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Ian Spellfield asked:


“It’s something very personal, a very important thing. Hell! It’s a family motto. Are you ready Jerry? I wanna make sure you’re ready, brother. Here it is: Show me the money. SHOW! ME! THE! MONEY! Jerry, it is such a pleasure to say that! Say it with me one time, Jerry.”

-Rod Tidwell, “Jerry Maguire” (1996)

“If I’m an engineering major, how can I get into finance? Show me the money!”

I find myself answering this question a lot, possibly because I’m from a non-finance background myself. Or maybe just because everyone wants to get into finance.

How you can leverage your technical background to land a job in the jungle of finance? As a technical person right out of school, you have two ways of breaking in:

1. Get an investment banking analyst position in the technology or TMT (Technology, Media & Telecom) group of a bank. You will use none of your quantitative/analytical background and instead use your interest in the industry/work ethic to get in.

2. Get a quantitative job at a hedge fund or doing trading/fixed income at a bank. You will leverage your quantitative and probability skills to get in.

Of the two, the second is easiest for most engineers. Wall Street has never been more quantitative, and it’s only getting more quant-focused each day. Even with some recent problems in the credit market and some high-profile difficulties at prestigious funds such as Goldman Global Alpha, this trend will not stop anytime soon.

Hedge Fund And Related Jobs

On-campus recruiting for these positions is less common than it is for banking analysts, but it’s there if you seek it out. Citadel, one of the largest hedge funds in the world, does undergraduate recruiting for its rotational program, as does Jump Trading, based out of Chicago.

The good news is that if you′re an engineering major at a top university, you have a good chance of landing one of these jobs, even with no previous finance experience. If you′re in this position and go through on-campus recruiting, you need to emphasize your interest in finance because this is how they select candidates. Here’s a direct quote from a Citadel recruiter:

“To be honest, we know you’re all pretty good quantitatively… after all you got an engineering degree at one of the top programs in the country. You need to show us that you’re interested in finance because that’s what differentiates you.”

During interviews they will ask you quantitative questions but it’s crucial that you show them you have had a strong and consistent interest in finance. Have some good stories prepared, especially on personal investing and why you′re particularly well-suited to be a trader.

For trading jobs the “fit” part of the interview is even more important than it is for banking. If you don’t trade stocks in between classes and wake up early each morning to read financial news, gambling is a good hobby to mention. I was asked if I played video poker/online poker and other casino games when interviewing for hedge fund jobs. You want to emphasize hobbies/interests that show you can think about risk vs. reward.

No Thanks, I Really Want To Be A Banker

Full disclosure: you can do this, but the hours are going to be far worse than trading, the pay won’t be much better and you′ll have to do truly menial, low-value-add work. The advantage is you do have a wider variety of exit options – doing engineering and then banking sets you up very well for venture capital, for example. And the perks are nice.

As a technical person, you have several things going for you right away: no one will question your intelligence, and they probably won′t ask you brain teasers or math questions. If you can get a degree in Electrical Engineering, you can do Excel calculations in your sleep. And no one will question your attention to detail (or at least not as much as if you were an English major).

What you will need to focus on in recruiting and interviewing is demonstrating your 1) interest in finance and 2) ability to handle the hours/stress of the job, which are considerably worse than those of an engineering/tech company.

A few more specific tips: when you discuss your interest in finance you need to mention tech companies if you’re applying to a tech group in a bank. And don’t just mention Google or Facebook. These are the most visible tech companies by far, but anyone can learn about them by reading TechCrunch or by listening to friends.

You need to show real interest in the industry, which means taking the initiative and talking about less well-known companies. Before my interviews at tech groups in banks I made a list of less well-known startups/other companies I found interesting and had a story prepared around each of them. You should do the same.

As far as the second point about handling the stress/hours, as an engineering major you should have had many extended project classes… these are all good to mention, as are any internships where you launched a product that required “crunch time” at the end.



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Stephen Trigg asked:


It seems the bio-tech and Pharmaceutical industry have accepted that the chemical is safe enough for consumption in an oral form. According to experts in the field, Fisetin both prevents brain cells from dying and promotes the growth of connections between nerve cell. It is also worth mentioning that Fisetin has been discovered in some vegetables as well.

Other prominent news in bio-tech and pharmaceutical industry include the discovery that scientists have discovered that proteins can act as a fuel for cells. They have stated that protein is perhaps the most important organic fuel for keeping a cell alive. However, these protein fuel cells have not yet been developed in such a way that they can be used topically. In future, they will prove particularly useful in the sewage and waste management industry, because they can be used to breakdown organic waste matter. Protein fuel cells can also be used to generate substantial amounts of electricity and as such, the industry believes that it may be a future source for energy.

The bio-tech and pharmaceutical industry have also revealed that PNS studies are now able to demonstrate why organs fail in the event of massive body trauma. According to the studies, immediately after a traumatic incident, the body organs are not able to adapt themselves to function as normal. As a result of these findings, the bio-tech and pharmaceutical industry has revealed that top experts in the field are now currently working on solving post-trauma organ failure.

They have also discovered revolutionary bio chemical methods which can be effective in solving the problem. According to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) publications, experts are coming up with innovative ways for changing emergency room procedures and set-ups and are also creating new frameworks for the quicker diagnosis of organ failure caused by post trauma. Furthermore, the development of specific drugs to tackle the problem is a distinct possibility.



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Paul Megan asked:


Remember the Dot.com and IT job market implosion? It was back in 2000 when the bottom fell out and technology workers have suffered ever since. However, it appears those dismal days may be ending and job opportunities are on the rise.

Job cuts on the country’s high tech sector IT job market declined 40 percent in the first quarter of 2006. It was the fourth consecutive quarter with year-to-year declines, according to a report by Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

In fact, John Challenger says that some business may regret some of the job cuts they made in recent years. IT job market workers themselves are optimistic about their employment prospects.

The computer jobs with the hottest prospects include network systems analysts, data base administrators and computer software engineers, according to a labor market analyst with the News York State Labor Department.

Information technology gives companies the ability to expand into new markets, identify new customers and cut costs. It’s taken a while but businesses are finally realizing how important IT is to their growth. This has led to a sellers market in the IT job market.

So, if it’s your turn to benefit from this up-tick in the IT job market, then you want to prepare yourself for some changes in the hiring expectations of decision-makers you’ll be dealing with. You see, a lot has happened since 2000 including 9/11 and Katrina.

Back then it was enough to have a list of your IT credentials and a solid work history to back them up. Today, employers want you to come forward showing that you’ve taken the time to learn something about them and their organization.

That means that you should be spending much more time researching specific companies where there is a match between your interests and their goals . . . much more time than you spend on your resume which has only very limited value in this post-2000 marketplace.

An employer is going to be looking at you, not your resume, to determine if you make a productive addition to his/her team. You need to be prepared to demonstrate that you can address specific problems an employer or the organization is confronted with.

Fortunately there’s an exciting alternative job search system that can put you at the front of the pack. When you follow this remarkable plan, you can be meeting face-to-face with a qualified decision-maker in matter of days. And you can be entertaining a job offer in as little as two weeks!



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