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Joan Nix

The following is advice from an alum who went from QC to Harvard for a MA in Statistics.

The following is advice from an alum who went from QC to Harvard for a MA in Statistics.


For students looking for jobs (hitting the job market right after graduate):

Of course, it depends on what kind of positions you are applying for, but there are certain questions that interviewers love to ask:


1) Valuation methodologies, including discounted cash flow method (DCF), WACC,

CAPM, levering and unlevering beta, and questions such as why companies issue bonds not stocks? Why buy back stocks? And could you recommend me two stocks?

For these questions, I believe BUSINESS341 and 350 prepare you for the best. I personally failed at one of my very first interviews because I confused CAPM with something else.


2) Accounting knowledge, understanding of three financial statements, questions like: why EBITA is important, or if a company has $10(pretax) of depreciation expense, how does that affect the three financial statements are very likely to occur during the interviews. So definitely remember your ACCOUNTING 101 and 102.


3) Take a class in STATISTICAL PROGRAMING LANGUAGE, such as SAS, SQL, or R!!

These are some courses that I did not receive while at QC but I wish I had. A lot of recruiters are looking for candidate who had experience in dealing with data.


4) Take some class that requires TEAM PROJECTS, and try to be the leader of the team. Experience like this offers you a lot to talk about during the interview (show off your leadership skills or make the interviewer remember you). I recently received a job offer from a company for its analyst leadership program, and I talked a lot about the projects I led in school during the interview.


For students planning to pursue a master’s degree in quantitative field, such as stat:


Definitely take advanced linear algebra since matrix is really a part of everything. Also, be ready to talk about some school projects in your personal statement. Requirements vary a lot with different programs.

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