Q&A: Top Quant Firms First Year Comp 250k to 400k

Citadel started at 150k base, 100k sign, and 50k guaranteed bonus. Some moved up ~100k after negotiations.

I mostly reviewed the fundamentals of statistics and machine learning by working through The Elements of Statistical Learning. Aside from that, I also did a bit of computer algorithms prep through sites like Leetcode

They typically start in June/July and go until December

This is quite a big generalization and not true for all firms. Usually at these top firms, devs are not treated as a "cost center" otherwise the top devs in the country will not work there. This is especially important in latency sensitive companies where a decrease in latency from an engineering perspective directly translates to higher P/L. I will say that quants typically do make more after a few years.

This is an oft repeated generalization that doesn’t hold in many cases. Some firms are 100% algorithmic and don’t even have a “trader” role and some firms rely on strategies that are latency sensitive where a C++ dev shaving some time off the trades with clever code optimizations absolutely does generate “alpha.”

In any case the “cost center” / value generator dichotomy present on this site doesn’t apply in quant firms in the same way it does for banks and consulting firms where front office folks are the product itself, and it’s really not an especially useful paradigm for making career decisions in the industry IMO. I say this as a dev in the industry, so I’m definitely biased, but I know at least at my firm devs are considered equally important to quant researchers

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Unless the firm is very small, you should be more focused on which team you'll be working with versus the type of firm. There'll be interesting problems and great growth opportunities at both after you get past a certain tier.

The non compete time ranged from 1-2 years and didn't have a huge effect on my decision. At least for now, my plan isn't to stay in quant finance forever. I see myself either starting my own company, working for a small startup, or going to grad school after my first stint.

I mostly applied online or directly reached out to recruiters on LinkedIn/email (found emails by asking friends/guessing their email). I've found that, bar some, most quant firms are very open to interviewing candidates that aren't from a target or semi-target. They mostly care that you are up to both their technical and culture bar. Many of the people working at these firms are heavily skewed towards Harvard/MIT because that's where a lot of bright people go to school and where a lot of on campus recruiting happens.

If you reach out yourself/get a referral and have a decent resume, many firms will be open to speaking with you no matter the school. This is especially true with larger firms like Two Sigma, Jane Street, etc. The interviews will still be quite difficult, though, and most people will be filtered out during phone calls. It is more difficult, however, to do so for smaller firms where they only hire a handful of people every year and give precedence to their alma matter (I got filtered out by a few places this way).

The interview questions really depend on the role and firm. Some places like a developer at HRT may require low level systems knowledge whereas traders at Jane Street will play market making games. Overall, for more quantitative roles there are often brainteasers, statistics (perhaps derive linear regression), and some machine learning. More often now, quants are expected to have a solid programming background and will also have whiteboard coding interviews.

None of my side projects are significant enough to move the needle in any way. Having one good internship helps offset the lack of brand name school. Having a few good internships will help consistently land interviews.

My role involves researching and deploying my own quantitative strategies. Mostly will be using Python.

When I was negotiating, I couldn't in good faith ping pong offers back and forth in a bidding war too many times, especially for a company I was most likely not going to accept. So, I tried to limit as much as possible the amount of times I negotiated with a company.

I first let company show me their offer without them knowing the details of my other offers. Then, I showed my highest offer to every other company. Afterwards, I took the highest from the updated offers back to the original highest offer to see if they could go any higher. If there is an update and the company you want most is not the highest offer, bring them the new highest offer to negotiate. At this point, you've negotiated at most twice with any company which I believe is acceptable. Lastly and optional, if you really feel like you can push it a bit, ask your top company if current + X would be possible and you would accept if they could do it. I have seen a few of my friends do that and be successful though I didn't do it personally.

60 quants was a very back of the envelope estimate though I do believe it is in the ball park +/- 10's of students. Perhaps 30-40 is closer? Someone else's input would be appreciated also.

I personally know a few quants who will fall in that range next year and I definitely don't think my network covers the majority of people considering I don't go to a target school. Even just looking at larger firms like Two Sigma, Jane Street, Citadel and D.E. Shaw, they each hire a handful of quants straight from undergrad, themselves bringing the total in the 10's of people. If you include new grad devs at quant firms making in this range, the number could be much higher (if you don't just look at quant firms, I have a few friends making 250k even at Google and Facebook). Though for the upper range of 400k, I would estimate that there would only be 5-10 undergrads total making in this much.

EDIT: Every year there's about 80 IMO and IOI gold medalists and I'm sure a majority of these gold medalists can land a job as a quant (though they might not want to or maybe aren't a good culture fit).

The ~400k first year offer (including 75-100k sign on, so not recurring) is now standard at top shops like Jane Street Capital and HRT. Hard to say how many new grads these firms hire but I’d estimate it’s in the low hundreds. This is including all technical roles i.e. quant research, quant trader, and developer. See levels.fyi for data points (best website for info on comp for technical positions)

I know of a decent amount of firms that are paying that much for internships so it's hard to say what the full time offer will be like without knowing the name. Different firms are willing to negotiate very different amounts. You can PM me if you would want to talk about your firm specifically!

Or maybe anyone else here has any insights to share? Would love to get some thoughts. Hard for me to get a good constant ear to the ground since I'm geographically far so this thread is very informative

Belvedere isn't in the same galaxy of compensation.

I've seen DRW and IMC match offers in this pay tier but it's rare. Optiver compensation may be close in a good year. Unclear about Akuna.

I have seen IMC and DRW negotiate up to 250-300k though they started around 150-200k. Optiver is generally a bit lower. Akuna and Belvedere are the lowest from what I've seen.

Care to elaborate?

Nah, he's absolutely right on these numbers. My friends 2 years below me got similar numbers.

So funny when traditional finance people just refuse to believe how much they pay on the quant side. Ignorance is bliss I guess

I know for a fact that this is correct for Citadel so I assume that the others are correct too. Not every new grad gets this offer, but it's not a crazy outlier offer either. Yes I also know of experienced people in the same role at Citadel who don't make this much.

Yup, 400k guaranteed at Citadel. Though not everyone gets this offer, I have seen the same offer for a few others this year.

Correct for Citadel and TwoSigma.

I mean, it's pretty disingenuous because they're including signing bonuses as "total comp". Actual total comp is like $175-250 then you have signing bonus that range from $50 to $150 (Citadel),

I heavily valued the culture of the firm. My picture was built from general things I've heard people say online/in passing, first hand experience from trusted friends, and meeting the employees themselves. I also placed emphasis on growth opportunities at each firm. I looked at where people where leaving to go to on LinkedIn to see the various exit opportunities. Everything else equal, it came down to compensation.

The firm I ended up choosing treats their employees extremely well and has a very collaborative culture. To me, it's not worth getting paid more if your entire life is work and you dislike it. Would be happy to go into more details over PM. Curious to hear which decision you ended up making too!

I'm finishing up my degree in CS right now. I didn't do too much networking in school, most of the people I met were during internships over the summer. At least for quant finance, your network doesn't matter too much. Firms will hire you if you are up to their technical bar. A lot of the firms I interviewed with I simply applied online. Once you've had one or two good internships, most places will want to interview you. Though, opportunities does come much easier to those are target schools. They will have a lot of on campus recruiting and sometimes very small firms will only hire from target schools.

They are all high quality firms. I actually think Old Mission's founder came from Jane Street. Can't go wrong with any one of those though they are quite different. Jane Street is the largest with ~1k employees now while HRT has ~200 and Old Mission has fewer than 100. HRT focuses on HFT while Jane Street is big in market making.