone bag out a major in finance because its too general and easy - true?

 

[qwerty44]

Ooft, that's intense. But I keep hearing everyone bag out a major in finance because its too general and easy - true?

That's what I thought. Which is why I thought a double degree with maths would be better as Finance alone is too generic and needs something else to differentiate you.

 

[Shadowdude]

Finance is only easy as a major if you perhaps like the thing and are suited for it.

I neither like nor are suited for it, so I'm... half-struggling.

 

[qwerty44]

Working in a trading role in a financial institution where you either buy/sell for clients, or you do proprietary trading where you buy/sell for the bank (i.e. you gamble using the bank's money).

Both are very competitive and highly paid jobs, but they really look for people who are extremely good at maths. I remember one of the interview questions is they'd have a room of people and would shout out five or six two-digit numbers and then ask everyone to add, subtract, multiply, etc. Whoever got the answer right basically got to go through to the next round.

That sounds crazy, though also appealing. It also sounds a little bit like IB doesn't it?

 

[seremify007]

Nah IB has a very different focus and skillset. Whilst both are competitive and have various ways of culling top candidates from the best and most lucrative grad jobs, one is a business which involves transformation and movement of capital whilst the other is simply organised gambling (aka speculation) with huge amounts of money and a set of rules.


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[qwerty44]

Nah IB has a very different focus and skillset. Whilst both are competitive and have various ways of culling top candidates from the best and most lucrative grad jobs, one is a business which involves transformation and movement of capital whilst the other is simply organised gambling (aka speculation) with huge amounts of money and a set of rules.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What job is it actually called, the 'gambling' one?

 

[seremify007]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprietary_trading

^ all the info you need

 

[qwerty44]

Thanks!