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1. WSO is a great place to see other people's questions on this stuff so you might want to check that out.
   
   
2. Starting pay at an okay shop should land you at least $150k but good shops will be north of $200k (Citadel, DE Shaw, Two Sigma, etc.) Quant salaries vary greatly, however the upside is practically unlimited. Not sure about other firms but at Citadel they generally don't go above 60/week.
   
   
3. Spend some time looking at the applications for places/roles you're interested in as they will be rather specific on qualifications and background.
   
   
4. I'm assuming you are looking to be a Quant Researcher which is where the real work is done. Many places will look at your thesis and go hardcore on poking holes in it so be ready to defend it. Your ability to research and possibly implement solutions is what they're looking for here.
   
   
5. HFT quant work generally utilizes C++ for execution of a strategy as it runs fastest. Python and R is useful for research and analysis. In this area I'd recommend reading This Book written by a former AQR quant.
   
   Also I've heard good things about this book This Book. But haven't gone through it myself.
   
   
6. Jobs are pretty stable as long as you are good at what you do. Good quant divisions will have phenomenal returns and the employees will have a good work/life balance.
   
   
7. Location-wise NYC is naturally the best place, however Chicago would be your #2 bet.

I think you should try to bang them out in relatively quick succession but I've only done SIE and 65 (and 3), so I can't confidently speak for the others. The SIE is needed before the 6 and 7 top offs. You could take the SIE, 63, 65, 66 when you are ready and don't need sponsorship, the 6 and 7 both need a firm to sponsor you. Between the SIE and 65, the 65 was potentially harder because it was harder but they seemed pretty similar. I actually studied SIE material to prep for the 65 plus some other material. All the material you need is out on the internet for free in some capacity if you dig deep enough. You'll probably want to do the SIE first because it's required for two others, is cheapest, and is good practice for the 65 (possibly others). What worked for me (on SIE then 65) was to read the book linked, practice, watch related YouTube videos, practice, sit for test. If you pass, your result is "Pass" so no brownie points for getting 100%.

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This was super helpful: https://www.investopedia.com/quizzer/

Same with this - there are practice exams in the book as well: https://smile.amazon.com/Pass-SIE-Explanation-Securities-Essentials-ebook/dp/B0796JZ31L/ref=smi_www_rco2_go_smi_g5171374337?_encoding=UTF8&%2AVersion%2A=1&%2Aentries%2A=0&ie=UTF8

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Good luck!

(Sorry for the formatting, I'm on mobile)

https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Guide-Quantitative-Finance-Interviews/dp/1438236662&ved=2ahUKEwiIxLiFsYzaAhXJJMAKHfobAc4QFjAKegQICBAB&usg=AOvVaw2FMeyGzdYd7u1o_Ho9qJIf

This book is probably overkill for most of the questions you'll get asked (it's targeted more towards quantitative analyst interviews which generally require a much more in depth knowledge of calculus, linear algebra, algorithms etc.) but the brainteaser and probability chapters will definitely be useful.

Also as others mentioned practice quick mental math, with 2/3 digit numbers and decimals. Rankyourbrain.com isn't bad for this (someone mentioned tradertest.org is down).

In my experience interviewing for these places, many of them put a lot of focus on game theory problems. A game will presented to you and you decide whether you want to play and what the best strategy is. Another common question is to market making games where youre asked to estimate some quantity (e.g number of windows in NYC) and then play a market making game with the interviewer, whereby you set bid/ask prices on this quantity and he buys/sells and you adjust your prices accordingly. After a few trades he'll ask you what your position is, what value of the quantity would make you break even etc. They also often ask for confidence intervals of your estimates. It's key that you clarify your thought process for the estimate and make reasonable assumptions.

Finally, due to the nature of the job you will likely be but under an unreasonable amount of time pressure for some questions, just to see how you handle it. They key is not getting flustered if you get a question or two wrong in this situation. Just keep a clear head and take each question as it comes. Good luck!

Though it depends on the area of finance you are in, VBA is a very good place to start out. You already know Excel and I bet it would be an easier sell at work to start using some homebrew macro rather than something else.

If I where you, I would pick up Financial Modelling by Simon Benninga. It's not focused heavily on VBA but does use it where relevant - this just shows that you really don't need VBA for a lot of finance applications anyway (you can do a lot with functions only!). Pick up any Excel/VBA book for the things that Benninga does not cover. A book similar to Benninga is Advanced Modelling in Finance
using Excel and VBA, which I'm not as familiar with as Benninga but it does seem more focused on VBA, if only slightly.

You mention databases, which would be another direction you could go in. Your biggest hurdle will probably be to convince someone to give you access to a database with relevant data - at least while you are still learning. Not to mention that on top of having to learn something like VBA to access the database, you will also have to learn SQL to query the database for data. It's not out of reach but perhaps a bit of a learning curve. I would suggest you find out if your company has something like a Enterprise Data Warehouse or any other databases where you are allowed to hook up and get data from.

No, don't pay for WSJ if you already have the FT. Honestly, if you're more interested in the Alphaville section and markets - perhaps you're more suited to a capital markets or even S&T role than M&A advisory.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Investment-Banking-Valuation-Leveraged-Acquisitions/dp/1118472209/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1372779058&sr=8-1&keywords=Investment+banking+pearl

This book is a classic. If you learn it from cover to cover you're pretty set. The WSO guide is also very helpful as well as the Vault guides. These are much easier to understand for a newcomer and focus on interview questions. The pdfs of these should be online for free on some random website. Do some googling. Your investment society at uni may have paid for membership as well. But don't wait for uni to start back again.

Investopedia is not sufficient. M&I (and WSO) is good to read to understand the level of knowledge expected of people being interviewed. If you're technically proficient - it will be a big plus.

This is a business where you have to do things the hard way, typically. If you decide to become a retail broker, there are a few things I would do:

• Figure out which senior brokers are going to retire soon-ish - work to determine whether you can buy their book (this might mean you actually just work for them for a while);
  
  
• Cold call like crazy - mostly business owners, doctors, dentists, lawyers, etc., and give them a short pitch of good ideas you have. Remember that these guys get pitched constantly, so you should learn the art of the pitch. You'll have to make hundreds of calls before you succeed, but this is what sales is about;
  
  
• Partner with any realtors, accountants, tax advisors, lawyers, estate planners and so on you know, or establish those relationships. Refer business to them in exchange for them to refer business to you.
  
  I would suspect that a broker, in his first five years, probably hates his life. But once you get beyond that initial phase, it can obviously become very lucrative, as lucrative as a more institutional role. Remember that brokers eventually establish relationships with investment bankers and start doing fun little private placements. Some brokers specialize in this stuff (e.g. finding capital for small tech firms). These guys get warrants, the piece of the compensation picture that the retail client often doesn't know about. Warrants are good.
  
  Remember too that we may be entering a long-term bear market. Some good friends of mine got started at one of the world's largest brokerages back in the mid 90s. So they had timing on their side. You may not.
  
  This book might interest you: http://www.amazon.com/Pitch-Anything-Innovative-Presenting-Persuading/dp/0071752854/ref=reg_hu-rd_add_1_dp
  
  It's written by a guy who raises VC capital.

Get a sales job somewhere.

Being a stock broker surprisingly has very little to do with selling stocks as it does with growing your assets under management. To grow your AUM you need to learn to sell a lifestyle to a potential client and give them the idea that their money is safe with you. Sales jobs will help structure your pitch.

You need to be able to learn about how you financial instruments work and explain the daily economic events in plain english to people but the expectation isn't to call the market 100% of the time. The firm you work for will have an entire research department to support you and they'll usually do most of the hard work, just read the reports every morning and parrot their advice. I've met IA's that have never made their own call on a position their entire career.

This is one of the careers in finance where you're ability to succeed isn't dictated by your smarts but by who you and your family knows. You could hustle all day but if you don't know any rich folks its going to be a hard uphill battle.

One book that I was given early on that did help me was
https://www.amazon.ca/Serious-Money-Marketing-Mutual-Funds/dp/0943570115

Not the best but it helped point me in the right direction mentality wise.

Are you familiar with the various career paths in CRE? If not, I found this book helpful. I can't say that this is the best book for this purpose, just one that I liked.

If your goal is to work for a large REPE shop (e.g. Blackstone), your best path is to go the IB route.

If you want to get more into development, or working for an operator/sponsor or perhaps even a lender, learn the CRE basics and NETWORK. Learning Argus will also be a huge step. Networking is always important but I think it goes a lot farther in CRE than in other industries. There are plenty of professional groups out there (ULI, NAIOP, ICSC, etc.) that have events catering to younger professionals that can be helpful.

Lastly (and this is more of a personal opinion), people always talk about getting a CFA or any of the other designations but I think getting a real estate brokers license is extremely helpful even if you don't go the brokerage route.

I can't give any advice for SEA. I don't know how much you've looked into it already, but some assorted resources people seem to like:

Max Dama - On Automated Trading

Jane Street - Probability and Markets

Cliff Asness - A Brief and Biased Survey of Quantitative Investing

Heard On the Street

A practical Guid to Quant Finacne interviews

A summary of quantative trading

[Mark Joshi - On Becoming a quant] (http://www.markjoshi.com/downloads/advice.pdf)

How's your programming and statistics? Those are probably the two things you can improve the most on your own to give you the best chance with interviews.

You'll hear this a thousand times but read A Random Walk Down Wall Street. It has a good overview of America's market history, specifically the last decade. Make sure you buy a revised version.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0393352242/ref=dp_ob_neva_mobile

Some people may suggest Intelligent Investor and Securities Analysis but I found them very dated.

Also here is the r/personalfinance reading list:

https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/readinglist

Cheesy but potentially useful - much has been written about P&G's culture as a model for mgt in general as well as for other consumer goods cos, so it's common to find people in the industry constantly referencing P&G methods as dogma (which is often laughable from the perspective of an analyst, but good to know.) A few reads:

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https://www.amazon.com/Playing-Win-Strategy-Really-Works/dp/142218739X/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=procter+gamble+book&qid=1559027196&s=gateway&sr=8-2

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https://www.amazon.com/When-Core-Values-Are-Strategic/dp/0132905337/ref=sr_1_7?keywords=procter+gamble+case+studies&qid=1559027619&s=gateway&sr=8-7

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http://globadvantage.ipleiria.pt/files/2009/07/working_paper-33_globadvantage.pdf

Thank you, good luck!

Rosenbaum and Pearl IB

For investment banking, you would only really have a shot at a biotech bank looking for a scientific-minded analyst. That said, they probably "know what they're getting" by hiring you, and are planning on training you. If it is something you would really consider, I would highly recommending reading Investment Banking by Rosenbaum and Pearl to gain a basic understanding of financial statements, and the 5 basic valuation methodologies. Being able to speak about these....even at a high level...will go far in an interview (these are the basics of entry level undergrad IB recruiting interviews).

Depending on the bank, some may look for you to fill an associate type of a role, but I wouldn't expect that without banking experience or an MBA, but small shops would use you as a consultant or even an analyst in the right environment. Do some searching for life science and healthcare investment banks and you can see in most "team" sections the background on the individuals at the firm. Small boutique types of shops will focus on getting the most efficiency out of analysts as possible, and your experience can be a large advantage over just a finance background in the right setting

For firms like akuna, you do not need finance domain knowledge. Very good prep book with tons of example questions is https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Guide-Quantitative-Finance-Interviews/dp/1438236662/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1514852482&sr=8-2&keywords=quant+finance. Will match the types of questions you may get very well.

https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Mechanical-Keyboard-mechanical-Switches/dp/B071VHYZ62

This is what I am rocking at work. The feel is "okay." I really like that the design is very minimalist, while giving a bit of mechanical feel to it, while also not annoying the whole company.

This is from a different post on the same topic:

I would start here

Some additional books that I like are:

Financial Schnanigans

Avoiding the winner's curse

If you are interested in high-yield debt (and you should be, this is where all of the action is), then read the first four books on Amazon

Finally, learn the basics of accounting and financial accounting. Finance is just a bunch of ratios. You need to understand how the numbers are created before you can analyze them.

Thanks, I appreciate that. 1 sounds necessary and 2 good, 3 and 4 arent big for me. I also am hearing SDD is necessary! Would you mind checking these two out? This is what I'm thinking about getting, but I dont see any reason not to get the cheaper one here. https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-i5-8250U-GeForce-E5-576G-5762/dp/B075FLBJV7/ref=cm_wl_huc_item

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RF2123Z/ref=psdc_13896615011_t1_B075FLBJV7#HLCXComparisonWidget_feature_div

I have looked into that one before, but the reviews on amazon seem pretty bad:

https://www.amazon.com/Investment-Banking-Valuation-Leveraged-Acquisitions/dp/1118656210