Getting into Quantitative Research from a non-target undergrad?

Sup guys,

I'm currently in my soph year of undergrad at a non-target (it's non-target for Quant Shops, but it's a target for Investment Banking). I'm interested in getting into a Quantitative Research role at a prop fund, but I don't really know much about the field. I only know about a couple of the players like Citadel/JaneStreet/SIG and I don't really know anything about the recruitment cycle. I was also wondering what skills I should be working on? I'm a Finance/CS/Stats major and I have a lot of experience in R and Python and I'm learning C++. I'm really looking for any advice/insight you guys can provide. Thanks y'all.

3 Comments
 
Best Response

The BBs have quantitative analyst positions and the recruitment cycle is similar, maybe a bit later than IBD, but is still structured. I have no idea how the hiring will go this time around with the current state of things.

The prop firms/HFs are more rolling and don't really have set schedules. In addition to the ones you listed, look at Five Rings, Two Sigma, AQR, etc.

Most places will require an advanced degree to be a quant researcher. The BBs have junior roles (quant analysts) but as far as prop firms, apart from JSC and Citadel (not even sure SIG offers quant positions for undergrads), I don't know of any other quant trading operation that has undergrads as quants, at least formally.

 

agree with the above guy....i've worked with many quants at multiple BBs.....they all had PhDs in the hard stuff...physics, chemical engineering, rocket propulsion, astrophysics, string & chaos theory (math) etc. Very rarely did i encounter a masters of financial engineering. NEVER did i encounter a quant who just had an undergrad degree.

While i suspect that an undergrad who focused on financial engineering math could do the work....they would be competing against PhDs with the above degrees, who can ALSO do the work...for the same price. If you are the hiring manager at a bank, who would you choose? Obviously, you choose the PhD over the kid just out of undergrad.

 

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