Quants have been taking a beating up and down Wall Street and Main Street since the financial market meltdown in the summer of 2007.
Naturally, you have a tendency to want to hide your near-perfect math and physics scores - anything that could indicate the intellectual capacity and a future propensity to build renegade models that could blow up a financial system.
Fortunately, demand for quantitative skills is so high that Wall Street is willing to take a risk on you.
Admittedly, your job search is made more difficult by the fact that Wall Street Journal reporter Scott Peterson is flogging his new book "The Quants" and blaming the meltdown on "brainy math whizzes" rather than the risk controls of banks and their enforcers (read: senior management).
Nonetheless, financial engineering is a core competency on Wall Street and a skill that is in high demand.
A quantitative position, therefore, can be a good inroad into an investment banking firm and an M&A career.
Super math skills may get you in the door to an M&A job, even when few other jobs are open.
To target a quantitative position that also provides exposure to merger and acquisitions operations, you may want to start with boutique banks and M&A advisories.
This way, you can ensure you will be working on M&A jobs and not get stuck on the derivatives desk in energy trading.
Increasingly, fancy derivatives structures are being embedded in corporate finance and M&A transactions.
Financial engineering is a key area of innovation and competitive advantage among banks.
You could be part of a large team of financial engineers who are employed to create new instruments that make it is easier and cheaper for corporates to attract financing.
There are many quantitative positions that can provide you with related corporate finance experience and smooth your transition to an M&A job.
Experience in credit analysis is invaluable in a corporate banking environment.
Interest rate and currency derivatives experience also provide useful risk management skills, which can make or break a financing.
If you are able to explain to a managing director how a new hybrid option interest rate derivative could lower the risk profile on an acquisition and thereby lower the cost of financing by a few basis points, you may be hired! If you do not land the junior investment banking position you envisioned, focus on the core skills that will give you a competitive advantage in the next hiring round, and work on developing them.
Risk management and derivatives play a key role in the cost of financing in corporate finance transactions.
What's more, quants often attract a higher pay rate, another good reason to be a geek.
Quant Finance Jobs.
com is the leading jobs site for geeky math geniuses looking for jobs in the financial services industry.
Citigroup has a lot of quant jobs open, including some in corporate finance and treasury environments, as do many other investment banks