Fast learner

I find myself to be able to pick things up relatively fast. I guess it's more of being passionate and putting in the effort. A MD asked us to think through if this is where we want to be, where stress levels are high and getting the sack can be purely random. Yes he said fired for no good reason - just because "you're at the wrong place at the wrong time".

Anyway, I think I've found what I really want to do. Research. It's ideal to be "outside" the scene looking in, where you can have a more macro picture of how pieces come together, to independently analyse and critique. I would like a role which involves more analysis work and devising strategies, rather than being a pure quant who only build models and codes them for other users. But I guess as a start, it would be more model-building/coding than writing research pieces.

Everyone is saying the job market for quants and credit-related businesses are suffering, and from what I heard, at least it seems true in the firm. Heard from a fellow intern that credit teams in the markets group are not hiring, so if you're an intern there, just blame it on your luck. As for quants...I'll know soon. If I don't have an offer, I'll probably go back to Asia. Still deciding on that one.

Recently, I've been so immersed in my work that I "forget" to eat. I find myself to be enjoying the challenge, to think hard about a problem. It's different from school when you could somehow get the correct answer. So I've been staying in the office for 14 hours. I may be quick in picking up things that have been done and proven, but perhaps lack the creative juices in solving novel problems.

And oh yeah, WM will be here tomorrow and will be staying for 2 weeks!