argh...wth am i to do (warning: long post)

[jjk2]

i love finance, unfortunately where I live, Vancouver, Canada, chance to finding a relevant job is slim.



So, i thought maybe i should add in a science, just in case i dont get a job in financial industry.



I'm considering Microbiology/Biochemistry, Statistics.



to give you an idea, heres how long it will take approximately as I've roughly sketched out, altho the course # are irrelevant, its an estimate of the amount of time i will be here. I am beginning my 3rd year @ Simon Fraser University (we have 3 semesters in a year).



Finance Major



Sept 2007: Buec 333, Bus 343, Bus 374, Bus 381,



Jan 2007: Bus 312, Bus 303, Bus 315 Invest, Bus 316 Securities



Summer 2007: Bus 478, 393, 360, Bus 312 Intro Finance



Sept 2008: Bus 410, 413, Bus 316 Advanced Derivatives



Microbiology/Biochemistry Major



Sept 2007: chem 215, mbb 222, bisc 303, cmpt 120.



Jan 2007: mbb 308, mbb 321, mbb 322, mbb 331.



Summer 2007: Chem 360, mbb 423, mbb 441.



Sept 2008: Mbb 412, mbb 402, mbb 403



Jan 2008: 403, 442, 443.



MBB/Business



Sept 2007: Mbb 222, bus 303, bus 312, bus 374



Jan 2007: mbb 331, bio 303, bus 343, bus 347



Summer 2007: mbb 308, mbb 321, bus 360, bus 393



Sept 2008: mbb 309, mbb 322, bus 477, bus 336



Jan 2008: mbb 432, mbb 426, bus 315, bus 316



Summer 2008: bus 410, bus 413



Statistics Major



Sept 2007 : cmpt 120, math 151, stat 270



Jan 2007: cmpt 125, math 232, stat 285, stat 330.



Summer 2007: math 251, stat 350, MACM 316, stat 380



Sept 2008: stat 410, stat 460, stat 450



Jan 2008: stat 430, 402, 490.





im just publishing it for my own view, since i can think more clearer.





Anyways, what I'm looking for is, which major here is the bang for the buck? Which degree has high success rate at landing jobs after graduation?



Here are my experiences so far.



Business degree is very expensive, also, i've taken the lower levels so far, and not at all satisfied....very boring, we don't learn anything else besides common sense...i feel unchallenged...the only reason i took lower levels is because i wanted to get into the finance core courses, like options/derivatives/security analysis....i haven't taken these upper courses yet (2 semesters wasted).



Microbiology/Biochemistry....cheap, i've finished lower levels. I learn stuff that are really irrelevant, cannot stand the chemistry labs wanted to kill myself. (4 semesters wasted)





My future predictions based on degree i graduate with.



Business Degree: work a few jobs here and there, CFA(?), finance analyst, financial engineering.



Microbio/Biochem: work in a lab, learn industry, research firms. proffessor.



Statistics: work for gov, get financial engineering.



My ultimate goal is becoming a financial engineer. I love trading, anything finance related.



Now i am hellas confused and mental block to what i should do. My parents hate me being in business/finance.





I guess to get to the financial engineering position, I will need a stable and a reliable job. I see statistics as the best thing. but maybe im wrong here. I've taken a few intro courses to statistics, and I really enjoyed it very much.

[bloodninja]

I'd recommend going after what you enjoy.



The actual minutes of a job can make one's life tolerable versus intolerable; e.g., you're on the job for anywhere from 8-12 hrs a day 5/6 days per week for however many weeks per year. Before and after you're typically doing something related to the job whether be as simple as sitting around thinking about it or something more involved.



All total then, that's a substantial fraction of one's life. If you don't enjoy it then it's hard to imagine where you'll find the motivation for getting through the tight spots (bad climate, bad coworker, bad project, bad boss etc). For example, as people get older and start raising families and tying themselves to mortgages etc the motivation for their work becomes more clear. Conversely, for a young guy without such impediments if you don't like what you're doing you'll move on when the chance arises, which it will.



The same arguments are made for accepting a position in a given field; e.g., deciding whether or not you want to work with a certain team of folks. Bottomline, if someone doesn't like the atmosphere in a given position it's only a matter of time before they move on.



Oh yeah, that and Satan Rules!



HIH

[mj]

i'd advise going with stats. Statisticians are in short supply generally, so you can leverage this into a lot of things. Plus if you decide to go the business route, you'll find it a lot easier to pick up finance as you go than to pick up statistics.

[jslade]

[i]"My parents hate me being in business/finance."[/i]



Har, my parents hated me for not being a doctor or a lawyer, since none of their friends know what a physicist or a quant is.



I don't know what the finance courses are like, but I bet the "advanced" derivatives course, isn't very advanced. My undergrad experience in physics was that it was a tissue of outright lies and half truths; something tells me you're not doing the latest t copula CDO pricing methods in your UG derivatives class either (not that I know much either, as a n00b; just a guess based on general principles). Statistics half truths are what everyone uses, so you're not at as much of a disadvantage there.



I have to agree with MJ that stats is pretty easy to retool into lots of other things. Example: biostats is a nice kind of job you can get in biotech these days with a stat degree, but being able to smear slime on petri dishes won't get you anywhere outside of petri-dish land.



I also agree with BN in general Evil Grin

[jjk2]

thanks again for your inputs. its very much appreciated.



your absolutely right, all the finance courses at our school at least are just "definitions" and theories. not actually learning about investing. i would enjoy learning it very much however.



i've been doing a lot of thinking, lot of smoking....and at this point however, its a bit overhaul i think to change completely to statistics....i dont know anything or anyone in this field...however u think its relatively easy to find jobs with this.



right now, i jsut wanna get a degree, and get the fuck out of school....



so i guess i will just finish mbb...maybe i might like the upper levels. also, i will definitely take finance to cool my head once in a while.



who knows maybe i can be a junior investment banker with biotech background. or discover some random disease cure.



lets see how i do. if i stop posting here in about 3 month, it means i probably committed suicide doing chem labs.

[Bachelier]

stats and programming classes are the single most important for your future in trading.



"i love finance"



finance breaks down into a donut shop (Horton's man...)...which has only two jobs



making donuts



selling donuts



if you want to sell donuts, then fine....be a business major...



if you want to make donuts, then you need stats and programing.



"finance" is a huge field after those two buckets. read some job description profiles and roles to decide. for example, retail stock brokers often say they are "investment bankers" wheras real I-bankers often just say they are "bankers" aand guys who are commercial bankers often say they are "loan officers."



You are mistaken: there is a huge finance industry in Vancover. this makes me suspect you aren't digging deep enough to what "finance" is and what the jobs really are.

[FDAXHunter]

[b]jjk2:[/b] [i]I love trading, anything finance related.[/i]



And you know this how? Because you've done so much trading and finance in your life? I'm skeptical with regards to claims like this.

[ClopeMan]

i've transited through vancouver in the past (for some years); i do not know finance industry there well at all, but i did met a couple of financial engineers during some seminars ;  a better argument would probably be that bachelier typically knows what he is talking about... (there must be finance jobs)



anyways, depending on what you want to do, i assume that having a degree from UBC would hardly hurt and would put you in front line for job interviews in the all wild west, from calgary to vancouver.  in case it would suit your taste, the math department there has a master of quant-fin...and their proba group is exceptionally strong. i also heard good things about their stat dept, but i've never been in that one.



i miss vancouver; summer there is just too great Smiley



good luck

[jjk2]

thanks for the inputs again. your insights here are very much appreciated at a time of need.



statistics for sure can apply to a large field. i think its flexible and thats is a strong advantage. ur right, if i just stuck doing mbb, then thats probably all i am good for scraping petridish...*shudders.



how do i know i love finance and trading? that is a very good question. i guess i will not know until i experience blowing up my account. but so far, i love programming automated strategies, i will be sending out one of my forex auto signals on www.collective2.com

i'll post a link here when its up. i spend way too much time on reading relevant materials and books than school stuff so far....but now its gotta change, i need to hold off the temptation and concentrate on school.



i think real solution is just, try out both side of the world, and the answer should be clear.



also, even if i decide to do stats...i could finish it off at the same time it would take with business, or MBB. mbb/business joint major takes the longest however.



one negative thing i heard about staticianss, is how shitty they are treated, and poorly paid. any thoughts on this?

[jjk2]

Bachelier, i dont get the donuts analogy....maybe because i am damn hungry right now.



where can i find more info on finance related jobs in vancouver???? seriously, i am not aware that vancouver has such significant industry as you say.



ur right finance is a big field. i would like to get more involved in trading to start with. so thats the kind of stuff i look for in finance jobs.