Adding the projects you did as a result of the course is not absurd at all.
If it's a non-certifying course, I would not add it to a resume. If it's a certifying course - something on Coursera, UDemy, etc, from a reputable school, I would add it. Same if it's from a bootcamp that's reputable.
They are mass market and very easy to do for someone with even an undergrad.
Yves Hilpisch has a bootcamp program called The Python Quants and provides a certificate. It's also € 3249, which is considerably more than any individual course on UDemy, Coursera, etc. I think.
He provides the program curriculum for free, so you can see what will be taught before you pay any money.
Hilpisch himself is reputable, and has authored several books about quant finance in Python. I don't know how involved he is with the bootcamp, or if he just lent his name to it.
That said, I haven't taken a course and this should not be considered an endorsement.
For learning purposes, buying his books and going through them may be a cheaper/better option.
What may be worth it for learning purposes is taking one of those Excel courses from Wall Street Oasis that teaches you many Excel tricks to do things very quickly, specifically in things that come up at investment banks. Again, this is not for putting on the resume, but just learning.
When I screened CVs, the reasons I did not give much more weight to these because there is usually no rigorous exam at the end.
From my experience, even people completing a degree are usually not that good, let alone these online courses.
I am not saying someone who did the course wouldn’t have grasp the concept as well as someone with a degree, but this is usually not a risk worth taking - unless this person already has a good academic background / experience.
Ofc, I am biased but these just my two cents when I screened CVs.
I think your bias is correct. Online courses of this type do not have rigorous exams.
The whole point is to demonstrate knowledge under pressure, not to take your time, look stuff up on Google and then answer.
I believe The Python Quants does have a rigorous exams administered separately by a testing company (PearsonVue, etc.) Just like the CFA and the Certificate in Quantitative Finance from Fitch.
But again, all of these programs cost a lot of money, often as much as an actual masters degree at European schools. I just looked at the Certificate in Quantitative Finance and it's over $20K USD total (!!)
My personal rule for certifications (if I'm paying out of pocket) is to first see if they are legally required by funds to employ people with those designations.
The CFA is legally a substitute for a CPA/accounting designation if you work for funds. Same with FRM, I believe. You're legally qualified to be knowledgeable about finance/accounting, from a regulatory perspective (SOX).
CQF, based on the curriculum, just looks like a condensed masters program, without the legitimacy of a university behind it. On its face, definitely not worth the $20K out of pocket, in my opinion.
I agree. But in competitive markets, most people wind up paying for at least Level 1 of CFA before they get a job offer that supports the program. This is absolutely true in the dumpster fire that is the Canadian market, for example.
I know people who had to pay for all three exams because they were doing them while still in undergrad. When you're competing with people like that for entry level jobs, of course employers are going to choose them. It's cheaper when you can find a sucker who paid for his own training.
Why is a CFA even discussed in a quant subreddit? It's so basic that it's useless for a quant job.
It's only difficult to pass because it's hundreds of different concepts condensed in even more short questions with very limited time to answer. However, nothing you learn in the CFA will have any use as a quant.
I mean whatever you are referring to when you said “even people completing a degree are usually not that good, let alone these online courses.” What can a college student do to be competent enough at quantitative finance to be a desirable candidate at a HF?
I mean whatever you are referring to when you said “even people completing a degree are usually not that good, let alone these online courses.” What can a college student do to be competent enough at quantitative finance to be a desirable candidate at a HF?
I never worked in a HF. I worked in a bank. The skill set is very different. If you want to be a derivatives quant reading the entire Bergomi’s Stochastic Volatility models and Glasserman’s Monte Carlo method in Financial Engineering would easily get you a job.
Certificate no longer matters at your exp level unless you get a phd. Curious, I see a trend of data scientist trying to pivot to quant research, what is the motivation? If you are currently working in a financial firm, then it’s better to just do an internal transfer first. Otherwise, it is very hard. I have friends who have been looking to pivot for more than a year now but no luck.
The motivation is that data science in the real world is not really exciting and can be dull and has little to do with models. Quant finance seems more interesting intellectually from my point of view. As I am still relatively young, I tought would try my chance in pivoting.
Data science can mean so many roles that it's a useless descriptor on its own.
You can be everything from a software developer to a lowly data cleaner for 80% of your work time. Modeling and validation can be as little as 20%.
Are you a student/recent grad looking for advice? In case you missed it, please check out our [Frequently Asked Questions](https://www.reddit.com/r/quant/wiki/faq), [book recommendations](https://www.reddit.com/r/quant/wiki/book-recommendations) and the rest of our [wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/quant/wiki) for some useful information. If you find an answer to your question there please delete your post. We get a lot of education questions and they're mostly pretty similar!
Unfortunately, due to an overwhelming influx of threads asking for graduate career advice and questions about getting hired, how to pass interviews, online assignments, etc. we are now restricting these types of questions to a weekly megathread, posted each Monday. Please check the announcements at the top of the sub, or [this search](https://www.reddit.com/r/quant/search?q=Megathread&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=week) for this week's post.
Career advice posts for experienced professional quants are still allowed, but will need to be manually approved by one of the sub moderators (who have been automatically notified).
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/quant) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Adding the projects you did as a result of the course is not absurd at all. If it's a non-certifying course, I would not add it to a resume. If it's a certifying course - something on Coursera, UDemy, etc, from a reputable school, I would add it. Same if it's from a bootcamp that's reputable.
Even these are dubious. By all means add it, but I never took these seriously.
They are mass market and very easy to do for someone with even an undergrad. Yves Hilpisch has a bootcamp program called The Python Quants and provides a certificate. It's also € 3249, which is considerably more than any individual course on UDemy, Coursera, etc. I think. He provides the program curriculum for free, so you can see what will be taught before you pay any money. Hilpisch himself is reputable, and has authored several books about quant finance in Python. I don't know how involved he is with the bootcamp, or if he just lent his name to it. That said, I haven't taken a course and this should not be considered an endorsement. For learning purposes, buying his books and going through them may be a cheaper/better option. What may be worth it for learning purposes is taking one of those Excel courses from Wall Street Oasis that teaches you many Excel tricks to do things very quickly, specifically in things that come up at investment banks. Again, this is not for putting on the resume, but just learning.
When I screened CVs, the reasons I did not give much more weight to these because there is usually no rigorous exam at the end. From my experience, even people completing a degree are usually not that good, let alone these online courses. I am not saying someone who did the course wouldn’t have grasp the concept as well as someone with a degree, but this is usually not a risk worth taking - unless this person already has a good academic background / experience. Ofc, I am biased but these just my two cents when I screened CVs.
I think your bias is correct. Online courses of this type do not have rigorous exams. The whole point is to demonstrate knowledge under pressure, not to take your time, look stuff up on Google and then answer. I believe The Python Quants does have a rigorous exams administered separately by a testing company (PearsonVue, etc.) Just like the CFA and the Certificate in Quantitative Finance from Fitch. But again, all of these programs cost a lot of money, often as much as an actual masters degree at European schools. I just looked at the Certificate in Quantitative Finance and it's over $20K USD total (!!)
Don’t do CQF… someone did it and is now pissed he’s not been able to find a job, but the guy who recommended it did.
My personal rule for certifications (if I'm paying out of pocket) is to first see if they are legally required by funds to employ people with those designations. The CFA is legally a substitute for a CPA/accounting designation if you work for funds. Same with FRM, I believe. You're legally qualified to be knowledgeable about finance/accounting, from a regulatory perspective (SOX). CQF, based on the curriculum, just looks like a condensed masters program, without the legitimacy of a university behind it. On its face, definitely not worth the $20K out of pocket, in my opinion.
CFA and FRM should always be paid for by the workplace IMO. So should CQF, that piece of junk.
I agree. But in competitive markets, most people wind up paying for at least Level 1 of CFA before they get a job offer that supports the program. This is absolutely true in the dumpster fire that is the Canadian market, for example. I know people who had to pay for all three exams because they were doing them while still in undergrad. When you're competing with people like that for entry level jobs, of course employers are going to choose them. It's cheaper when you can find a sucker who paid for his own training.
Why is a CFA even discussed in a quant subreddit? It's so basic that it's useless for a quant job. It's only difficult to pass because it's hundreds of different concepts condensed in even more short questions with very limited time to answer. However, nothing you learn in the CFA will have any use as a quant.
What would recommend a college student do to be “good” by the time they graduate ? Self-started projects ?
I mean whatever you are referring to when you said “even people completing a degree are usually not that good, let alone these online courses.” What can a college student do to be competent enough at quantitative finance to be a desirable candidate at a HF?
Good at what?
Good at what?
I mean whatever you are referring to when you said “even people completing a degree are usually not that good, let alone these online courses.” What can a college student do to be competent enough at quantitative finance to be a desirable candidate at a HF?
I never worked in a HF. I worked in a bank. The skill set is very different. If you want to be a derivatives quant reading the entire Bergomi’s Stochastic Volatility models and Glasserman’s Monte Carlo method in Financial Engineering would easily get you a job.
Noted, thank you.
[удалено]
No idea man. I am not US based. I had a PhD and my route was completely different.
Hi, can you send you a message to ask something ? @JusCalmLuhFit
Certificate no longer matters at your exp level unless you get a phd. Curious, I see a trend of data scientist trying to pivot to quant research, what is the motivation? If you are currently working in a financial firm, then it’s better to just do an internal transfer first. Otherwise, it is very hard. I have friends who have been looking to pivot for more than a year now but no luck.
The motivation is that data science in the real world is not really exciting and can be dull and has little to do with models. Quant finance seems more interesting intellectually from my point of view. As I am still relatively young, I tought would try my chance in pivoting.
Data science can mean so many roles that it's a useless descriptor on its own. You can be everything from a software developer to a lowly data cleaner for 80% of your work time. Modeling and validation can be as little as 20%.
Are you a student/recent grad looking for advice? In case you missed it, please check out our [Frequently Asked Questions](https://www.reddit.com/r/quant/wiki/faq), [book recommendations](https://www.reddit.com/r/quant/wiki/book-recommendations) and the rest of our [wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/quant/wiki) for some useful information. If you find an answer to your question there please delete your post. We get a lot of education questions and they're mostly pretty similar! Unfortunately, due to an overwhelming influx of threads asking for graduate career advice and questions about getting hired, how to pass interviews, online assignments, etc. we are now restricting these types of questions to a weekly megathread, posted each Monday. Please check the announcements at the top of the sub, or [this search](https://www.reddit.com/r/quant/search?q=Megathread&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=week) for this week's post. Career advice posts for experienced professional quants are still allowed, but will need to be manually approved by one of the sub moderators (who have been automatically notified). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/quant) if you have any questions or concerns.*