Name: Tobi George-Oyediran
Job Title: Quantitative Trading Analyst
Organisation: STX Group
Number of years in current position: Less than a year
Qualifications: BSc and MSc Mathematics
Briefly describe the organisation you work for:
STX is a financial trading company that trades Renewable Energy and Environmental Commodities. We help companies and the world at large go Green.
Explain what you do on an average day at work:
There’s a popular article on Investopedia where Quants are described as the Rocket Scientists of Wall Street. That’s a playful description of what we do – playing with big numbers to figure how to get rockets up without crashing. Right now, at this early stage, my task involves analysing and validating existing models.
What do you like most about your job?
My greatest fear as a student was spending 5 years getting two Maths degrees and not using them in my career. So, the best thing about my Job is the fact that I actually use my maths knowledge on a daily basis. I’m never bored.
What stimulated your interest in maths, and when?
I had a Maths teacher in SSS3 (Year 12) who helped me learn Maths by simplifying the fundamentals. I wasn’t good at Maths until one year before Uni, in my last class at high school. I developed that interest in a space of one year thanks to Mr Morris. I also didn’t initially go to Uni to study Maths, I changed my course in the first month.
What influenced your career choice?
I met another young Quant on LinkedIn, her name is Chibudom. She is one of the only four black female Quants I know including myself. I admired her, I also loved that the job was going to be very interesting and that Quants are one of the highest paid professionals in Finance, so it was a no-brainer.
Which skills do you consider to be essential for your job?
Definitely a lot of Maths, especially probability and stochastic calculus. And programming – Python and C++ to be precise.
Any advice you may have for other individuals considering your career path?
It’s very hard to break in honestly, the barrier to entry is quite high. But the good thing is that Quantitative finance is one of those jobs where your proficiency helps you to progress rather than office politics or people skills. You can’t play your way to the top, you either have results or you don’t. Your numbers speak. So, getting in is really the hardest bit, don’t give up.
Your future career plans?
If you asked me this question 6 months ago, I’d have answered this differently but now I’m really interested in Renewable Energy because of the company I work for. I’m Nigerian and my country is rich in fossil fuels, and our future transition into renewables keeps me up at night. But I have a lot to learn so I’m still thinking.
Featured Image by Rosy / Bad Homburg / Germany from Pixabay
