So what is the best place to start off your career in finance and banking now? Is it still Toronto or Calgary, Edmonton has taken over?
Forget your parents… stop crying and start acting like an adult. Get a part-time job (get one at the mall or movie theater if you have to) that way you can still focus on applying and enrol via using a credit card if you have to even if you’re broke - sure the interest you pay is something, but that’s just a added cost in order to get your life/career started, which you should pay off in no time even if you work at least 20hrs at a minimum wage job. Key is start studying soon if especially since you have no finance/accounting background. And I know its frustrating out of school, but you have to do what it takes. I’m also guessing you have very little friends/contacts to rely on (this is the best way to get a interview or ahead of the 100s of other resumes you’re competing with) considering your negative attitude and lack of responsibility here since nobody likes to be around a whiner. Straci: You are correct. If he gets his break into a position/the industry, a strong quant background will carry him far and allow him to take on tasks/analysis the likes of myself (a regular BBA grad) grasp with greater effort or takes alot longer from a technical perspective. Your situation is not a ‘problem’ that can be solved with neat equations and proofs. Canada’s a small market, and there are alot of opportunities here in Toronto (I say its still better per capita then others in Canada), so look around, but heck, if one comes along elsewhere and you’re in the position, take it. Keep positive, focus and the best of luck.
As a fellow mathematician that’s also transitioning to the industry. I would also advise you to go to your professors in the Mathematics Department there to see if there are some additional research on asset pricing models that you can work on with them (at least on a part-time basis). If you have a good reputation in your department it would be generally easy to do (especially if you have a solid statistics background). In doing so you might need to brush up on your knowledge of PDEs and ODEs as well as numerical methods due to the fact that much of the interest in these asset pricing models deals with the Black-Scholes equation which is a Stochasic PDE (which deals with much probability and statistics). Mathematics are expanding themselves into being more interdisciplinary. So I would pitch the idea of working with your advisor or something of the sort. Hope that this helps.