HF/Quant/Buyside Recruitment Prospects - Berkeley Undergrad
Hey all - Berkeley freshman double majoring in Business/Computer Science looking into buy-side options for the future. Background: Will be working at GS/MS/JP PWM this spring and Google/Microsoft/Meta SWE this summer, and have an extensive CS background. I am wondering if attempting to recruit for DE Shaw/Jane Street type HF/Prop-trading options is realistic at my level and from a semi-target like Berkeley without a heavy applied mathematics background. I know the poster-boy for these gigs is Harvard/MIT Math genius types, so I am just wondering if it is even realistic to set my sites for these firms. I am fairly confident in my ability to recruit for top BB and SWE firms, but am trying to see if I can move beyond these options. Any advice would be greatly appreciated in regards to this situation, and recruiting for HF/Prop-Trading generally.
I’m not really sure what the point of the post is. If someone says you don’t have a shot, will you stop trying? Will you try harder? If someone says you do have a shot, will you then apply? Or think it’s a given? I realize you are probably looking for some validation, but nothing random people say online should determine what you do here.
Do you want to work in the buyside? The places you name are pretty different, what is it you want to do? Have you looked at the backgrounds of people in these roles?
The thing “holding you back” won’t be your education (at least not from where you are coming from) but your determination and ability to reason about things independently. These roles are competitive, YOU have to want it and put in the work.
Golden advice, thank you.
Do you have linkedin? Definitely a decent amount of people from Berkeley at Jane street/DE Shaw.
You do Berkeley CS - you are genius enough.
Recruiting for a top BB is harder than you think at Berkeley. For context, with a quick LinkedIn search you can see that GS TMT in SF only took 1 berkeley kid for 2023 SA. New York is even harder. I recommend that you look at some business frats to put yourself in the best position. Check out DSP specifically. Back when I was in college they placed better than everyone. Good luck in college and go bears.
Not quite - in just one fairly small club there are 2 GS TMT kids for FT 2022 alongside 2 MS and 2 JPM off the top of my head! But NY BB recruiting could be a bit easier. Unfortunately DSP is very underground and hard to find after the university banned them
OP On the quant side, its not hard to get something reputable if you have the smarts, but HRT and Jane Street obviously aren't going to be super easy unless you are an Olympiad winner type. Plenty of people get those roles though and as you probably can see, half the school seems to have Citadel gear as they like recruiting here
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