Is a Masters worth it?

[buddyforall]

Educate yourself in the spare time, there is no dearth of Quant Finance books, take all the statistics and CS courses you can and apply for jobs.

[sv507]

Sean



For entry level derivatives quants in an investment bank, a PhD is normally expected ( in maths/physics/math finance), just because all the other applicants have them.

The masters in Finance courses are unlikely to get you into a front office quant position, they would help get you a risk management or model validation role.



So a fourth year at Oxford is definitely a good idea, but just be aware that the other applicants have Phds. So unless you get a 1st, it will be very hard for your cv to get noticed.



I don't know what the policies are at hedge funds/algotrading etc, but I would have thought that the same applies- namely that with so many applicants chasing so few jobs - the recruiter filters first on academic qualifications.



Of course once you have got into a FO quant position, your academic background becomes more and more irrelevant as you develop industry experience.



and you should apply for any quant internships you can find.