Careers and industry
Our financial mathematics graduates go on to pursue a wide variety of careers and further study at PhD level.
Graduate destinations
Graduates of our mathematical finance MSc programmes are equipped with the necessary skills needed to work in a variety of quantitative analytics or risk management roles in the financial industry, or to continue on to PhD study. Our Student Development Manager is on hand to support our students to develop their employability and to transition into careers or PhD study.
Scottish Financial Risk Academy
As a student you will benefit from rich interaction with professionals from the financial services industry.
We work closely with the Scottish Financial Risk Academy (SFRA) to offer a number of short courses led by industry (part of our Research Skills for Financial Mathematics course) and to provide the opportunity to our best students to write their dissertations during placements with financial services companies. Its steering members include companies such as:
- Aberdeen Asset Management
- Moody's Analytics
- Lloyds Banking Group
- Royal Bank of Scotland
The School also runs Financial Practitioner Seminars. These are talks delivered by people working in (or with significant experience of) the financial services industry. Typically the talk focuses on an interesting problem they are solving or have solved as part of their work. These seminars are open to MSc students (as well as PhD students and academic staff).
Summer projects with industry
As part of the MSc, you have to complete a significant independent research project that takes place over the summer. Each year a number of projects are offered to our MSc students by the Scottish Financial Risk Academy. This practical experience is highly valued by employers. Some examples of previous industry-linked dissertation projects include:
- Simulating a real world LMM model - with Moody's Analytics
- Survival analysis for fraud - with the Royal Bank of Scotland
- New measures of portfolio diversification - with Standard Life Investments
- Effect of supply and demand on premia evaluation - with Moody's Analytics
Employability skills
We want to help you gain other skills alongside your strong academic profile to make sure you are fully equipped to maximise your potential in the global market.
To support our students, the Careers Service has a dedicated team of Career Consultants, one of whom takes particular responsibility for students in the School of Mathematics. They work closely with our Student Development Manager to put on talks and events including:
- weekly sessions on career development ranging from CV writing advice and preparing for interviews, to applying for PhDs
- employer presentations representing a range of industries including Lloyds Banking Group, Wood Mackenzie, Merkle Aquila and the Government Operational Research Service (GORS)
- an annual careers showcase to network with alumni from our MSc programmes and gain insights into their current roles and careers
- interdisciplinary challenges, such as the "Analytics Challenge" set by Edinburgh Airport, and run in collaboration with the Business School
As well as being available for personal appointments (booked online), the Careers Consultant offers a weekly drop-in session in the School of Maths during semester time.