First steps to a Successful Career

USC, Los Angeles, Nov 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 ‘SC

•  USC tag follows you J

•  Learning curve actually gets steeper

•  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

•  Introspect on your Skills and your Interests

•  Think Career, not Jobs

Prepare Well, but Chill Out

•  Research the various jobs thoroughly

•  Advice from peers and alumni?

•  Personal Life versus Professional Life

•  Never compare yourself with others!

•  Easy to correct bad jobs or wrong decisions

Should I go to Grad School?

•  Titles like M.B.A., Ph.D. - what is their value?

•  What do the best employers care about ?

•  Ph.D. è If you want to be in academia/research

•  M.B.A. è If you want to hit the Reset button

•  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

•  Compensation levels are growing fast

•  Big Data is the new buzz

•  Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon

•  Are Tech jobs boring?

Silicon Valley versus Wall Street

•  Do you enjoy Continuous Math?

•  Depth versus Breadth

•  Office environment and Colleagues

•  Compensation

•  Location

Some important topics

•  Statistical Learning

•  Functional Programming

•  Domain Specific Languages

•  Quantitative Modeling

•  Architectures for Big Data

Startups

•  Appetite for Volatility

•  <Market, Product, Team>

•  Funding

•  Advisors

•  Passion

Resume

•  One-pager with precise education/work details

•  Links to LinkedIn, Github, Stackoverflow …

•  Reflection of your communication skills/style

•  Less drama, more objectivity

•  State your international exposure, if any

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

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

•  Apply for high-ZQ jobs of interest to you

•  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