Hi @Viha,
So you would like to become a “quantitative analyst”? I have written about the different roles in quant in a previous thread:
Summarizing a bit, when many students talk about quant, they are talking about the trading roles in companies like Jane Street or Jump Trading, or about the research roles in hedge funds like DE Shaw or Two Sigma. I call these NY-style quant companies These are among the most difficult positions to get, and the typical background is someone majoring in Math or Stats, followed by those majoring in CS, Electrical Engineering and Physics. These companies don’t care at all about a finance background, and their interviews don’t ask finance questions, assuming with strong math skills can learn the finance. Most hires in these roles come from elite colleges with MIT, Harvard, Princeton and Stanford being the most represented. But it is possible to be hired here from other colleges (such as UT Austin) if you can get called for an interview.
But there is another set of quant companies that I call “Boston-style” which expects less math brilliance but an understanding of finance. This is often demonstrated by making progress towards becoming a CFA charterholder. These companies more often hire from a larger set colleges. For example, it’s pretty common for graduates of BU or Tufts to have successful careers in these companies.
In addition, these companies also hire software engineers. There are diferent types of roles here as well. Some are relatively close to the quant researchers, and convert their insights into efficient production code. Others are further away and may work on more core infrastructure tools such as compilers or fault tolerance.
AI is making everyone at these companies more efficient, and in many companies is reducing the number of new hires, making getting hired into a quant company even more competitive.