Mathematician in consulting
Hi all,
I am new in the consulting industry, I started working in a consulting firm this year. I have taken part in projects in Risk (Modelling/Model Validation etc.) and I enjoy it so far. My background is in mathematics and in general I enjoy mostly the most quantitative projects (by quantitative I mean projects that involve some math).
Since, I am still new, I would like to ask which field contains the most quantitative projects that a mathematician would enjoy working on. From my understanding, financial risk and banking (or actuarial consulting) are such fields. What field would you believe has the most quantitative projects (financial services, big data consulting, banking, energy, something else)?
Also, which companies are the best choices for such fields? I assume that strategy consulting is not so quantitative. Are big4 the obvious choice? Are you aware of any other firms that are more relevant to such projects? Is there perhaps any quantitative finance consulting firm (that is doing quantitative projects for front office quants/hedge funds)?
Thank you all for your answers!
Comments (10)
Economic consulting isnt bad, that's more on the econometrics side, usually, or DSGE modelling, depending on the type of project/firm.
Can confirm that the most complex thing you'll see in strategy consulting is essentially a basic excel input-output model to estimate a market size, which by my standards does not deserve to be called a model, but I cant be the odd one out, so I comply.
Thank you very much for your response.
I think I was not clear enough in my post. My background is in math, but to be more specific, I have a MSc in pure math/mathematical physics.
To be honest, economic consulting seemed interesting to me when I started looking for work, but it seemed like they only hire economists or mathematicians with a strong education in economics(maybe a PhD in econometrics etc.).
I did not even consider it as an option after some point, since most people that work there have such a background.
Are they open to different education profile like mine?
I see, in fairness, I think you're right. Usually either a background in economics / econometrics is necessary (coursework can be enough if your overall degree is something else).
I do have a PhD in Economics, so wasn't an issue in my case. However, I do know some econ consulting firms who are more agnostic & are willing to teach the economics concepts you'll need. Some boutiques do that, but I am not sure about the bigger players (e.g., NERA, Bates White, Charles River Associates, etc.)
Largely agree, although you can find a few projects with larger datasets which would typically require more elaborate structures & coding (e.g. dynamic pricing models, demand/ supply chain forecasting).
@OP: If your firm has a parallel set-up with capabilities (e.g. strategy, digital, organization) on top of the usual industry segmentation you might want to look into certain capability areas with more quant/ data-driven work as opposed to a pure industry-driven view. Looking at MBB, these might be called "digital"/ "digital, technology & data"; "operations"; "risk"/ "resilience"; "pricing"; etc.
^ Totally right, sometimes you do have large complex datasets, and though the maths itself won't be complex, the proble-solving aspect will climb up significantly! Good catch!
I see, mainly I have worked with data sciene in risk, and it seemed quite quantititative. That's what I wanted to know, if there exists some industry or field which has more quant projects in nature.
Thank you for your input.
Economics might be a good fit; lots of econometrics so stats and data analysis
There's a pretty cool niche of econ consulting at firms like FTI, Berkeley, Cornerstone, NERA, etc. that does a bunch of awesome work that would be decently math based but if you aren't working on econ stuff you want see anything that the average business major can't do.
How good is your python programming? Some of the AI/ML groups hire pure mathematicians, and setting up a proper AI research group is no longer just something Alphabet/Amazon does (see: Quantexa committing a fuckload of money in the UK to setting up an AI research group).
If you want to do real, hardcore math and still get paid somewhat commercially, the hardcore AI & Data science groups seem like your best bet.
I did some Data Science at a FAANG but not smart enough to do any of the actual research side.
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