Vital Stats
HOMETOWN: Milan, Italy
Master's Program:University of California at Berkeley (Haas School of Business), Master in Financial Engineering
Additional Graduate work:Ph.D. in physics from the Scuola Normale Superiore
Undergraduate Degree:B.S. in physics from the Universita degli Studi di Milano
Honors: While doing my postdoctorate work in physics, I received a fellowship at the University of California at Davis, where I worked as a postdoctorate professor. I was also involved with a program designed to develop leadership skills for graduate and postdoctorate students.
Internships: I will be starting an internship at Citigroup in the fixed-income division in New York City. The three-month internship will run from mid-October to mid-January 2009.
Mentor: My mentor is my father. He works in financial consulting and knows a lot about the financial markets. He was always very helpful, and I more or less always talked to him about my career path.
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Interview Conducted By Cristina McEachern
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- Qualifications and Background
- Aspirations
- Beyond the Numbers
Advanced Trading: Why did you choose to pursue a master's degree in finance, and why did you choose the University of California at Berkeley's program?
Marandella: I felt that, coming from physics and academia and deciding to get into financial engineering, being a self-starter wasn't enough -- I needed a stronger background. With a background in physics and not finance, I needed to acquire additional knowledge and skills.
The Berkeley program is a top-quality master's program in financial engineering, and that was what I needed. Berkeley was ranked one of the best, and I think it's a good program with good faculty. A balance between high-quality academics and high-quality faculty, and a focus on placing people were important. This program has an excellent record of job placement -- even this year with the market problems.
AT: What is your math background? Do you have any programming experience?
Marandella: I have a very strong math background with my Ph.D., and I did research for three years as a postdoctorate. I published almost 20 papers and had been doing research on particle physics for two years. My research activity was at a high level of applied math, so I'd say my background is pretty strong.
In the programming area I was working on theoretical models in particle physics and how they compare -- developing program models, coding them and running simulations, then seeing how experimental data compared to models. That was a big part of my research activity.
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AT: What classes are you taking that will be essential to helping you be more prepared for a job on Wall Street?
Marandella: Almost all of them. But three are very important: fixed-income markets, equities and computational science. I've learned a lot of computational techniques used in finance to implement and simulate models and price derivatives. That includes more-advanced techniques and more-widely used models.
AT: What first interested you in Wall Street?
Marandella: When I was in graduate school and as a postdoc, I saw a constant migration from physics or math to finance. A friend of mine ended up working in finance in Italy, and I saw that and said, "Wow." And as time went by I got more and more interested in financial markets.
AT: How would you rate your knowledge of the business of financial services, on a scale of 1 to 10?
Marandella: Seven, and growing. Clearly I come from a different background, and I'm still building and working on it.
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AT: Why did you choose to pursue a career on Wall Street?
Marandella: I believe that finance would be a good fit for me, and it's something that I'm good at. I'm good at quantitative and mathematical modeling. With research and physics we see models and study models but an experiment can take tens of years. I'd like to see that my work has an immediate application and get immediate feedback -- to work on models and see traders using them; to see what I'm doing is for real, not just speculation.
Another one of the main reasons I'd like to work on Wall Street is that I think finance is fun and intellectually challenging. It's an extremely important part of our lives. Even though these days it might not be good news, it's still exciting to see it in the news and what you're doing being mentioned. It has such an importance in our world. I want to do something that has an impact.
AT: In what type of role would you like to start?
Marandella: The role I'd ideally like to start in is trading and the quantitative group. I'd like to work close to the trading desk and traders. I like to see the output of my work being used by traders. I enjoy having the interactions with the traders, to see what they're doing and what they need.
For now I would like to start at a bigger firm. In general I think, for a person starting in a field, it's easier to go from big to small later. A start at a big firm can provide exposure to a lot of different aspects of your job. When you start at a small firm, there's a risk that you might get a narrow part of what you're doing. A hedge fund would also be fun -- maybe in the longer term.
AT: What do you see yourself doing in two years? In 10 years?
Marandella: In the next couple of years, I'd like to be at an investment bank as a quant on the trading desk. I'd like to be in contact with traders and where the action is. In 10 years I'd like to be working inside an investment bank. I'd also be interested to see what kind of opportunities hedge funds offer.
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AT: Name three firms you'd like to work for.
Marandella: Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.
AT: What sets you apart from other quant candidates?
Marandella: My background -- my previous research in particle physics -- is very strong and gave me strong skills for Wall Street. It shaped my mind into thinking in a way that is good for Wall Street. I'm used to working on models and comparing the data to see what's wrong with the model and then changing and improving it. I've been doing that sort of work for a long time, and it's exactly what they need on Wall Street -- strong technical and mathematical skills. On a personal level, what sets me apart is that I'm enthusiastic and determined.
AT: What three questions would you ask a prospective employer?
Marandella: What is your corporate culture? What are the company's/division's prospects for the future? Has the company/division been expanding in the past few years? Where do you see your firm or division in five years?
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AT: Do you trade at all? Have you ever built any algorithmic models for trading?
Marandella: A little bit when I was working and was doing personal saving and investing. I looked at some models and algorithms, but not really sophisticated models.
AT: What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
Marandella: I enjoy spending time with friends -- people are important to me. I also like the opera and sports -- biking, skiing.
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AT: Name one thing you did this summer for fun.
Marandella: I really love the Bay Area -- taking short hiking trips in Marin County and things like that.
AT: Describe one of your personal goals beyond a career on Wall Street.
Marandella: I'd like to settle in a city. I've gone one- or two-year horizons in places for school and my postdoc. You make friends, but then you have to leave. I'm really looking forward to settling down somewhere and staying for a little longer.
AT: Choose one word to describe yourself.
Marandella: Determined.
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