For those actually in the industry

nauru
Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:31:38 +0000

If quants earn more money than those in IBD, the downside is that becoming a quant is pretty hard relative to becoming a general financial analyst…most quants have some pretty quantitative major, such as math, statistics, and graduate degrees in financial engineering etc…all those majors are much more difficult than a business major…the upside is that quants are generally less vulnerable to recessions than general analysts, i.e. not as many quants are laid off as are IBD people…so it’s a tradeoff



I wasn’t referring to just quants. Traders in general (quant and non-quant) and structurers in general (quant and non-quant) are paid slightly better than IBD people in general. You don’t need a super quantitative degree to do either of these. An economics major will suffice… and I think a business major from a very good school would probably be fine too if you can show you’ve got analytical skills at the level of a solid econ major.

So: equal educational requirements, slightly higher pay, better hours, equal or better exit opps to hedge funds… IBD doesn’t really have that much going for it in light of the alternatives. Unless of course, you love private equity (lower pay than hedge funds though).

For all the noobs out there, the actual title for all these jobs is analyst, regardless of what you are actually doing. Traders, structurers, IBD monkeys, are all officially known as analysts.