IlliniProgrammer seeks strat internship

At the risk of having people put out APBs and blacklists for a resume with Illinois CS and Princeton on it, I figured I should probably throw it out there that I am looking for an internship for this summer. I have a few final round interviews lined up at the end of this week with some prop shops and hedge funds. I also have (I think) an internship offer from my old firm (assuming HR gives the group an associate slot).

There's a good chance I will need to make a decision before March 15th.

About me:
-Two years fixed income analytics, Major NY Bank (Analyst)
-Two years desk developer (equity options) (Same bank) (Associate)
-UIUC CS Undergrad, specialized in algorithms. #5 CS school in the country.
-Currently working on a Princeton MFin
-Studying behavioral finance and machine learning.

I'm looking to do work on systematic strategies; backtesting them, optimizing and improving them, and helping to develop new ones.

If you know of an open equity strat internship space at the Associate level at a bank, or at a hedge fund, and want to work with IlliniProgrammer this summer, we should talk. Feel free to either PM me, email me (if you have my email), or post here.

16 Comments
 
justin88With your background, you should look at HFT / stat arb / options MM / CTA.

You don't have any FO experience, so don't focus on what (you think) you know best. IMO you should position yourself as young, hungry, and a good learner with quant/programming skills.

GL.

Pretty sure I do have FO experience- I was on the sales and trading team (not IT) for three years. And I had a number of strategy responsibilities.

Looking more and more like the strats role at my old firm, with some of the old people I worked with. Good to have a network in a tough economy.

 
Best Response
IlliniProgrammer
justin88With your background, you should look at HFT / stat arb / options MM / CTA.

You don't have any FO experience, so don't focus on what (you think) you know best. IMO you should position yourself as young, hungry, and a good learner with quant/programming skills.

GL.

For the record I was on the sales and trading team for three years. And I had a number of strategy responsibilities.

Looking more and more like the strats role at my old firm, with some of the old people I worked with. Good to have a network in a tough economy.

Was your role a salesperson or a trader?

 

Improved sharpe ratios. I figured out a way to keep us from getting picked off by a market taker by changing the values of the bids and asks we posted.

More recently, I've built and deployed my own systematic options trading strategies with my own capital.

I do appreciate your help on this, but you sort of sound like I need to come hat in hand begging people for a job as a trading assistant somewhere. I already had an FO job, now I have a better FO job offer, and I may be getting a strat offer at a major hedge fund (Susquehanna, DE Shaw, Fortress) next week. The Princeton MFin has been pretty helpful on this regard. The problem is that I don't necessarily know these people and these groups, while I do know a lot of people on WSO.

So before I take the offer, I wanted to at least pursue any avenues that may be available on WSO.

 

Heh, not sure who is throwing MS at us. Ah well, internet points down the tubes.

I wouldn't consider a strategist to be front office, but that's me. It's good that you got to do some FO work. I would point that out and definitely talk up your self-made strategies. DEShaw isn't what it used to be but is still a pretty great place to work and a good name for a summer internship.

 
IlliniProgrammerSomeone doesn't seem to like this conversation, lol. Threatened much by a guy who drives a rusty honda?

Oh well, you don't ask, you don't get. Pretty tough to beat some of these firms, but culture and fit are everything to me and I need to make sure there's a good alignment.

I've asked the few users that were throwing monkey shit to stop since I don't think anything in this threads was really "shit worthy" and WSO Credits should not be used to target any 1 user or conversation, but rather saved for particularly shitty comments.

 

Modi occaecati sed deserunt praesentium saepe enim quod. Molestias consequuntur rerum sint natus omnis. Qui sint at est. Ullam reiciendis ratione maiores assumenda. Et voluptatem quia enim nemo. Maiores sit facilis id occaecati. Illo rerum ut architecto expedita corrupti aut.

Temporibus optio aut nostrum itaque. Eum ad modi voluptatem id repellat delectus repellendus. Ipsum quis rem veniam quisquam occaecati cum aut. Et nam quis totam labore repellendus et.

Illum fugit repellat natus et quia distinctio et. Quos magni exercitationem dolores eius in iusto aut. Voluptas odio ea corrupti est quidem maxime consequatur. Est excepturi unde eum ut.

Voluptatem aut a illum saepe odio. Eum fugit incidunt quia voluptas. Qui nihil iure dolores quo earum voluptatum. Vel aut nemo minima non. Ea beatae ut libero maiores deleniti sequi ut.

Career Advancement Opportunities

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.3%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Evercore No 98.8%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.3%
  • BMO Capital Markets 13 97.7%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 06 98.3%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.7%
  • JPMorgan 01 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (15) $434
  • Associates (46) $258
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (80) $150
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (73) $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

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...”