Three Quant Contracting Roles Comparison

Have always been a full-time quant; have both buy side and sell side experience. Trying out contracting now. Have three offers.

  1. HSBC. £ 938 / day. CVA, credit risk, C++ / Python. Enjoyed talking to interviewers, but was never interviewed by line manager himself. Seems like a shorter term engagement.

  2. SMBC. £ 800 / day. Rates derivatives pricing, CVA, C++ / Python. Quite extensive interview, good vibes with line manager. Seems like a long-term engagement.

  3. Coremont (adjacent to Brevan Howard). £ 796 / day. Credit cash and credit linear derivatives pricing, C++. Quite extensive interview, good vibes with line manager. Seems like a long-term engagement.

Which one looks best?

 
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codemonkey7 Yup, all inside IR35, No 1 is three months with written confirmation of extension to follow (just don't know whether 3 or 6 months), No 2 is seven months (and implicit view of work to last five years), No 3 is six months (with implicit view of two years of work). How would you rank them [subjectively] from best to worst?

 

I'd probably go 2, 1, 3 (there's not much to pick between them, you _could_ try and negotiate for a day rate closer to the one offered by HSBC). The fact that number 2 offers the longest initial contract and the most amount of work further down the road pips the high day rate of number 1 for me (although if you're looking to maximise income just go with 1 😆). 

 

codemonkey7 I guess I see where you are coming from -- finding new contracting engagements is a lot of faff -- so it is good to have one stable long-term gig going. What are your thoughts on relative brand / prestige between (1) and (2) and the value of skillset developed by nature of work?

 

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