BB Desk Quant vs. Hedge Fund Trading

Hi folks,

This’s my first post in the forum and I really appreciate all suggestions! I recently received a Quant Strats summer associate offer from Morgan Stanley HK office; I’ll be paired with delta-1 (equities/ETF) trading desk and develop quantitative models to support them. Meanwhile, I’ll be conducting a Superday interview with Citadel (U.S. office) tomorrow and the position is Semi-Systematic Trader (pretty much like quant trader).

The MS offer asks for a very short decision window so I’d probably have to make decision immediately after Citadel gets back to me. Assume I can get the Citadel offer as well (I believe the chance is lower than 50% as I pretty much exhausted my brain during first 2 rounds already), which one should I go for?

Personally, I wish to pursue a long term career in trading / HF industry. So here’s my Pros/Cons analysis:

MS Pros: higher intern return rate; less risky bc no PnL exposure; prestigious title

MS Cons: not essentially a trader position; sell-side quant less technical than buy-side ones

Citadel Pro: U.S. based (prefer); top HF title; closer to trading itself

Citadel Cons: lower return rate; higher turnover; more pressure (I think so?)

Thanks guys!