Good side projects to have on resumé when applying for S&T internships
Hello all,
Asides from the standard grades and other internships, what are good side projects to have on your resumé when applying for an S&T internship? Do they even matter at all? I study Math Engineering/Comp Science so I have some projects related to markets but I'm worried about the projects getting destroyed during an actual interview. Let's say I have deployed a crypto arbitrage bot on a paper trading account. Would that be a plus or even a minus considering it's not statistically secure at all and I didn't get any significant results with it?
In general, I'm also just wondering if I should move my resumé more towards the technical side or stay more on the IB/consulting/management styled resumés. I'm applying for general S&T programs. Should I give clear intent that I want to work on a specific desk doing something very specific or should I just keep my focus on markets in general on my resumé and cover letter?
I have a similar background as you in terms of what I'm studying. I got a few offers from different trading firms, and they seemed to like that I did a lot of deep learning research in school. I presented at conferences and have other research experience in more medical related fields. If you don't want to get crushed by your interviewers, I suggest in making general tools rather than making specific tools or models where errors may be more apparent.
Thanks for the advice! Maybe it's helpful to mention I'm applying for S&T at investment banks. Did you get offers from IBs or just trading firms? My gut says S&T crowd at IBs are more conservative and less techie than trading firms. But honestly, I don't have any real knowledge.
I'd say that's true, but having technical skills is always a plus, especially because a lot of trading roles are becoming more low-touch. I applied fairly late (like March), which is another story. I got into a few prop shops for more quant trading roles and an algo desk (not at an IB tho more like a research shop). From friends that are at the BB S&T programs, I think being more conservative but having technical skills would be a plus. The culture may not seem "techie," but the desire for technical skills is ever growing. Of course, unless, you are more interested in the sales side.
In my opinion, I think you should include things like that on your resume. If it gets brought up just be honest about its results and talk through the stats/thought process/skills behind it. If I was interviewing you it would show a couple things
1) You are smart, driven, and good with analysis just for building the bot on your own while in undergrad.
2) Not everything you build/analyze yields the result that you were after. This is often just as important as finding something interesting. When I was first coming out of undergrad I had an internship at a hedge fund and the PM asked me to look into a data set to see if I could find anything interesting in it. I tried and tried and tried for days to come up with something but at the end of the day I couldn't tell a story of any kind with the data in question. Begrudgingly, I finally told the PM I didn't have anything for him because I couldn't find anything interesting. His response was something along the lines of "don't worry about it, sometimes no pattern is the answer."
3) As an interviewer, if I started asking questions about the project and you are straight up with me about how you built it, what it does well, and where its shortfalls are, that tells me that not only do you have the ability to build something potentially interesting but you have the ability to critically assess it and be honest about that. A lot of young people tend to be a little overzealous about trade ideas (how can I lose???). But if you approached it with a level head and explained the shortfalls of the model it shows that you are not like this. To me it shows maturity.
try to build a trading algo on S&P futures (ES) on treasury bond futures (ZB) or crude oil futures (CL). The data is cheap or free...and you have something relevant to talk about that people at BBs will be interested in.
Don't think of this as a black box...you want to understand whats going on, why, and how. This is a lifelong journey...but you got to start somewhere.
How would you do it? Sounds interesting but have no clue what you're talking about
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