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Finance MSC / MBS

copeland

Hi,

I am currently looking at postgrad courses in Finance. I have a maths backround so am leaning towards the MSc Quantitative Finance in UCD. I am also looking at:

MBS in Finance (UCD)
MSc Finance (TCD)
MSc Financial Services (UL)

I like the quantitative aspect of the MSc in UCD but, at this point, would prefer to do the course that offered the best career prospects.

Does anyone have advice to offer on these in terms of career prospects or what they think of the courses?

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Time Magazine

Honest question: why do you want to go into finance with what's happened over the past two years?

gerry87

I'm on the TCD course at the moment, tough but really enjoying it. If you have any specific questions about it, ask away.

Obviously your guess is as good as mine re career prospects, but if you'd like i can tell you some of the things i keep telling myself

copeland

The Economist wrote: »

Honest question: why do you want to go into finance with what's happened over the past two years?

Hi Economist. Thanks for the reply and congrats by the way. You have a fair point but I would hope that things are starting to pick up by the time I graduate. Also maths is probably my strongest subject and at the moment I feel that a good qualification in Finance would give me the best prospects.

Is there anything else that you would suggest?

copeland

gerry87 wrote: »

I'm on the TCD course at the moment, tough but really enjoying it. If you have any specific questions about it, ask away.

Obviously your guess is as good as mine re career prospects, but if you'd like i can tell you some of the things i keep telling myself

Thanks for the reply Gerry. This was actually one of the first courses I looked at. It does look like a great course.

I do have a few questoins, if you dont mind. With the whole career prospects thing, are you hoping to get in to a specific area / Is there a specific career that the class in general is aiming for? Aslo, was there anything in particular that made you pick this course over the ones offered in UCD, UL etc?

gerry87

Honestly, i'm not really looking at specific areas... anything new we cover i generally add it to my list of jobs I might like.

Short term, yea it may be difficult to get a job exactly where you want. But long term I can see it turning out to be a good qualification. Especially with the linkage to CFA, which is almost an industry gold standard.

Do you have a specific area in mind?

I chose this over the MBS and the quant finance in smurfit. The reason I didnt go for quant finance (aside from it looking hella tough) was that it's pretty much targeted at a very high paid and sought after job - Quantitative Analyst. The thing is most quants are PHd's in fields like pure maths, theoretical physics, finance, economics etc. the mathsier the better. So I figured I could have been qualifies in too specific an area for the lower roles and under qualified for the higher roles and need to go for a phd. (that was just my thinking of it)

The other reason was that i didnt want to be in a situation where i could do all the maths, but not have a clue what it was for... dunno if this would have been the case. The other two courses give you a broader understanding of more areas.

Regarding the MBS, the two courses are very similar but afaik smurfit do 4 subjects per semester and a dissertation and trinity does 6 per semester and a dissertation. Overall they're similar but the trinity course was new and shiny and i like shiny things

copeland

gerry87 wrote: »

Honestly, i'm not really looking at specific areas... anything new we cover i generally add it to my list of jobs I might like.

Short term, yea it may be difficult to get a job exactly where you want. But long term I can see it turning out to be a good qualification. Especially with the linkage to CFA, which is almost an industry gold standard.

Do you have a specific area in mind?

I chose this over the MBS and the quant finance in smurfit. The reason I didnt go for quant finance (aside from it looking hella tough) was that it's pretty much targeted at a very high paid and sought after job - Quantitative Analyst. The thing is most quants are PHd's in fields like pure maths, theoretical physics, finance, economics etc. the mathsier the better. So I figured I could have been qualifies in too specific an area for the lower roles and under qualified for the higher roles and need to go for a phd. (that was just my thinking of it)

The other reason was that i didnt want to be in a situation where i could do all the maths, but not have a clue what it was for... dunno if this would have been the case. The other two courses give you a broader understanding of more areas.

Regarding the MBS, the two courses are very similar but afaik smurfit do 4 subjects per semester and a dissertation and trinity does 6 per semester and a dissertation. Overall they're similar but the trinity course was new and shiny and i like shiny things

I'm with you on the new and shiny. I was initiall looking at quantitative role, such as a quant analyst but was also looking at different trading roles. The point you made about the quant finance msc not being enough to secure a position as an analyst is a bit off putting. I'm pretty much at the point now that I want to do what is a good and well recognised course and, as you say, look more into career prospects as I learn. I'm going to call around to a few recruitment agancies in the next few days and see what opinions, if any, they have.

Thanks again.

gerry87

copeland wrote: »

I'm with you on the new and shiny. I was initiall looking at quantitative role, such as a quant analyst but was also looking at different trading roles. The point you made about the quant finance msc not being enough to secure a position as an analyst is a bit off putting. I'm pretty much at the point now that I want to do what is a good and well recognised course and, as you say, look more into career prospects as I learn. I'm going to call around to a few recruitment agancies in the next few days and see what opinions, if any, they have.

Thanks again.

Don't get me wrong about the quant finance course, it seems to be an extremely highly regarded course, I was just telling you my thinking at the time which could be completely off the mark!

When I went to the careers office in smurfit he likened an mbs/msc in finance studying to become a doctor while the quant finance to become a very specialised brain surgeon. Neither is bad, but if you study to become a brain surgeon, you're never likely to become a GP. Whereas when you become a doctor, you could go on to any area...

Messy analogy, but you can see where he was coming from!

Good luck with the fact-finding!

Slippers

http://www.wilmott.com/categories.cfm?catid=16

Careers forum for quants and aspiring quants. Look for posts by DominicConnor. He is a head hunter and knows what he is talking about.

To see whether a PhD is necessary.

ramblingcelt

Have a look at the courses abroad. Most universities offer masters through English. Did mine in Belgium and paid 1/10th the fees charged here. www.kul.be has many courses and universities in Norway offer no fees but masters can be longer, up to 18 months.

cjfm

Hi, I'm resurrecting this thread as it is probably the best one I've been able to find regarding Masters in Finance Programmes.

I would like to get into securities trading, with a particular but not exclusive interest in fixed income products.

I am wondering if anybody could recommend the best postgrad to apply to in order to get started in such a career. I would be willing to relocate out of ireland but financing is a concern (wouldn't mind borrowing if course was good value, but would rather not be crippled with debt).

I think the main thing I would be looking for in a course is a good recruiting relationship with top finance firms (bulge bracket banks/ hedge funds).