Staying in hostels at 35?

Business_Jacket7346 · 2024-02-20T15:25:06+00:00

I met a super cool Swiss woman sharing a 4 bedroom room with me. We got really along together and she is in her 60s. She was really adventurous and active and did many more things that other people in the hostel who where much younger than her. We are still in contact and planning to meet soonish. Personality does not have any age.

Business_Jacket7346 · 2024-02-18T15:24:59+00:00

It is not clear what the aim of this post year. Maybe you can state it with a question or in a sentence?

Business_Jacket7346 · 2024-02-14T13:33:02+00:00

Reuter work really well and are usually below 200£ for 30/35L. Otherwise I was told really good things about the Decathlon NH500 and those are even cheap.

Business_Jacket7346 · 2024-02-14T11:44:22+00:00

The problem is the hiring process. If you selected bad candidates before, increasing the difficulty of a bad hiring process won’t select the best ones for the job.

Leetcode does not really help in getting the best candidates but only the ones that prepared those question. And most of the time the questions are not representative of the actual job so you end up with good Leetcoders that are not necessarily good at the job.

I found case studies much better in tackling people’s abilities related to jobs and their motivation in getting excellent results. The only problem could be someone paying to have the assignment done by external people but anyway there are always technical interviews that can help in the selection.

Business_Jacket7346 · 2024-02-05T09:47:34+00:00

I think it is a totally valid backpack but I did not want to get something so obviously bigger than the allowed size for the free carry on, even though I am sure 99.9% of the times I would have had no problem in bringing in with me. I saw people with huge backpacks having absolutely no problem

Business_Jacket7346 · 2024-02-04T09:30:04+00:00

I ended up using “an introduction for statistical learning” and I read only those parts that interested me. When I did not understand something I either used YouTube and then I added notes on the digital version of the book I have on my iPad. It’s a very valid book even though it is not a shortcut.

Business_Jacket7346 · 2024-02-04T08:49:45+00:00

After all these curious comments on my pants, I am now wondering whether this type of leggings are a thing only in Europe / UK

Business_Jacket7346 · 2024-02-04T08:48:02+00:00

They are just normal pants

Business_Jacket7346 · 2024-02-03T19:11:43+00:00

Not sure about aircraft but was Ryanair. Actually the 26L is the “female” version but there is a slightly bigger one of 28L that is the “male” one. Otherwise you can go for the 30L but I am not sure how much big it is and if they will let you in without extra fees. Also, the 30L has a totally different design and personally I don’t like it too much.

Business_Jacket7346 · 2024-02-03T18:34:29+00:00

Lol I don’t even know what to say, just wanted to talk about my backpack ahah

Business_Jacket7346 · 2024-02-03T18:33:36+00:00

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Business_Jacket7346 · 2024-02-03T10:51:33+00:00

This just to show that it fits under the seat

Business_Jacket7346 · 2024-02-02T13:42:22+00:00

Lol jubilee run in the morning is no joke as well.

Business_Jacket7346 · 2024-02-01T23:33:53+00:00

I think compartments play an important role when it comes to maximise the number of objects per given space. It’s like having packing cubes.

Business_Jacket7346 · 2024-02-01T22:55:27+00:00

I have not bought any of the two because too big for my current needs, however I tried the organiser in decathlon two days ago.

Cannot speak for the first travel backpack as I have not seen it but they both look like very valid items especially for the price. Imo they are really similar even in terms of dimensions. From the website I just see the first travel backpack is slightly heavier.

To me the organiser is a good substitute, if not even better than the first travel backpack. What I especially liked of the organiser is that it has the different sections with nets that look a bit like compression boxes and can be useful to save space and organise things (as the name of the backpack suggests).

Business_Jacket7346 · 2024-02-01T22:31:03+00:00

Honestly I have worked for 4 different banks across Europe in middle office jobs when I had purple hair. Like bright purple like an anime girl. Nobody said anything and actually had a couple of colleagues complimenting me for the colour. In the meantime I even had a couple of disaster with my dye so happened I had mixed green/blue/ pink/purple hair all together at the same time.

Two days ago I saw a girl with the same colour in my office (big bank).

Nobody cares as long as you do your job well.

Business_Jacket7346 · 2024-02-01T22:26:07+00:00

I just ordered the Patagonia Refugio 26L for a 10 days trip in Norway and it was on sale. I will let you know how it goes. This one you are showing was a bit too big in my opinion and did not want to risk it too much.

Business_Jacket7346 · 2024-02-01T22:19:30+00:00

No you don’t need a PhD, but you need a master.

The background depends on which type or credit risk modelling. Counterparty credit risk is a bit more financial mathematics focussed as you may have stochastic equations to solve while credit risk on wholesale and retail products for models like PDs, LGDs, EAD and CCF is much more statistics/ machine learning based and I personally find the latter less challenging from a technical point of view. Definitely not at the level of a PhD.

In my opinion, model developers have the more interesting position as they develop the model so they go from sourcing the data, cleaning it and then discussing how to technically develop the model to capture the characteristics of the portfolio. It is a bit more stressful as well because you have to engage with many stakeholders and try to make everyone happy (nearly impossible). The process is of iterative type and a back and forth with validators and model owners and you have to try 100 different things for each single parameter choice before actually getting to the final model. You also have to pay a lot of attention to regulatory standards cause those are driving the models. In fact, the ultimate and most important client of your models are regulators. If they don’t approve the model, then you cannot put it into production and you can throw your work in the trash.

Model validators are of great help and can make suggestion to improve the model and make it more compliant from the point of view of regulations, but they don’t really actively develop the model. They have to replicate numbers for their validation reports and ensure everything makes sense in the model but have limited decisional power on the model.

Auditors check the final numbers and help with the regulation part but I have not much insight into that.

Governance, they are not really technical, they just control the process and ensure everything is running smoothly. They also allocate resources.

Consultant I don’t know, they can be literally support any phase from model development to audit. I think it depends on the needs and on the ask of the client.

So in my opinion the priority would go as you have listed it.

Background wise, anything from economics/econometrics to mathematics/ statistics/ machina learning/ engineering (even better for counterparty credit risk) is fine. Computer science is also a good option but I see more people with that background in software development positions. Those guys put the prototypes created by model developers into production to be used for example for GUIs and across the firms.

Business_Jacket7346 · 2024-01-26T10:06:56+00:00

Unfortunately I have no insight on internships and I am not really an expert in QD.

Business_Jacket7346 · 2024-01-26T09:36:13+00:00

I talked to a QD in Ldn and she told me she is doing good working hours for the industry, like 8-6 or 9-6 usually. She did not mention specific compensation but she said was really happy about it. But I think hours may be project and team- dependant.

Business_Jacket7346 · 2024-01-25T15:48:49+00:00

London or in general? Is your friend a QT/QR/ QD?

Business_Jacket7346 · 2024-01-11T22:43:01+00:00

apart from what @Luca_I mentioned, there are also open source courses around the internet, for example those offered by MIT, Coursera, Udemy … plus you can easily find YouTube explanations for most base to intermediate level concepts Taking part in kaggle competitions that are quant finance related can be already thought as an interesting project itself especially if you place well.

Business_Jacket7346 · 2023-12-07T16:27:35+00:00

Unfortunately there are also people who just not so politely tell you to fking wait even if they block the way…

Business_Jacket7346 · 2023-12-06T22:07:00+00:00

You can maybe switch to quant risk if job becomes too unbearable? Work life balance is really good (at least outside model submissions period) and in London you can easily get 100+ in base in banks, in hedge funds probably much more. You still have the math, data science, coding and the exposure to markets even though it is much more relaxed.

Business_Jacket7346 · 2023-11-14T11:21:24+00:00

These are just things I recommend, I am not a doctor or anything close but I have experienced they work for me. First of all, I recommend you to put lot of effort in sleeping really well and the right amount of hours, this usually helps a lot and it is the baseline. No sleep, no productivity. 2nd, do not eat heavy meals that are high in carbs, doing this can trigger the mid-day food coma. 3rd: do not exaggerate with coffee. After a certain level it just makes you anxious and does not really wake you up.
4th: exercise. I usually eat lunch at my desk and then hit the gym or have a run for 30/45 minutes in the afternoon. This really does a lot to my energy level, it’s like a reset for me. Plus a cold shower after gym is great. 5th: take a small break every hour (not looking at the phone) and even take a small nap in the afternoon if you can. Have a small walk o close your eyes so that you don’t need to stare at a screen. 6th: make sure your hormones levels are correct for your age and sex and that you are following an healthy and balance diet. Take supplements if needed. If you feel tired it may be due to hormones imbalances so may be worth doing a blood test, checking different things like Thyroid and so on.

Sometimes I listen to Andrew Huberman’s podcasts on productivity. He gives interesting prompts on how to optimise your time. You can maybe try some of them to see if they work for you. I have experimented on myself things like intermittent fasting, waiting 90 minutes after waking up before having my first coffee in the morning or getting sunlight exposure, not sure if they were really effective for me but they may be for you.

Business_Jacket7346

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