Recruiting for Prop Trading

I'm currently an undergrad attending a target public school and have been seeing lots of trading opportunities being posted on our job boards (DE Shaw, SIG, Jane Street, etc). I'm currently majoring in mathematics and information systems with around a 3.7 GPA and am seeking a full time role. By background I'm not that financy - I've previously interned at a VC several years back. I wanted to hear insights on what it takes to break through into trading from GPA requirements, interview prep, to books that I could read to help me along the process. Additionally, how big does networking play a role in recruiting for trading? Is it recommended or is it a waste of time? Thanks.

 
tahoehigh:
The only way you will EVER land a job in Trading is by networking....I would say traders are much more concerned with the FIT of a candidate.
Don't they ask you questions like "how many golf-balls would fit into a 747. What's 584 x 9382? on the spot?" How is networking going to get around that? The tests are insanely difficult as well. I don't see how that is fit based.
Array
 

Glassdoor is sufficient for preparation. Firms like SIG and Jane St. literally have hundreds of questions posted which span from "really easy" to "extremely tricky".

If the firms you mentioned recruit there, a >3.5 GPA in a technical major is generally acceptable for an interview. A lot of these places have relatively relaxed resume cutoffs compared to banks. They'll do a lot more interviews but cut people faster when they make mistakes.

Networking has positive value, but the ceiling is really low. If someone refers you, chances are you'll have to go through the usual brainteaser/game gauntlet that normal candidates do.

 

its a hybrid success story combined with a few hints and tips for the people out there that dont network naturally, and derailed slightly at university, leading to a sub par GPA that would otherwise autoding them from any online application process.

I figured I had a good sample size of applications/interviews and offers to add some value to the forum.

 

Get your resume out ASAP--ideally through some sort of campus resume drop or through your network. Most are doing OCR right now and fall graduates are fair game perhaps to even start in the winter time. Unlike big banks, the schedules are a bit looser about when and who they recruit, but I know for a fact that many are doing their first rounds either right now or very soon.

 

Thanks for the fast response, I will get my resume out ASAP. I was hoping for a little bit more time before sending out my resume as I have been trading futures for the past year and i am finally getting consistent and i just needed a bit more time to polish up the P&L. I am definitely up on the year, but I know with a little bit more time I could be up more. Do you think it would be advisable to hold off on the resume and build up the account a bit more, or give my P&L as is.

 

As said elsewhere, if you are in college I am willing to wager significant $$ that your PnL is meaningless to most shops (outside of showing your interest). It is likely unverifiable and if it is big enough to wow them, you probably should just stick with your own thing since it is successful. Most prop shops aren't using purely speculative strategies, which is essentially what you are probably doing. Training tends to also be done on the job, while you are a trainee/clerk, so general knowledge/intelligence/drive is more important than some unverifiable PnL that, no offense, is likely dramatically smaller (if only because of capital resources) than most first year traders at one of these shops.

 

No offense taken, and I appreciate your reply. The one reason I began trading was to hopefully show my passion for this field, as I thought i needed something to standout because I am not at a top-tier school. Although it may seem unlikely that some college student would have a meaningful trading resume, I can assure you that the thousand plus hours I've spent back-testing strategies, pouring over charts, and trading are very meaningful. I've learned more about the psychological and technical aspects of trading than I ever thought I could learn on my own. You are probably right about my PnL, but hey at least I can call myself a trader as I have experienced many of the things that any trader goes through(albeit on a smaller scale). Enough of my rant, and thanks again.

 

Anytime. The drive will most definitely be important. Drive (and other psychological factors) and general intelligence is essentially what all the shops recruit for and little else. Target schools usually serve as a proxy to intelligence for them (right or wrong), but there are plenty of people even at elite shops that are from lesser schools because they have worked their asses off.

Most places don't trade purely or even mostly off technicals. If you go to a MM firm (most of the firms you are going to apply to are that) are going to beat that out of you incessantly outside of a general perspective/idea of understanding what is going on in the marketplace. Not many Bollinger bands or Fibonacci numbers being used at most of these places....

 

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