Are quants really all that?
I've been hearing more and more about "quants" and how some of them make 250k-400k straight out of undergrad (like that Q&A) and how it's so many people's "dream job." I've looked a bit at what a quant does and most of the time it'll entail a ton of math, including stochastic calculus and Brownian motion. If I'm good at programming and good at math, then is this the career path I should be trying to go for? What are the downsides of being a quant?
All I would like are some opinions (even if you've never been a quant) and experiences.
Lol. Unlikely that you'll find any real quants on this forum. Just a bunch of brainless IB apes here.
Check out: Dimitri Bianco (Youtube), wilmott.com, quantnet.com
Hell of a title on this post. I'm starting as one of the "quants" in your post full-time in the fall so at least my opinion:
Being a "quant" doesn't mean you need to be a math genius or IMO medalist, but I'd say most quants I've been around think mathematically in the context of "how do I use data/math/stats/etc. to find inefficiencies in a situation?" If you've been watching Jeopardy lately, James, the guy who's been destroying everyone, is a pretty good example of a quant. Pro sports gambling/fantasy sports/poker has a LOT of applicable skills to working as a quant in terms of creating and testing hypotheses, understanding game theory, and using expected value and probabilities to your advantage. I ended up getting my internship partially by talking about my sports gambling models/projects I made on my free time.
If you're good at programming and math, and have a solid foundation of probability and statistics, then being a "quant" is definitely a viable career path. It's an uphill battle if you're not from a target but I somehow made it from a state school where no one ends up going into this stuff. One of the good things about quant/prop firms is that they're somewhat meritocratic - if you're able to show that you can be a successful trader and a culture fit, most firms don't care where you went to school or even what your degree is in, which isn't like most companies in finance.
Pros: starting comp out of undergrad is NUTS at most solid firms, hours generally aren't consulting/banking bad, fun/smart co-workers, flat meritocratic structure, lots of responsibility early, usually very good benefits, cutting-edge tech, solid lifestyle, wear sweats to work
Cons: difficult, can be stressful, very competitive environment, not hard to get fired if you mess up or just suck, high burnout/turnover rate, no real societal impact, lack of exit opps compared to IB/consulting, harder to get into top b-schools
Quant can mean a lot of different things in a lot of different contexts. There are certainly "quant" jobs that recruit heavily from the pool of IMO medalists/top math PhDs etc. These jobs are great and pay super well but you're probably not competitive. There are also "quant" jobs that are just looking for people with experience applying specific mathematical tools in a somewhat formulaic way- think model validation at a bank. These jobs pay okay, and suck aside from the pay.
In between, there are "quant" jobs that fall into the category of things that ViewsFromThe614 is talking about. In my opinion, these jobs are pretty cool and not totally inaccessible to a regular smart guy/girl.
Everything ViewsFromThe614 is spot on.
I won’t repeat his/her points, but I want to emphasize that the largest difference between quants and other traders/developers is their mindset. Yes they typically are better at math, but they all think like engineers. They treat everything like a problem and then go and solve it.
All of the quants at my firm are nerds (I mean that in the best way possible). They just love to research and develop strategies. They all have lives outside of work, but they are always thinking about work too. You have to have legitimate passion for the markets and trading, in my opinion. Don’t do it just for the money (even though there is a lot to be made).
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