career path / alevel help to be a quantitative analyst!!!

always liked economics and am passionate about ( entered essay competitions won and done wider reading ) and am OBSESSED with currency and macro, but for personal reasons i cant go into careers which involve interest or lots of it which rules out most of econ careers, so basically no banking etc plus i dont like the politician and civil service route because its too low paying

quantitative analyst seems to catch my eye as a career since it has economical elements and has some computing which i guess im okay for putting effort in. i do computing gcse and im predicted an 8 but i think i can manage a 9 if i work hard enough.

can anyone inform me on the correct career path? ive seen you can do an economics undergrad degree and get a job ( willing to do own coding on the side in uni )

rn im thinking of comp sci econ math further OR comp sci econ math german when feeling cheeky??

(edited 2 years ago)

Reply 1

MindMax2000

Universities Forum Helper

22

Original post by oikawa-

always liked economics and am passionate about ( entered essay competitions won and done wider reading ) and am OBSESSED with currency and macro, but for personal reasons i cant go into careers which involve interest or lots of it which rules out most of econ careers, so basically no banking etc plus i dont like the politician and civil service route because its too low paying

quantitative analyst seems to catch my eye as a career since it has economical elements and has some computing which i guess im okay for putting effort in. i do computing gcse and im predicted an 8 but i think i can manage a 9 if i work hard enough.

can anyone inform me on the correct career path? ive seen you can do an economics undergrad degree and get a job ( willing to do own coding on the side in uni )

rn im thinking of comp sci econ math further OR comp sci econ math german when feeling cheeky??

The go to qualification for quants is the CQF in the UK. In terms of degrees, you're usually looking for a mathematical or quantiative degree e.g. physics, maths, engineering, despite a degree strictly not being completely necessary.
If you do go for trhe CQF qualification, they recommend you to have a maths background, which is kind of vague. So, I recommend you checking with them to confirm whether you specifically need a quantitative degree in order to get onto the course.

In terms of economics degrees, you don't need economics A Level. It's nice to have it, especially if you can get a high grade in it, but it's not strictly necessary. This applies for quantitative and nonquantitative economic degrees (the former being the one you should be going for).
Maths (and further maths for top end universities) is pretty key for quantitative degrees. You will cover currency, macro, and unfortunately interest rates, which is inherent with most topics in macro.
For nonquantitative degrees, they don't specify subject requirements, just that you need to get high grades in 3 random A Levels.

Computing in quant roles is not the same thing as GCSE computer science. You're looking at detailed programming and stats. I would look at some university level courses on Coursera or Udemy to get a better idea of the programming skills you would need.
Note, I am not saying that you can't do the job, but I am saying you should check what your expectations of the jobs are.

Talking about computing, you don't need computer science at A Level to do it at degree level. The pickier universities only ask for maths (and possibly further maths depending on how picky they are). However, you don't need computer science or any IT related degree to go into tech or tech related roles. The tech based jobs would only care about your skills and experience. The only time the degree is useful from what I have seen is if you want to go into academic research.

am OBSESSED with currency and macro, but for personal reasons i cant go into careers which involve interest or lots of it which rules out most of econ careers
From this snippit, I am guessing you are part of an Abrahamic religion (I am tempted to guess which one, but I will stop there). However, there's nothing stopping you from becoming an economics professor or teacher should you wish (unless you deem the pay too low).
Likewise, if you're more passionate about helping the country than making money, then you could look into think tanks (some ask for MScs as opposed to PhDs).

If you're OK with being a quant, then you should also be OK being a currency trader. Being a trader doesn't require much qualification, but it requires skills and a very strong discipline. The pay is dependent on how good you are. However, I cannot imagine kids or any 18 year old screaming with pride that they are inspired to be a currency trader at any point.

Likewise, I don't think there's much stopping you from going into trade exports. Having said that, I have yet to come across a role where they will require you to use advanced maths to do much of the job.

There are also a number of jobs in finance that don't specifically involve setting interest rates, but understanding interest rates would be useful e.g. financial planning, mortgage advisory. equity based investments, fund management, accounting. Whilst a number of these careers won't require you to specifically have a degree, most of them will require a specific professional qualification for regulatory purposes (the CFA on the other hand will be asking you for a degree in any subject). I don't know how lenient your circumstances are for you to consider these roles.
Again, the majority of these roles won't require you to know anything above GCSE maths in order to do them.

Actuary on the other hand involves advanced maths, possibly more than what you will cover as a quant. Whilst it strictly does not cover interest rates, as far as I know, you will be involving calculations and noting down interest rates as a side note. The entry requirements to become an actuary is a strong mathematical background (it used to be A Level maths as a minimum, but they changed that), so you will need to check with the IFoA on what is specifically required. You can do degrees in actuarial science to get exemptions, but it's often not necessary to get the role (most graduate applicants go in with degrees in maths, physics, and engineering).

However, the above are only roles for you to think about, just to broaden the horizon.

In terms of A Level choices, I would advocate Maths and Further Maths. The third and fourth subjects are up to you, but for uni applications you're not likely to come across much problems if you don't pick any of the other subjects i.e. economics, computer science, German. I would always double check the entry requirements of the specific degree that you want to do first.

As a side note, you can always try to get into economics and computer science at master's level with a different undergrad. However, if you're just going for a job, then a bachelor's degree or equivalent should be more than sufficient (if it's even required at all). The only time you would possibly need a master's is if you want to go into academia or possibly become an economist (you can go into this via apprenticeship or with a bachelor's, but it's competitive).

Reply 2

j25_8

19

Original post by oikawa-

always liked economics and am passionate about ( entered essay competitions won and done wider reading ) and am OBSESSED with currency and macro, but for personal reasons i cant go into careers which involve interest or lots of it which rules out most of econ careers, so basically no banking etc plus i dont like the politician and civil service route because its too low paying

quantitative analyst seems to catch my eye as a career since it has economical elements and has some computing which i guess im okay for putting effort in. i do computing gcse and im predicted an 8 but i think i can manage a 9 if i work hard enough.

can anyone inform me on the correct career path? ive seen you can do an economics undergrad degree and get a job ( willing to do own coding on the side in uni )

rn im thinking of comp sci econ math further OR comp sci econ math german when feeling cheeky??

I’m going to give you the most important, necessary advice that anyone can give you:

Do further maths, even if it’s at AS

It’s true that quant(itative finance) involves lots of computing, but in order to land a job in the first place, you will have to do a quantitative degree like computer science, economics, even physics just as long as it’s very quantitative and not essay based. And then obviously, to do a quantitative degree, you’ll need maths but if you want to 1) maximise your chances to get into any university and 2) stand a chance when going for oxbridge, lse, imperial, ucl etc then do further maths (fm) aswell. To put it into perspective, only 24/1251 applicants got in to lse to do economics in 2016 without any fm at all, compared to 262/1251 who had fm at a level. And the 24 that got in without it likely only did so because their school didn’t offer fm at all. And that’s just for economics; for something like computer science or physics at oxbridge or imperial…fm might even be an entry requirement lol. But as daunting as it might seem, don’t let it get to you. Go for further maths if you’re committed, and you enjoy learning about maths in depth. If you enjoy watching videos from 3blue1brown or numberphile, you’ll also enjoy a teacher taking you through it step by step :smile:

plus I’m pretty sure most people after only a couple years in quant start making 200k+ in the uk at least and in the usa i think 200k is the starting salary straight out of uni lol.

Bottom line: I’d say go for fm, maths, computer science and econ

Reply 3

zain_0710

3

If my school doesnt offer comp sci alevel can i still go into it if ive shown like my own passion and follow up question is 16 a fine age to start learning programming

Reply 4

Labradoodle1

19

Original post by zain_0710

If my school doesnt offer comp sci alevel can i still go into it if ive shown like my own passion and follow up question is 16 a fine age to start learning programming

Yes absolutely (to both questions you asked)

career path / alevel help to be a quantitative analyst!!!

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