Would a Quantitative Trading internship be good for my CV?

Hello, I am a last year Master’s Degree student in quantitative finance. I do not have any experience whatsoever in the industry, so I’m having a hard time getting an internship at banks.

I may be getting an interview at a prop trading firm as quantitative trading intern. Would this be useful and improve my CV or should I focus on getting an internship at a bank? 

26 Comments
 
Most Helpful

1.Junk shop which asks u to invest ur capital, gaslight u that u should be paying money for getting rigorous education -> dont waste your time

2. One of reputable shops mentioned quite a few times in this forum -> much much better than BB S&T, BB Quant Associate Internship. Thats a no brainer

Adding: Just focus on getting the offer first. Dont really understand why you have to choose between different firms, when you didnt even get the offer yet, from neither of them. (Unless there is a  personal circumstance that blocks you from devoting ur time on recruiting? )

 

I applied to Optiver in this case. Now, of course I might not even pass the assessment tests, but since this would be my first experience and nobody ever taught me anything about the different financial jobs a quantitative finance student might get, I was wondering if this might be good for my resume. 

Apart from Optiver, I am of course applying to many other internships, so I can increase the odds of getting something, because I am not in a top university and neither do I have work experience.

 

Optiver is much more competitive and harder to get an offer from than a bank dude...

I get no one has explained what jobs you can get but no one explains that to anyone... you gotta do your own research. Optiver is one of the best places you can get into for quant trading; its literally 3-4x more money than a bank pays.

 

Focus on getting the offer. None of the Banks SNT, Quant Associate internship opportunities around the globe can't even match Optiver. It seems you don't have good enough knowledge about the industry yet, so what I assume is that every single interview opportunity is important for your own good(regardless of getting the offer). At least I hope you get to the technical interview round. That will give you much better idea about what's it like to work in Prop shops, and to have quant trading internship in ur CV. Not to mention it will help you prepare for other interviews at different firm. Cuz I think having an actual tech interview with those types of firm is the best way to prepare you for other firms. Trying ur best is the only way to make use of these opportunities. 

PS. For Optiver, after passing the 80to8 test try to buckle up ur Probability, Stats, Math puzzle knowledge. You also would need to pass the online math test after that. 

 

It is shocking that you don’t know about this. Prop trading shops are way way way better than banks. Their starting compensation is higher than bank VP (I’m not exaggerating seriously it could even be higher than a bank MD, I’m talking about 4x - 6x)  Especially Optiver, it is about the same tier as Jane Street.

But their interviews are EXTREMELY selective You will be competing against the best quant candidates who are preparing for prop trading for years and yet you don’t even know about prop trading … … You chances are slim.

Also these companies send out their OAs to every applicant, so getting the first-round assessment doesn’t mean you have passed resume scan because they actually do resume scans after your submit your OA score. 

Get prepared, this is an extremely valuable opportunity.

 

Wow, I definitely didn’t knew anything about this… I thought this internship was easier to land than IB and that they gave their employees a salary of like 2000-2500€ per month lol I am shocked I guess I really don’t know anything about the industry…

I really appreciate your help and all the info you gave me. Tomorrow I will try the 80/8 test, but the minimum score to pass is so high

 

Praesentium culpa assumenda veritatis nam nobis qui ullam nihil. Eligendi similique ut impedit incidunt. Velit ea est repellat at. Quis voluptatem consequatur voluptates asperiores a et id.

A eius optio et. Et omnis velit illo nihil enim excepturi. Porro voluptatem velit ab id aut. Et amet ut nemo voluptas.

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.3%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 02 98.8%
  • Evercore 01 98.2%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.7%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.3%
  • JPMorgan No 97.7%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (14) $434
  • Associates (43) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (75) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (68) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
3
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
4
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
5
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
6
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
7
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
8
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
9
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
10
bolo up's picture
bolo up
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”