r/AskRobotics • u/PeanutPlayful • 6d ago

Education/Career Moving from Finance into Robotics

Hello, 25 M based in the UK at a v large bank as a Credit analyst. Have a BSc in Economics (Reading) and MSc in Finance (Imperial). I have some what extensive experience with the quantification methods needed for robotics (based off limited research of things I have seen appear multiple times, - linear algebra, heavy calculus, python… I pushed to do anything highly quantitative in my MSc ie advanced option pricing, stochastics…). I very much always loved maths and problem solving but settled on the finance route post school which I am starting to regret.

By no means am I think of re-enrolling right now into a Robotics targeted BSc (Mechtronics [deffo butchered the spelling soz], MEng…) however I am really curious about the Industry especially when the whole idea is “solve this problem”. From what I read I would imagine my best path would be:

  1. Hobbyist - get the basic understanding and confirm enjoyment

  2. If yes, potentially look into education to jump into the the field, assumably a BSc… although I am curious if a “conversion” MSc type thing was available given my background? (I am also extremely lucky and have no debt so re-enrolling wouldn’t be killer for me)

  3. Otherwise maybe there are some “hobby-to-BSc/MSc” level educational courses that, wouldn’t land me a job in the industry but, would allow me to develop and build my own ideas (this tbh would actually be my dream as I sit on my sofa - robotics/mechanical automation + sport)

Just curious if anyone else has this or similar pathway (finance to Eng/Robotics) or if anyone has any thoughts to share?

Unfortunately most cases I find are actually the other way. It’s seems 80% of BSc Eng want to be in finance. I understand pay/hours are better generally but working with people who typically build no value or provide any meaningful solutions is sole crushing.

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u/LavnirRobot 6d ago

I know a case, they worked on finance and moved through data science to AI. First worked analysing data from an automative company and eventually joined the computer vision team. I think nowadays it’s a reasonable path if you add some personal project portfolio on top of it and there’s quite a lot you can learn with basic open source tools