Take quant dev offer or try for banking?
I'm a 4th year CS and math undergrad with some offers for software engineering, quant dev, and research roles. My best offer is from a well known HF for a quantitative research role (first year TC is 400k) which is well beyond my offers from regular Big N software companies.
But I've heard that people in these quant or dev roles tend to stagnate quickly and there isn't much opportunity for growth. Whereas in banking, while there's a lower salary starting out (and longer hours), after a few years it will likely be more lucrative.
Is this usually true, or should I just stick with my current offer? I'm not sure if I would even be considered for banking roles since I don't have much knowledge or experience in that area.
I think you're right about higher long term pay if you start in banking, but you don't really have a realistic way to get into banking at this point unless you do an MBA later in the future. Your current offer is great pre-MBA experience should you later decide to switch to banking.
Thanks. Is it common to switch between different roles like that later in your career? Or would I be pigeonholed into this role after a couple of years (which I probably wouldn't mind - I enjoyed my algorithmic trading and QR internships a lot, but in case I plateau in terms of career growth and want to switch)?
You can always switch into banking by doing an MBA. I've thought about it and it's pretty unappealing so it's more short term financial considerations that are holding me back as opposed to some external pigeonholing or stereotyping. I would need to be less risk averse, have non-financial motivations to change careers, or have a belief that I'd actually be good at banking.
Suppose that that I plateaued at $500k. If I get an MBA then that's two years of not working and two years of tuition. Just those two things are enough money to retire in some parts of the world. On top of that, first year bankers will make much less than my plateau and there's no guarantee that I'll be a good banker.
If I'm not a good banker then the decision to get an MBA looks really horrible. Maybe I'm being too pessimistic about banking or too optimistic about my own career, but if I am a good banker then it might take 10 years for the decision to look good. It's just too much risk and the payback period is too long for me.
Disregard the pay for a moment. Recall that either of these roles would make you in the top 1% of 22 year olds in the US. Not to say pay isn't important but it is much more important to figure out what you enjoy doing and what you can see yourself doing in the future.
If you're worried about pigeonholing, I'd say doing the MBA -> IB route is a good solution assuming you do want to switch after being a quant dev for 2-3 years. Nothing is set in stone!
Thanks. I would probably enjoy these types of quantitative roles more, but I don't think there's a set career path for progression like there is for banking. That's really my main concern.
Is it uncommon for someone to go the quant -> PM route?
There is great career progression. The biggest fallacy is the idea that you can’t learn a different skill set while also working. I think if you are up for it, you can work with the traders on the team and build up your competency as well as manage your own portfolio. If you want to go the PM route (I’ll assume you mean portfolio management) you can easily make the transition with a decent portfolio and experience in trading.
Also remember that you can transition your role easily to a more lax environment like tech. If you develop strong ML/DS skills, you can easily transition to an analytics role and maybe even post MBA end up as Product Manager.
Lots of routes to go through!
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