How Masters in Quant Finance Changed My Life | USA | Life Journey #Finance

hi everyone this is mol Ma and welcome back to my YouTube channel so in this CashNews.co I specifically want to talk about my story and how did Masters in Quant Finance change my

actual life so you know coming going back to my engineering days I was pursuing electronics and communication engineering from viit University well so you know during my last semester uh I was finding a lot of you know I was you know reaching out to a lot of people and asking them hey can you give

me a referral and stuff like that and fortunately I got a risk and Regulatory intern at PWC so I guess at so you know it was I was working very hard so that they can convert my internship to a full-time offer and eventually they did it because I was working like crazy there so you know like uh so

at PWC to be honest I worked for 3 years built a lot of different models Market rest models Credit rest models but you know always like whenever during those three years there were so many Concepts which I didn’t knew and I always F that should I pursue a Masters or should I

not now the issue was in India there are not many Masters program and con Finance and even if there if there are there were few certifications but I mean I they were all

teaching elgo trading and I didn’t want to go into ELO trading my interest was more into modeling you know building quantitative models so that’s where I I I thought like pursuing a masters from abroad would be a good option now you know there are bunch of countries us UK Netherlands uh

Canada Singapore but for some reason uh you know a lot of folks told me like us is the best place to pursue your masters of course it’s expensive um I feel it’s really expensive I was looking at so many colleges you know um as so I paid during my masters I paid $60,000 for pursuing my

masters right and but luckily so because in two semesters I performed well so I got like uh $2,500 off in both the semesters so in total I I got a $5,000 scholarship because of my academics so in total I I paid $55,000 to my for pursuing my Master’s Degree now the thing is of course for a lot

of folks uh $55,000 is a big money it’s actually a big money even though for I for most of the folks in India that’s a lot of money but see the good thing is I knew that the market for GA was good that is something that I knew before and I mean before coming to us you always have this

doubt should I pursue should I not pursue or beat any country because there’s lot of money at stake so always I always say that whenever you are making a decision which involves a lot of money take a calculated risk and what what you can do let’s say you are planning to pursue a masters

what you can do is talk to folks around if you’re going for a specific University talk to their alumni you know I don’t want to specify one University it’s it’s it’s actually a top university for qu #1a73e8; text-decoration: none;">Finance I spoke to so many students from that University and they said it’s like such a program they don’t teach their professors do not care and stuff like that and they are charging close to $100,000 so $100,000 and if the service of the if the

service is not good I mean that’s why I always say whenever you come to you take a calculated risk speak to lot of alumni I know people reach out on LinkedIn some people reply some people do not reply but at least some people reply so right so at least reach out to them for understanding if

Masters would make sense or not see uh with my personal experience I can share that why Masters really help me in selling this field so what happens is whenever when you are pursuing a master so my master what was a 18 Monon Master almost like close to three semester it it can be extended to Fourth

semester but again you know when you extend to another semester there’s a money you know some cost Associated 10 12,000 or $15,000 was Associated and I felt like there’s no need let’s let’s complete in three semester so mine was a 18mon master’s program now the good

part part of being in a master’s program is you do you learn so much about the field so in the very first semester you know so like totally I studied I guess close to 10 different subjects in cont none;">Finance uh derivatives fixed Income statistics level one statistics level two Credit risk modeling then we have uh Financial Risk Management stochastic calculus Financial mathematics there were so many subjects right I mean and you learn

time series modeling right there you know these all comes in electives and there was something on I remember Portfolio optimization and stuff like that point I’m trying to make is so let’s say let’s pick any topic derivative the good part about us or you can say

when the bad part is the professors discuss the concepts they will not teach like they’ll not uh handhold you like if you see back in India we were given notes for each and every subject right Professor used to speak so back in viit my professor used to speak you know the speak about the

topic and he used to dictate the notes and we used to write the notes that’s how I have studied in you know in a in in that mindset but when I came to us it was like very different professors were like you know go and read this chapter and you know the next day we’ll discuss and

I’m I’m like discuss what we have paid $60,000 what’s what’s discuss teach us teach teach each and everything but the thing is it doesn’t happen in us the the earlier you understand the better it is you know of course they’ll help you understand the concept

they’ll related with the real life example but if you think they’ll teach you each and everything it’s not possible you have to be very proactive so you have to make sure you go read the book and that’s where I I feel that’s where my lot of my development happened

because you know the professors were very competent I’m not I’m not saying something about the professors what I’m trying to say is the education system is very different in India versus in USA here the professor wants you to study textbooks right they want they would not give you

notes like how we used to get in India so here it’s like I felt it’s very different system it’s good because you know you spend time with books you learn a lot right which you would might not be learned when the professors say having said that there were a few professors who used

to teach us from slides also they used to give us notes but again you know there were professors who were just you know they used to just share their the real life examples of how the concept works right so they used to say oh go study this concept and we’ll discuss how this work in real life

so you have to go you have to put a lot of effort the good part is in USA there’s no disturbance see when you are in India you have your family relative friends everything you have to go out for marriages stuff like that but once you come to USA you’re actually isolated here it’s

very different people are really focused uh you know they are very ambitious so you’ll also feel that competition healthy competition right so I feel like when you come to us you are just focused on studies that’s it you don’t I mean I don’t know on Instagram really

you’ll see oh people partying in us that happens only one day out of the 365 days or all the 364 days people really G really hard so do not think that oh these people are just parting or you know these people are roaming you know you you’ll see lot of people uploading picture but

actually you know this is very this is like they worked almost for 5 months really hard and just for 3 days they went out which is totally fine but just imagine those five five months I mean I remember when I was in when I was pursuing my master I used to spend close to 8 hours 10 hours just

studying all my roommates were used to study crazy we used to discuss a lot of Concepts you used to discuss lot on the modeling piece so there were so many things we used to discuss we used to study together so you know like if you remember like you know how people say you go to Kota Rajasthan

right there’s a city called Kota which is famous for I right go to Kota and you’ll get I clear why do people say that because of the environment because default same the same thing is in US everyone is studying you know everyone is working hard everyone is targeting you know good

ambitious companies so that’s why you tend to work really hard so that’s why I felt key I spent a lot of time just studying almost for 18 months I I just studied studied studied good part was when I graduated I had six six different offers uh you know I got offer from various uh

consulting firms various Banks investment management firm so so I I felt like I really did a good job because six job offers is no joke also I’m not boasting I’m just trying to make you understand that if you work really hard in US you’ll actually get results only issue is uh

where I feel you what you should not do is um if you are coming here to if you’re going to any abroad country I me any country in abroad USA UK Canada Singapore I and don’t just party you know people come here they are like oh let me download Bumble Tinder you know let me go out on

dates with girls that’s the worst thing you can do for yourself I mean I’m not a great believer of it either so I don’t know I feel like if you coming if you’re leaving your family in India if your family is sacrificing then you should make sure that you work really hard

when you come for your Masters here having said that I mean that’s that was my journey how Masters you know because I was I was reading all this textbooks I was uh reading so many different textbooks all together my Concepts actually got a lot of I got lot of clarity because I was spending

time now I see a lot of courses uh you know out there and they say become content 3 months become content 6 months I’ll tell you it’s all about a journey you cannot become something in just few months of time if someone is saying oh you know if you do this you you’ll get a COR job

or if you do this in three months or I’m telling you that’s that’s rubbish I mean I was seeing a ad and it says oh you can crack a con Trading Company or con trading role in 3 months I nobody can do it people who do their masters for 18 months they are also not able to crack cont

roles let’s let’s leave cont trading because con trading is like top 1% of the 1% so I I feel like don’t get into this of okay you can achieve something very quickly always think it’s just a process I know a lot of people want job in this domain but ask yourself how much do

you know about derivative how much do you know about Risk Management how much do you know about fixed Income how much do you know about stochastic calculus you yourself will feel if you don’t know so many things you know transitioning into this field will be

a challenge right because you you lack so many Concepts so the best thing is start reading book I mean if you ask me the only book you should start reading is options Futures and derivatives by John C Hull most of the things that you see you know I I teach a lot uh I love teaching

uh you might see a lot of project CashNews.cos or modeling CashNews.cos uh that I have I built lot of Quant modeling projects on YouTube also if you see so all the knowledge that I have gained so far the Credit goes to John seul why because the author has done such a good job in

making you understand the concept I’m telling if you spend time with books you don’t need anyone so I would say like master’s degree really helped me if you planning to pursue a masters I would highly recommend it because Master’s means what if you just go by the name Master

which is basically becoming a master in a field right so when you spend like 18 months 2 years in a field you actually get to know a lot of stuff about the field and don’t Focus Fus on you know let me transition into 2 months let me crack this job into 3 months or 2 months you know that never

happens if you want to become a account it’s always a journey and I till date I’m learning so many new Concepts I’ve been into this field for so many years still L I’m also learning I’m also evolving so right now also yes when you when you you know pursue a

professional degree like just something like if you be if you if you do your engineering degree you you actually you are called an engineer right that’s how if you are pursuing a master’s degree in con text-decoration: none;">Finance you’ll be called a cont but if you think like you know I do this six Monon boot camp and I’ll be called a cont I mean see it’s always a journey always remember what we are trying to do is trying to learn so many different because cor

href="https://cashnews.co/finance" style="font-weight: bold; color: #1a73e8; text-decoration: none;">Finance is really big people think it’s very small but believe me when you come into this field cor text-decoration: none;">Finance is very big you there are so many subjects so many topics so many interdependencies so that’s why I feel like um don’t rush into this people saying becoming G in few in few months don’t go or don’t go don’t go and don’t believe

that because uh you know the the people say like oh if you want to become a billionaire there’s this 21 day scheme you all know we all know that that’s a fake scheme right no one becomes a millionaire or a billionaire in a short period of time and that’s how the Journey of contest

you know it’s it’s just a journey I would say pursuing Masters is the best if in case um pursuing you know you think like you might not be able to pay that much for your Masters so so I would recommend start exploring books as I said read option Futures and derivatives

by John Cal then on fixed Income re read Frank faozi so if you write Frank faozi books there’ll be a book on a fixed Income I would highly recommend go and read that and then you know once you read once you start reading these books you’ll actually get

hang of it and um that’s what guys I mean really I would say pursuing Masters in qu Finance was one of my best decision learned a lot in this field still learning you know I cannot say

that oh I’ve become a complete cont and I’m the complete package no I’m just a modeler I love building models I’m not a Trader okay I’m not a developer I’m I’m a modeler people in India think that these all are the same person person doing trading will also

can can also do modeling can also do development but let me explain these all are very different task you know trading requires trade people who are Traders they are very they require to have a quick Mental Math you know they should be very quick in their thinking and response and execution whereas

someone who is a qu modeler or a Quant researcher these people are laidback they take time to develop a model because that involves a lot of data you know building a model involves a lot of data cleaning the data calibrating the model with the market data now understanding how the model is

performing if the model is not performing good tweaking the model there’s lot of component associated with the model building process and that’s why people say you know you might hear people saying oh I’m working on this model from last one year because it’s a laidback job

it is not something you can turn in the model just in one month or two months it building model takes time right so and I’m I’m saying that you know because these all are different skill set so I would say just Deep dive into this field I feel this the qu

href="https://cashnews.co/finance" style="font-weight: bold; color: #1a73e8; text-decoration: none;">Finance field will be very big in India and I wish you all the best if you are interested and if you have any more doubts please reach out to me on LinkedIn or or you can you can share your if

you have any doubts you can ask me in the comment box on this YouTube YouTube CashNews.co so all the best guys