Quant Career Perspective at established or new firms
Consider entry-level quant position for a fresh PhD student, how to compare the career perspectives of the following three categories:
1) famous hedge funds (e.g., Two Sigma/DEShaw/Citadel)
2) relatively established prop shops (e.g., Getco, Hudson River Trading, Jump Trading)
3) new shops (Eladian Partners, Teza, Headlands Technologies)
If one is lucky to get some offers from category 1) or 2), should she still consider category 3)?
Advice on either certain category in general or any specific firm above will be great! Thanks!
show us your stats
PhD with an emphasis on data analysis. A decent school. Currently have a few offers from category 1) and 2).
lol
take them. forget all about 3.
Then how to choose between 1) and 2)?
All offers for quant research? quant developer? desk quant? quant analytics? risk quant? What type of work do you want to do? I do quant analytics, sit on a fi desk....really enjoy it. Probably wouldn't enjoy risk quant/developer all that much...wouldn't matter the firm.
Yes, quant research.
What's your appetite for risk? More potential, more risk as you go from 1 -> 3.
Yes, I agree it's always a trade off of expectation vs. variance (or potential vs. risk). But this can only be discussed quantitatively (instead of qualitatively).
So I guess the real questions are:
-- how much more potential is 3) over 2), or 2) over 1). e.g., is hudson river or getco really offers more potential than two sigma? or does Teza really provide higher expectation than hudson river and getco?
-- how much more risks for joining, e.g., teza, eladian, hudson and getco?
Again, discussion on a category in general or on a particular firm are both welcomed. Thanks!
You have a good pedigree and interview well, so your "career risk" is quite limited; you will be able to find another (good) job even if things go badly.
The exception to this would be Teza; make sure you google the company/founders.
The upside at these places are all pretty high. If you're fabulously successful, your % payout would be limited by the business model of the company down the line. I wouldn't worry about this at entry level; instead, focus on how smart your future co-workers are and how intelligent their approach to making money is. This tends to be a better predictor than anything else.
Also check out Renaissance; they basically invented quant trading and have always been a few steps ahead of the rest.
Feel free to PM me for particular firm color.
Thanks dabanobo! I agree that evaluating a firm by how smart the people there is probably the best I can do.
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