I wondered if I could get some help? I am just finishing my PhD in Physics and starting the process of applying for Associate roles in Quantitative Analysis. I did internships at a US bank and at a French Bank, both in Fixed Income QA in the front office (one Rates, one Credit)
Obviously JP Morgan is a name I want to be speaking to but I have no idea where to start with my research (aside from their careers website). Does anyone know anything about the Quantitative Research group there? It looks like the pricing guys are all in Risk for some reason. Should that be a cause for concern?
It's also a lot more transparent elsewhere - it's pretty easy to find info on the leaders in other banks but for some reason even doing basic research on who is in charge and what their backgrounds are is impossible, apparently.
Does anyone know anything about QR at JP to help me out?
What school are you getting your PhD - is it in NYC? What does career services say?
Sure, you can just blindly apply, but having a connect/connection helps significantly.
A PhD in Physics sounds like Renaissance Tech (Hedge Fund) - I would do what you can to reach out there as well.
Do you know anyone who works at JPM who could potentially do some digging for you?
Just a few points regarding JPM's job listings - I just had a look at their jobs site; indeed, a lot of quantitative analyst roles are in risk (that is the 'hot' area right now as far as the quant scene is concerned). However there are front office roles as well, you just need to filter them out. If a job title has 'risk' or 'developer' in it or the job category is 'Technology' it's likely not front office; you want to be looking at titles like "CIB - Quantitative Research Interest Rates - Associate" (this is a live job on their site right now).
Definitely read the entire job description and try to figure out which division it's in (if it says 'works WITH front office' or 'works WITH trading' it's almost surely not front office. You want to make sure that the role reports into the head of trading, not IT or risk. (Imagine going into the final round interview, and getting the offer letter only to find out you're part of IT headcount!)
Also don't be afraid to apply for VP level positions; it doesn't hurt.
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