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Talk given at USC CS Colloquium to grad students (http://viterbi.usc.edu/news/events/?event=10265). The topic was - Prospective Careers outside Academia.
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First steps to a Successful Career
USC, Los Angeles, Nov 2013
Ashwin Rao
My background
• B.Tech. Computer Science. IIT-Bombay.
• Ph.D. Algorithmic Algebra. USC, Los Angeles.
• VP. Quant Strategist. Goldman Sachs, NY.
• Managing Director. Morgan Stanley.
• Founder. ZLemma.com (A Tech Startup)
Life after ‘SC
• USC tag follows you J
• Learning curve actually gets steeper
• Acquire versatility in skills and personality
• Associate with people different than you
What are suitable jobs for me ?
• You can figure it out objectively
• Glamour, Money and the Mom Syndrome
• Introspect on your Skills and your Interests
• Think Career, not Jobs
Prepare Well, but Chill Out
• Research the various jobs thoroughly
• Advice from peers and alumni?
• Personal Life versus Professional Life
• Never compare yourself with others!
• Easy to correct bad jobs or wrong decisions
Should I go to Grad School?
• Titles like M.B.A., Ph.D. - what is their value?
• What do the best employers care about ?
• Ph.D. è If you want to be in academia/research
• M.B.A. è If you want to hit the Reset button
• Masters versus Ph.D.
Quant Finance Jobs
• Derivatives Trader
• Trading Desk Quant Strategist
• Derivatives Modeler, Statistical Modeler
• Algorithmic Trading Quant
• Analytics Developer
Current Wall Street Scenario
• Regulations have reshaped the industry
• Compensation levels down but still high
• Engineers are thriving in quant finance
• Markets turning increasingly electronic
• More emphasis on vanilla trading businesses
Tech Jobs
• Boom in Tech, particularly in Silicon Valley
• Compensation levels are growing fast
• Big Data is the new buzz
• Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon
• Are Tech jobs boring?
Silicon Valley versus Wall Street
• Do you enjoy Continuous Math?
• Depth versus Breadth
• Office environment and Colleagues
• Compensation
• Location
Some important topics
• Statistical Learning
• Functional Programming
• Domain Specific Languages
• Quantitative Modeling
• Architectures for Big Data
Startups
• Appetite for Volatility
• <Market, Product, Team>
• Funding
• Advisors
• Passion
Resume
• One-pager with precise education/work details
• Links to LinkedIn, Github, Stackoverflow …
• Reflection of your communication skills/style
• Less drama, more objectivity
• State your international exposure, if any
Interviews
• Represent your abilities clearly and accurately
• Typically, a large and diverse set of interviewers
• Flood of puzzles/programming/math problems
• Tough Qs in your claimed areas of expertise
• Evaluation of your communication and attitude
ZLemma
• Zlemma.com evaluates your profile in great detail
• Zlemma Quotient (ZQ) – your suitability for a job • ZQ is a score out of 100 for a specific job
• Apply for high-ZQ jobs of interest to you
• Jobs ranging from Silicon Valley to Wall Street
Addendum
• Tune in to: blog.zlemma.com
• Write to: [email protected] for advice
• Our app is your friend: zlemma.com