Quant Analyst offer - Take it or leave it

I am a raising senior at target doing masters and bachelors at the same time. 4.0 gpa. I have won several math Olympiad awards and Putnam top ranking. I have skipped grades, and only 20 years old. 

Initially I was not interested in finance. But I interned at top PE firm as Quant summer analyst. I loved my work and made a great impact on the team. I got the return offer but the salary offer was lower side of $100k which is very low for quant analyst.

I looked into job openings in handshake and indeed. Hardly any openings. With the current job market condition, should I take this offer or look for a new job?  I have a few days to decide. Thanks!

11 Comments
 

Take the offer and continue to apply for other places. If you get something better then just renege on this one politely and professionally. Some ppl will say you should never renege bcs you’ll get blacklisted and the industry is small yadayada but most likely they have no idea what they’re talking about.

 

Nah, it's a return offer for  a rising senior. Very non-standard to make it an exploding offer. Most companies will hold it open for the first semester if you ask nicely.

There are situations when it's worth taking an offer and then reneging. This isn't one of them. Their offer is not particularly high, and since it's a return offer from a company he already worked at, it will most likely still be there after he talks to other companies.

 

If OP can make them keep the offer open then sure. If not I can’t say I agree with you. As much as OP is very accomplished, we both know how arbitrary the recruitment process can be. If they rescind the offer and OP fails to secure another role for whatever reason, OP is screwed. I’m all about minimising unnecessary variance.

 
Most Helpful

First clarify what the bonus is (they might refuse to put it in writing, but they should be able to give you at least a verbal range). But unless that bonus is very good, then pass on this offer. With your background, you should definitely be able to find something that pays more than "the lower side of $100k". 

   You should thank this company enthusiastically, say you loved working with them, but you're starting your senior year now and you hope they can please hold the offer open while you explore your senior year. If they refuse, politely tell them you understand the offer may expire, but you'd like to explore all options and you hope you can re-interview with them again during the career day after talking to some other companies. (Even if offer officially expired, they'll prob still make a similar offer again later).

Then interview with anyone who shows up at your career day. Take this offer if nothing better shows up. But highly likely something better than this will show up. 

 

You should absolutely not settle for ~100K when someone with your profile can get the top quant offers available. Your limitation now is not your talent, but rather the opportunities that came to you from recruiting. If you start in PE in Quant, you will find it exceedingly hard to pivot to something like quant research in a trading firm that is far more appealing. 

What you should do is pursue a PhD in a quantitative field of your choice, ideally Physics, then re-recruit for quant research roles at places like Citadel, HRT, Jane St, DE Shaw, Two Sigma, SIG and you'll get offers that are easily any multiples of ~100K. If you cannot get a PhD then try and delay your graduation and re-recruit for quant knowing how best to do it. 

 

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