Delaying graduation to retry quant trading recruiting
Hello, I'm a physics major junior at a nontarget who failed at quant recruiting for this summer. I applied everywhere but because my resume was poorly made I only had 3 firms interview me and I didn't get any offers. I have a mediocre SWE internship this summer. I've decided to add a CS major which would push my graduation back a semester. Would this let me reapply to quant internships next summer, or will they see through this? I checked Optiver's FAQ and they say they only want juniors for internships.
Why not just apply for full time quant trading roles in the fall and graduate on time? The opportunity cost of delaying starting work 6-12 months is substantial.
As a senior Maths major at a non-target, here are my 2 cents:
I’m going for a masters at a target next year to have better chances at prop shops so I understand your position. Good luck!
I had 3 offers from option market makers with a 2.5 GPA and a psychology degree. They have so many hoops to jump through if you make it through the recruiting you're good to go. I think Jane/Citadel are the only two who didn't give me the first basic online assessment. I applied to Flow, Optiver, IMC, DRW, Akuna, Maven, Wintermute, and GSR and received an offer from 3 of those. Nobody asked for my GPA during the interview and even Akuna who asked for it (and I answered honestly) still gave me the 1st round.
Just wanted to make sure to highlight that the interview process truly is one of the most meritocratic you can get. Literally all the rounds before you talk to a person are pretty much automatically graded so if you get the assessment you can't really BS anything to get to the next round unless you know it. You don't learn options market making or quantitative trading in school so they just want to make sure you have the quantitative ability and numerical prowess on top of an ability to learn and a good work ethic (GPA can show this ability to learn/study and your work ethic, but there are also other factors that come into play.)
Are you from a target?
Not for prop trading I'd say. Recognizable school but about 90% of the prop trading firms don't have a huge campus recruiting program here. It's a top 5-10 CS school though. More talent for CS/SWE than QR/QT here. Definitely feel like the general population here is a bit more risk averse too so the QT roles aren't as appealing compared to Quant Research/Quant Risk.
Wait so how did you get QT interviews as a non-STEM major? What sort of thing did you put in your resume? I applied to a lot of firms but barely any sent me initial assessments.
I didn't put my GPA, and I had an internship from one of the more recognizable cryptocurrency firms in the industry that was relatively small at the time. TLDR, right place right time because all the firms I applied to were interested in crypto or a crypto development in the future so I had a niche skillset. Now that I think of it though, HR definitely wouldn't have recognized my firm's name so I guess my cover letter + campus involvement was good. I am the founder of our QT club here with 300+ members. If you weren't getting initial assessments idk, I know Optiver, Akuna, Flow, IMC, Wintermute, GSR sent them to me very quickly without networking. DRW and Maven I networked with some of the traders pitched myself as a crypto guy and then got a referral which put me into the pipeline.
Alright that makes sense. I guess I should focus on crypto/SWE recruiting right now
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