Finance graduate having a career in Risk Management?

Water Cooler Careers
#1

Hi everyone,

Firstly, I am sincerely sorry for the long post. I would be very grateful for answering the following questions, your opinions, thoughts etc.

I am a fresh Master in Finance graduate from Poland. My question is as follows: is it possible for a finance graduate to have a career connected with quantitative risk management, preferably market risk?

During my university years I became interested in risk management and more quantitative related topics in general. In result, I wrote my bachelor thesis on VaR backtesting and my master thesis on GARCH option pricing models. I am also trying to build my career around Risk Management. I had two internships, one connected with scenario analysis, second in a Market Risk Management Department in a bank. Since October 2016 I am working fulltime in a Reporting and Market Risk Management Department in an insurance company. Unfortunately, all of the above were indeed connected with risk management although more from the name than actual day-to-day tasks.

Now I’m wondering what would be a better solution: dive more into a classic finance career and continue my CFA (I’ve done Level I during studies because there was a scholarship available) or strife to become a Risk Analyst. I am aware that not having a strict mathematical background would be a serious obstacle, but maybe doing a FRM or apply for some postgraduate studies would help? Is being a risk analyst equal to being a quant analyst in all cases?

Again, I would be very grateful for your responses, thank you in advance and have a nice day :)!

#2

If you’ve studied VaR and GARCH models, then surely you’ve had algebra, calculus, statistics, etc. How much more math do you think you need? And what exactly is your job at the insurance company?

#3

The point is that I do not have a Mathematics related degree. I am familiar with concepts such as VaR, GARCH models and so on, because I am interested in it, but I surely do not have the knowledge that a Math/Statistics/Financial Engineering graduate has. The question is what could I do to gain this lacking knowledge and is there even a point of doing it in the first place? Does a Risk Analyst need to have a typical quant background?

#4

Sorry, i just assumed you had more math courses. :blush: