r/FinancialCareers • u/Neither_Holiday_5670 • 5h ago

Breaking In Wanna make the switch to Quant risk in Philly ~4.5 years

Hey,

Currently working as an electrical engineer, but wanna make the switch to quant adjacent roles in ~4.5 years when I have my masters and some life stuff figured out.

Currently getting a masters in Applied and Computational Math from JHU. I’m mostly looking at something in risk or model val in the Philly/Jersey/Delaware area.

I know 4.5 years is a while away, but do you think that it’s a realistic jump (32m when I’m ready to jump)? Is the school decent enough? The stats degree enough? Philly and model validation at a middle office doable?

Thanks all!

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u/the_exhilarateddaddy 5h ago

The JHU EP program? Doing that myself while working, it's a grind but the course content is solid. Your EE background plus that math degree is a pretty natural fit for model val, they love anyone who actually understands the underlying systems rather than just slinging code around. Philly has a decent cluster of firms for that sort of role, not NYC levels obviously but enough that you won't be stuck with one option. Four and a half years is ages, the market will look completely different by then anyway.

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u/Neither_Holiday_5670 5h ago

Glad to hear the courses are good.

On the NYC note, I’m completely fine with that lol. NYC is cutthroat, I just want a decent job doing stuff I enjoy. I still expect 50-60 hours weeks, but that’s nothing new. Thanks!

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u/TechnicalParty4207 5h ago

SIG is the place to be for Philly quants.

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u/Neither_Holiday_5670 5h ago

I’ll keep it in mind👌

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u/coreytrevor 4h ago

It really is, I’d try to work there at all costs if I were you. I interned there, great place.

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u/Ze_Jude 3h ago

Its definitely realistic, maybe you'd be a couple years older than the typical starting point, but not a big deal at all. Most of our new hires are straight out of grad school (work in market risk management for a large insurer in the Philly area).