Financial Engineering as a Career Option

Over the last few years, the nature of the Financial Industry has changed drastically and the need for Finance Professionals is striving to remain at the forefront of new growth and trends. There is a significant need for skilled quants. The main focus of this course lies in risk and credit investments. It is a multidisciplinary field that involves financial analysis and modelling, engineering techniques, mathematical tools, and software training. If you really want to establish a career in Financial Engineering, you need to know various things to become a preferred job candidate. 

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Financial Engineering

“Financial Engineering is the application of science-based mathematical  models to decisions about saving, investing, borrowing, lending, and  managing risk.”

This is how Boston University’s Norman and Adele Barron Professor of Management, Prof. Zvi Bodie describes Financial Engineering. The course should be layered above a strong foundation of financial science in a logically coherent world. In qualifications, a Master’s in Science or a Masters’ in Financial Engineering (MFE) will gear you up towards new quantitative roles such as delivering risk models and trading directly, library control, model validation, risk management and programming.

Importance of Financial Engineering

The below points exuberate the importance of this field.

• It is a field of study that helps in the reduction of risk in investments by assessing the total risk of the portfolio.
• The course also assists in making financial markets more active and efficient by simple means of matching the needs and wants.
• The course helps to provide financial analysis of the business’ product and assets.
• It also helps in advancing the company’s strategy
• The course also creates real-time economic stimulations in order to predict and analyse the future behaviour of the market.

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Major Courses and Subjects

Operations Analysis, Applied Mathematics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Theoretical Physics, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Electrical Engineering are usually part of the coursework. The relevant programs related to this field are:

Undergraduate Courses (UG)	BTech Financial Engineering
Postgraduate Courses (PG)	MS in Financial Engineering MTech Financial Engineering MS in Computational Finance MS in Mathematical Finance MS in Financial Mathematics &  Quantitative Finance
PhD Courses	Financial Engineering
Certification Courses	Risk management assurance Information system auditor Certification in quantitative finance Machine learning for tradingInterest rate modelsReinforcement learning in finance

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Masters in Financial Engineering

Masters in Financial Engineering is an expert multidisciplinary field that deals with financial theory, engineering methods, programming, etc. Financial engineering applies expertise in computer programming. They create and develop new financial products, manage financial risks and develop funds.

Here are the top universities around the world where you can study Masters in Financial Engineering:

• Georgia Institute of Technology
• University of California-Berkeley
• University of Washington
• Stony Brook University
• North Carolina State University
• Baruch College
• University of California-Los Angeles
• University of Michigan
• The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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Top Global Universities for Financial Engineering

A career in this course has immense potential in the future Financial Market. If you’re interested to enter the Finance Industry and possess good mathematical and scientific knowledge, here are some of the top institutions for this course:

University/College	Location	Course
Columbia University	USA	Financial Engineering Mathematics of Finance
Carnegie Mellon University	USA	Computational Finance
University of California Berkeley	USA	Financial Engineering
City University of New York	USA	Financial Engineering
New York University	USA	Mathematics in Finance
Princeton University	USA	Master in Finance
Cornell University	USA	MEng in Financial Engineering Concentration
Massachusetts Institute of Technology	USA	Master of Finance
The University of Chicago	USA	Financial Mathematics
Stanford University	USA	Computational and Mathematical Engineering Master of Science in Financial Mathematics
University of Oxford	UK	MSc in Mathematical and Computational Finance
Georgia Institute of Technology	USA	Quantitative and Computational Finance
Boston University	USA	Mathematical Finance
University of Washington	USA	Computational Finance and Risk Management
University of California, Los Angeles	USA	Financial Engineering

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Columbia University Financial Engineering

Columbia University has a 36-credit degree STEM program. The program is devoted to tools of trade and use in modelling financial markets and instruments. Students can also take electives from one of the following graduate schools:

• Graduate School of Business
• Graduate School of Arts and Science
• School of Law
• School of International and Public Affairs

The program offers seven concentrations, including:

• Asset Management 
• Computation & Programming
• Computational Finance/Trading Systems
• Derivatives
• Finance & Economics
• Financial Technology

NYU Financial Engineering

At NYU School of Engineering, students are trained to prepare the future of financial services and transform financial theory to practice. MS in Financial Engineering helps students to derive risk finances.

The program allows students to select courses from the following focus areas:

• Corporate Finance and Financial Markets
• Computational Finance
• Technology and Algorithmic Finance
• Risk Finance

UCLA Financial Engineering

UCLA’s Graduate Program in Management offers Masters in Financial Engineering. The Institute offers courses in investments, financial accounting, financial decision making and derivative markets. There are a total of 70 units of the subject with 16 elective courses.

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Top Universities in India

With the rapidly evolving global scenario and growing competition, there has been an increase in these courses offered at various levels by different colleges and institutions in India. As this is an emerging and high paying industry, more and more individuals are trying to gain the knowledge and skills needed for this profession so that they can make a career switch. Here are some top Indian universities offering the best programs in this area:

• Indian Institute of Technology – Kharagpur
• QuantInsti Quantitative Learning Pvt Ltd, Mumbai 
• Indian Institute of Quantitative Finance, Mumbai
• GD Goenka Education City, Haryana

Career Paths

A candidate pursuing a Master’s degree in this field can find a range of career prospects in the Finance Industry and is qualified to take high-level positions within large companies. Here are the career options for an aspiring candidate:

• Execution
• Financial Regulation
• Corporate Finance
• Portfolio Management
• Trading
• Derivatives Pricing
• Risk Management
• Structured Products
• Valuation of Options
• Market Analyst 
• Risk Analyst

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Skills Required

The Additional Requirements to be successful in this Career Path are:

• Coding expertise in languages like Python, Java, C++, and Scala Apart from basic skills, you should also possess communication and analytical skills for competitive advantage. 
• Aspirants must be familiar with linear algebra, spatial geometry, stochastic calculus, and also have an understanding of differential equations.
• Keep up with the latest developments in the industry. Candidates should be accustomed to constant reading, crunching and applying the information for the creation of predictive financial models. 

Salary

The salary of a financial engineer, in India and abroad are as presented below.

In India

The average salary of a financial engineer in India is INR 17 lakh.

In Abroad

The median salary of Financial Engineers in the USA is 79,327 USD (INR 65 lakh) whereas the average salary is around $106,507 (INR 88 lakh) per year. If we calculate correctly, then a finance engineer makes around $51.21 (INR 4000) per hour! According to some figures, you can make anywhere between 175,000 to 400,000 USD (INR1 crore to 4 crore) after gaining a few more years of experience. Financial Engineering is a dynamic field in which you must constantly update yourself. The more you understand, the higher your chances of application would be, and therefore, you would be able to get better pay from the businesses in which you would be employed.

FAQs

Now you know all about Financial Engineering! Reach out to Leverage Edu if you need assistance in applying to a top university offering this course at 1800 57 2000.