In a panel event held in September 2024, four MIT alums shared their insights and offered advice to those interested in a career in the financial services sector. Read on for the summary of the event. Thank you to the panelists and to Urmi Samadar, Assistant Dean, Master of Finance Program, MIT Sloan School of Management, who moderated the discussion.
- Balyasny Asset Management – David Xu ’18 (MFin), Senior Quantitative Researcher
- Citadel Securities – Justin Lim ’21 (BS, MEng EECS), Quantitative Researcher
- Five Rings – Yuqiu Fu ’23 (PhD in Math), Quantitative Researcher
- Jane Street – Joshua Lee ’22 (BS in EECS & Math), Quantitative Trader
“Try out different things, do internships at different firms, keep an open mind, don’t necessarily do what everybody else is doing.”
– Joshua Lee, Quantitative Trader & MIT Alum
What are some possible roles in the finance sector suitable for MIT alums?
Depending on individual interest, there are many different roles that MIT alums can have in the finance sector.
When it comes to trading, different roles are possible. For instance: the actual manual trading, software engineering, quantitative research, or modeling. For those interested in hedge funds, the possibilities include researching new ideas, as well as making predictions and executing them (using statistics and mathematics). MIT alums would also be great candidates to do research, which in the finance sector typically entails collecting and using alternative data, and monetizing ideas in systematic ways.
Regardless of a specific role, the finance sector typically involves long working hours, 10 to 11 per day (but not weekends).
How did you decide on your career paths? What resources did you find useful in making a decision?
There are a few ways that make it much easier to make a decision regarding a career path. Going to career fairs tops the list, as it quickly offers numerous opportunities to talk to different companies and learn what skills they look for. Another great way is to do several different internships, which is particularly useful when deciding between academia and industry. Both of the above also create natural opportunities to network, get to know the people, and make those valuable professional connections.
Job interviews: What do they look like and what skills do the recruiters look for?
Job interviews in the finance sector tend to be very technical, but a fundamental technical background is typically sufficient. What the recruiters are trying to gauge is whether a candidate’s thought process is correct. In order to assess that, the recruiters present tricky case studies. After the candidate gets a chance to work on a case for a moment, the recruiter will offer a new piece of information to test how the candidate is learning and adapting to new information.
Job interviews involving the use of Python are also to be expected. Depending on a role within a company, Python is often used on a daily basis.
For those doing research, it is known that first ideas usually do not work. A good candidate will be able to find out why those first ideas didn’t work and offer ways of improving them. Additionally, strong collaboration and communication skills, along with agility are very important.
Can you share your thoughts on professional growth within organizations?
After completing an onboarding tutorial, new employees are given significant responsibility very quickly. They are also offered a lot of recognition and can almost immediately have impact. There is room for asking a lot of questions and doing a lot of research. Progression within organizations is very dynamic, but there are no linear A-B-C promotions.
Which MIT experiences (classes/clubs/resources) did you find the most helpful?
Software engineering class; Introduction to discreet math; Any statistics-related class; Analytics of finance class; Financial engineering class; Advanced corporate finance; Machine learning (at CSAIL); Trading clubs; Alumni database; UROP.
Written by: Kamila Madry, Career Fellow
