First steps to a Successful Career

IIT Bombay, Oct 2013

Ashwin Rao

My background

•  B.Tech. Computer Science. IIT-Bombay.

•  Ph.D. Algorithmic Algebra. USC, Los Angeles.

•  VP. Quant Strategist. Goldman Sachs, NY.

•  Managing Director. Morgan Stanley.

•  Founder. ZLemma.com (A Tech Startup)

Life after IIT

•  IIT tag follows you. Is it a good thing ?

•  "We were so naive during our IIT days !"

•  Acquire versatility in skills and personality

•  Associate with people different than you

What are suitable jobs for me ?

•  You can figure it out objectively

•  Glamour, Money and the Mom Syndrome

•  Understand your Skills and your Taste

•  Think Career, not Jobs

Prepare Well, but Chill Out

•  Research the various jobs thoroughly

•  Advice from your classmates and seniors ?

•  Personal Life versus Professional Life

•  Never compare yourself with others !

•  Easy to correct bad jobs or wrong decisions

Higher Studies

•  Titles like MBA, Ph.D. - what is their value ?

• What do the best employers care about ?

•  Ph.D. è If you want to be an academic

• MBA è Reset career. Timing? India or US?

• Masters versus Ph.D.

Quant Finance Jobs

•  Derivatives Trader

•  Trading Desk Quant Strategist

•  Derivatives Modeler, Statistical Modeler

•  Algorithmic Trading Quant

•  Analytics Developer

Current Wall Street Scenario

•  Regulations have reshaped the industry

•  Compensation levels down but still high

•  Engineers are thriving in quant finance

•  Markets turning increasingly electronic

•  More emphasis on vanilla trading businesses

Tech Jobs

•  Boom in Tech, particularly in Silicon Valley

•  Tech jobs don't pay well ?

•  Example - Big Data

•  Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon

•  Exciting tech jobs in India ?

Quant Finance versus Tech

•  Do you enjoy Continuous Math?

•  Depth versus Breadth

• Office environment and Colleagues

•  Compensation

•  Location

Interviews

•  Represent your abilities clearly and accurately

•  Typically, a large and diverse set of interviewers

•  Flood of puzzles/programming/math problems

•  Tough Qs in your claimed areas of expertise

•  Evaluation of your communication and attitude

Startups

•  Not for everyone

•  <Market, Product, Team>

•  Funding

•  Advisors

•  Passion

ZLemma

• Zlemma.com evaluates your profile in great detail

•  Zlemma Quotient (ZQ) – your suitability for a job •  ZQ is a score out of 100 for a specific job

•  Hiring manager model their requirements in detail

•  Jobs ranging from Silicon Valley to Wall Street

Addendum

• Tune in to: blog.zlemma.com

•  Write to: ashwin@zlemma.com for advice

•  Our app is your friend: zlemma.com