Internships!

Now is the time of year when you should be figuring out what you’re doing next.  Adrienne Jablonski has let us know of internships for math folks.

One is at Friend of the Math Club, MSCI:

“Operations Analyst – Custodian Operations (Seasonal)”

*Norman, OK.

 

ABOUT MSCI Inc. (www.msci.com)

 

MSCI Inc. is a leading provider of investment decision support tools to investors globally, including asset managers, banks, hedge funds and pension funds. MSCI products and services include indices, portfolio risk and performance analytics, and governance tools.

The company’s flagship product offerings are: the MSCI indices which include over 120,000 daily indices covering more than 70 countries; Barra portfolio risk and performance analytics covering global equity and fixed income markets; RiskMetrics market and credit risk analytics; ISS out-sourced proxy research, voting and vote reporting services; CFRA forensic accounting risk research, legal/regulatory risk assessment, and due-diligence; and FEA valuation models and risk management software for the energy and commodities markets. MSCI is headquartered in New York, with research and commercial offices around the world.

For further information on MSCI, please visit our web site at www.msci.com

 

POSITION OVERVIEW:

We are currently seeking a Temporary Custodian Operations Analyst professional to join our Governance Organization in Normal, Oklahoma for a period of 6 to 7 months.

Responsibilities:

For more information about careers with Argo, go here.

 

• Monitor the processes by which information and data are added to or exported from production systems through electronic data feeds and other media.
• Maintain data to ensure quality of mission critical information using both proprietary applications and commonly used business software applications.
• Monitor key performance indicators to ensure the integrity of assigned data management areas.
• Work with account managers and client on boarding to ensure that required client data is received in a timely and high quality manner.
• Ensure comprehensive audit trails are in place for data that is received from or sent to production systems.
• Monitor quality control metrics to identify potential data issues and taking ownership of resolution for all issues that are identified.
• Support development of training documentation and systems to support growing team

In addition to the above team responsibilities, the following activities are representative of the Temporary Custodian Operations Analyst functions:

• Procure and process custodian account information to meet desired turn-around goals
• Develop and refine relationship with Custodian banks
• Single POC for all assigned custodian specific inquiries
• Responsible for operations specific Key Performance Indicators
• Timely resolution of workflow related processes and internal questions
• Perform Quality Assurance activities to ensure proper execution of assigned tasks
• Coordinate with account managers to resolve issue identified during Master Account List review cycles
• Additional duties as assigned by manager

 

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree
• Excellent oral and written communications
• Excellent organizational and administrative skills
• Team player and an excellent relationship builder
• Demonstrated analytical skills with strong attention to detail
• Innovative, motivated, client-oriented and commercially-aware thinker
• Absolute personal and business integrity

We value quality, elegant implementation, teamwork, and especially product delivery. If you enjoy a high-energy, friendly and fun work environment, this is the place.

And the other is at Argo (not Argo):

Title Internship – Analytical Sciences Developer
Location/Division Richardson, TX
Job Description BASIC FUNCTION OF JOB
An ASG Developer implements mathematical models. This activity entails software design, development, testing, documentation, maintenance, evolution, and innovation. ASG Developers leverage a combination of mathematical skills and software development skills to produce innovative, enterprise-level analytical software.

WORK PERFORMED
Assist with the development of ARGO’s state of the art business applications. Responsibilities include testing, documenting and some programming of ARGO’s business solutions or productivity tools. Participate in full system life cycle of application functionalities that are vital to the automation of financial institution business processes.

• Work across departments to understand and document requirements
• Create design documents for new and existing development
• Ensure assigned functionality adheres to performance and development standards
• Prepare conceptual, detail and technical design documentation
• Quickly identify issues and provide resolutions
• Use quality assurance procedures to report defects and propose enhancements
• Develop leadership skills through accountability and team dynamics
• Work with teammates to achieve the highest quality, industry leading products

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES
The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
• Knowledge of Microsoft Visual Studio, object oriented programming, unit testing, automation testing, and software reengineering is a plus.
• Experience with some of the technology stacks below:
• C, C++
• Lua
• C#, .Net
• Java
• R
• Able to produce and interpret design specifications and technical documentation.
• Able to work in a team environment.
• Must have effective written and verbal business communication skills.

EDUCATIONAL REQUIREMENTS
Currently enrolled in undergraduate or graduate degree plan in Computer Science (CS), Software Engineering (SE), or Mathematics.
Minimum GPA of 3.0 in core classes.

Employer seeks only applicants legally authorized to work in the U.S. and will not sponsor visa matters

ARGO is the leading software provider of solutions for the financial services industry. Today, our customers come from all parts of the financial services world—from the nation’s largest banks to community-centered credit originators and processors. Over 40 of the nation’s top financial institutions use ARGO solutions to process more than 65 million transactions in 35,000 financial centers each day. Financial institutions depend on ARGO because we innovate at the crossroads of real customer problems and breakthrough technology. Come join ARGO and let your ingenious ideas be heard. We are looking for creative problem solvers with a passion for innovation to join our team and revolutionize the way the financial institutions do business.

For more about careers with Argo, go here.

Career Opportunities with MSCI

Adrienne Jablonski let us know that MSCI, Inc. are looking to hire people for their Norman office.  Specifically, they are hiring for an Operations Voting Analyst and an Operations Control and Audit Analyst. All majors are welcome to apply. Key skills are excellent oral and written communication skills, excellent organizational skills, strong computer skills, good team player, demonstrated analytical skills.

If you’d like more information or help with your resume, etc. you should talk to Adrienne.

And in case you haven’t heard of MSCI before (they came to Math Club last year):

MSCI Inc. is a leading provider of investment decision support tools to investors globally, including asset managers, banks, hedge funds and pension funds. MSCI products and services include indices, portfolio risk and performance analytics, and governance tools.

The company’s flagship product offerings are: the MSCI indices which include over 120,000 daily indices covering more than 70 countries; Barra portfolio risk and performance analytics covering global equity and fixed income markets; RiskMetrics market and credit risk analytics; ISS out-sourced proxy research, voting and vote reporting services; CFRA forensic accounting risk research, legal/regulatory risk assessment, and due-diligence; and FEA valuation models and risk management software for the energy and commodities markets. MSCI is headquartered in New York, with research and commercial offices around the world

MSCI in Norman is Hiring!

Did you graduate and are still looking for a job?  You can join other OU math folks in working at MSCI.  Even better, MSCI is a worldwide company with an office here in Norman near the Weather Center!

Here’s a little autobiography from MSCI:

MSCI Inc. is a leading provider of investment decision support tools to investors globally, including asset managers, banks, hedge funds and pension funds. MSCI products and services include indices, portfolio risk and performance analytics, and governance tools.
The company’s flagship product offerings are: the MSCI indices which include over 120,000 daily indices covering more than 70 countries; Barra portfolio risk and performance analytics covering global equity and fixed income markets; RiskMetrics market and credit risk analytics; ISS out-sourced proxy research, voting and vote reporting services; CFRA forensic accounting risk research, legal/regulatory risk assessment, and due-diligence; and FEA valuation models and risk management software for the energy and commodities markets. MSCI is headquartered in New York, with research and commercial offices around the world

They are currently hiring people for full time analyst positions.  If you’d like more information and help in getting a strong application together, make an appointment with Adrienne Jablonski (her contact info can be found in other career related posts) .

Math Babe

Our new favorite math blog is Math Babe,  We’ve put a link to it in our blogroll for your interneting convenience.

Whose the Math Babe?  She is Cathy O’Neil.  She earned a Ph.D. in math from Harvard, was postdoc at MIT, and a professor at Barnard College where she published a number of research papers in arithmetic algebraic geometry.   She then chucked it and switched over to the private sector.  She worked for the hedge fund D.E. Shaw, and for our very own RiskMetrics (she moved on when they became part of MSCI).  Since this spring she’s been a numerological guru for a startup company called Intent Media.

She started up a blog where she discusses everything from her views on the mortgage industry and what to do about banks that are “too big to fail”, to what it’s like to be a woman in the hedge fund industry, to why and how to think about being a math person in industry.

If friend of the Blog and Math Club speaker Christine Jerritts spent her time blogging instead of driving race cars, she’d be Cathy O’Neil (okay, there are probably other differences, too).

For just one example, check out her recent post “What kind of math nerd job should you have?“  where she says that cataloging your sins is a practical way to decide on your career path:

Say you’re a math nerd, finishing your Ph.D. or a post-doc, and you’re wondering whether academics is really the place for you. Well I’ve got some advice for you! Actually I will have some advice for you, after you’ve answered a few questions. It’s all about fit. Since I know them best, I will center my questions and my advice around academic math vs. hedge fund quant vs. data scientist at a startup.

By the way, this is the advice I find myself telling people when they ask. It’s supposed to be taken over a beer and with lots of tongue in cheek.

1) What are your vices?

It turns out that the vices of the three jobs we are considering are practically disjoint! If you care about a good fit for your vices, then please pay attention.

– Cathy O’Neil

She is not shy about telling her opinions.  For example, if you don’t like the idea of doing the Putnam exam, then you may agree with her that “Math contests kind of suck“.

For your favorite Math Babe

P.S.  It’s safe to say that the Math Babe is in no way affiliated with mathbabes.com (a website not half so interesting as Dr. O’Neil’s!).

Internship Opportunity

Friend of the Blog, Adrienne Jablonski let us know that our friends at MSCI are looking for an intern in a math related area.  And, as always, you should contact Adrienne for other opportunities and for help with your resume, getting ready for interviews, etc.

Good afternoon,

I have attached an internship description for an opportunity at MSCI. Please forward to your students. Although they don’t specifically list Math majors, I was directly told that they are very open to your students.

Best regards,

Adrienne

Here’s the internship posting:

MSCI Inc. is a leading provider of investment decision support tools to investors globally, including asset managers, banks, hedge funds and pension funds. MSCI products and services include indices, portfolio risk and performance analytics, and governance tools. MSCI is headquartered in New York, with research and commercial offices around the world.

Responsibilities Include:

    Development and maintenance of software (in C and Perl) designed to load source price data
and build analytical derived datasets

    Ownership of job management and dependency architecture that facilitates content generation
in DataMetrics

    Support and maintenance of current production systems. Note that DataMetrics implements
off-hours support windows (weekday evenings until midnight) and occasionally on weekends for
planned system maintenance

    In collaboration with other developers and client-facing DataMetrics management, understand
the content, format, and production requirements for delivery of market data timeseries
datasets

    Interaction and coordination with both Database Administration Group and Corporate level
technology group to facilitate systems administration concerning disk maintenance and allocation, network-level debugging, and Oracle performance and tablespace allocation
Requirements:

    Bachelor degree in Computer Science or related Sciences/Technology field

    Strong problem-solving skills, attention to detail

    Programming Languages: Perl 5.8 or better. (2-4 years) and solid knowledge of Perl DBD
packages and object oriented perl programming, C/C++ (1-2 years), familiarity with Oracle 10g
or better: OTL, Pro*C, SQL*Net, Bash

    Basic Unix Systems Administration Skills: Primary environment RHEL. Candidates should be
comfortable at the command line

    Strong communication skills (written and verbal)

    Excellent project management skills and attention to deadlines and commitments

    Background in CA Autosys Job Management framework a plus
If you would like to apply for this position please visit our corporate website http://www.msci.com/careers to submit your resume.

MSCI (aka RiskMetrics)

MSCI (aka RiskMetrics) is a  worldwide financial services company with offices in New York, London, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Norman. They’re a leading provider of investment decision support tools.

Thanks to the help of Adrienne Jablonski, several people from MSCI will be talking about how they use math to analyze risk and other factors for their clients on

Wednesday, April 20th, in PHSC 1105 at 5pm.

MSCI is also hiring for summer internships and other positions.  They will be talking about those opportunities as well!  If you’re interested in seeing job descriptions for the summer internships, please email Dr. Kujawa and he can provide you with copies.

As a bonus, they’re also fellow bloggers.

As always, Free Pizza!

Opportunities in Norman

Were you just thinking “Man, I wish I could have a cool job that would let me live in Norman or OKC?  And, maybe, if I want it, the chance to live somewhere else, too?”  You’re in luck!

Friend of the Blog, Adrienne Jablonski, passed along a great opportunity.  MSCI (nee RiskMetrics) is a company with offices here in Norman who use analytic techniques to do risk management and related services for their clients.  They’re looking for people skilled in the numeric arts:

MSCI is looking for students with strong analytical skills. Please pass this message on to your students.

As always, I am available to meet with students for career planning appointments through iAdvise.

Regards,
Adrienne Jablonski

Full-time Positions (links)

Software Test Engineer

Release Manager – Application Mgmt

Risk Analytics QA Engineer

Internship Opportunities

Risk Business:

·         Data Analyst Internship

·         Global Operations Internship

Governance Business:

·         Vote Execution Internship

·         Custodian Operations Internship

·         Holdings Management Internship

·         SCAS Internship (Securities Class Action Settlements)

·         Applications Testing Internship

All descriptions may be publicly distributed to students and faculty that might be interested in learning more about MSCI. Interested parties may submit their resume directly to tammee.hatfield@msci.com, stating in the email which role(s) they are applying for.

If you’d like more information or help in putting together an application, don’t hesitate to contact Adrienne Jablonski.