Senior thesis and recruiting
I'm writing a senior thesis supervised by a professor in the math department on some of the technical aspects of options pricing. This will count towards my honors degree. My question is, is it useful to mention the thesis anyway on my resume/in an interview? I'll be spending a lot of my free time over the summer working on it, so a good rough draft will be done by fall recruiting.
I'm a rising senior and I've only had consulting summer experiences so far -- will a thesis in options pricing show that I have interest in trading? Will non-quant trading recruiters find it interesting or will it be irrelevant for them? Thanks in advance for your advice.
You can add it to your resume underneath your degree where you'd put your honors and such. I personally would do it since at least in my experience a lot of interviewers have asked me about project experience I've had, more so than work experience. And you could easily swing the thesis out as a project.
Definitely, put it in the resume. If a recruiter doesn't see the value in it, you are talking to the wrong recruiter.
If you do pursue a trading career after graduation, be prepared to get grilled on it over and over again because, hopefully, someone will.
Thanks for the advice guys. I know that no recruiter is really going to be interested in reading my thesis, but for the sake of writing something that traders would find interesting to talk about in an interview, should I take a "practitioner" approach (i.e. computational, heavy on code and lighter or math) or a perhaps more difficult theoretical approach, with more mathematical formalism?
If a recruiter can understand what you are talking about, they might be interested....just don't count on it.
In the interview process you will most likely have to go through a tough technical screen, depending on the firm. That might be of more immediate interest and I would make sure my coding skills were up to speed if I were you.
What programming language should I focus on for the interview process? I'm good with Python and Java but my C++ is rusty (I hear C++ is the one most frequently asked?)
C++ is pretty much fundamental, only thing more fundamental than that that's really practical is C but don't worry bout that.
Go with your strengths probably... And you should figure out what a firm uses before you apply to job. Actually, that might be a good networking question. No one will give away any secrets, but they will tell you if they are using a particular language.
C++ is almost a given. Java is least likely to be found in a quant related role. A good rule of thumb would be-the lower the latency, the more important the C++ skills are to the firm. And if it isn't a C++ firm, they might like you anyway if they think you are a a great programmer. Some firms that are quant heavy might only expect you to know a particular stats program. Matlab, R or even VBA.
But whatever the language is, I would focus on the core issues of OO programming. Data structures, concurrency, algo development, etc.. Learning to write tight, clean code that scales without issues is the most important thing.
unless you are a beyond expert level systems programmer who knows all the tricks of the trade, java runs about as fast as C++ with JIT without the mess of memory management(just remember Java kiddos, use the "new" keyword as few times as possible).
If i were starting an HFT trading shop, however, I would do all my programming in verilog and C/Asm.
@Gomez Addams Is it realistic that I'll be able to learn "data structures, concurrency, algo development," etc. sufficiently before recruiting in the fall? As a stats major I have a strong quant background, but whenever I need to program I just hack something up in Matlab or Python (or Java back in the day) without much regard to computing theory. I did well in some CS classes but that was in freshman and sophmore year, don't really remember the specifics of proper programming. I can write code that works, but it's usually not very efficient or clean.
What do you recommend I do? Are quant trading-type jobs mostly for expert-level programmers?
In that case, you might want to avoid places that are high on those skills. In a prop shop(and I assume most IB environments) if you claim to be a great, or even a good programmer, that is going to invite a serious challenge from the firm interviewing you.
Once you get closer to interviewing, you will have an idea of which firm needs what. In some places, the quants are hard core C++ coders. In others, they just do the math and only have to be good at certain technical skills.
dzar,
yes, the elite shops will only hire top shelf programmers.
i interviewed at a top quant hedge fund in nyc for a trader role, and the first round interview consisted of a timed programming challenge in whatever language I wanted, and the second(final) round consisted of white boarding code(almost identical to the final round i had at google) in office after flying you out. no awful hypothetical or macro questions like companies like TransMarket Group makes you guess for an answer.
And no, I didn't get the job :).
protectedclass,
Given my background, are there any quantitative-oriented trading or research roles that I would be competitive for? I understand that computing has taken over everything (and kick myself for not double majoring in stats and CS) but is there a place for a semi-decent programmer with strong quant skills anywhere?
research roles are usually from what i can tell, reserved only for PhDs. Someone with strong quant skills can turn into a great programmer. however, i should rephrase a little; strong programming does not mean you will get any top prop/hf job.
you need a breadth of skills limited to not only programming and quant research ability, but also the innate ability to not lose money, not effected by losing money, and not get emotional. how companies judge this are very interesting; some do brainteasers or mental math, some do trading simulations, and some just guess based on personalities. I had one big chicago firm not ask me a single programming question; they just assumed i could based on my resume. The interview time was spent on fit questions, iq tests, trading simulation, and mental math.
Oh, and going to a target school helps tremendously.
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