<p>Several people i knew - really freaking brilliant guys - took positions with DE Shaw. One who I spoke to was in the Associates program, a rotational program where you spend 4-6 months in 4 different departments, be it on the VC side, the PE side, the quant trading side, operations, whatever. They let you find your best fit and pay you handsomely for it.</p>
<p>In other news, i made final rounds for DE Shaw but didn't get the job. They are some VERY smart people there, and I'm hard to impress on that count.</p>
<p>I'm not arguing against "undergrad quants" per se. I'm suggesting that it is simply less rewarding to be a quant (at ALL levels) unless one can get into quant funds right out of undergrad. And Denz's info shows just how hard it is to do that.</p>
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You make your bones at an Ibank as a quant, then go to DE Shaw as a quant.
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<p>Haven't heard of that before...do you happen to know anyone who has done that? I'd think if you were able to hack it then Shaw would take you right away.</p>
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I think some of these quant funds do have openings for undergrads with quant backgrounds
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<p>Sure, but there just aren't a lot of these openings to go around...by the way quag, any idea what work they're doing at Citadel?</p>
<p>And this is some info from WSO: "Better places to be than Cit, although out of college probably the best HF to go to since very few other big names rarely hire out of college."</p>
<p>yea, the job title of 3 of the NYU kids was "Investment and Trading Analyst" and the 4th person had the title of "Trader"...both the harvard and wharton grad also had the title of "Investment and Trading Analyst"</p>
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[quote]
I'm suggesting that it is simply less rewarding to be a quant (at ALL levels) unless one can get into quant funds right out of undergrad.
<p>The quant/quant trader jobs listed on that site seem to be paying pretty well....assuming those figures are actually realistic, i don't see why it wouldn't be rewarding to work in a quant/quant trading role</p>
<p>Interesting...a lot of them do pay quite well. If you explore the subgroups, though, you can see that most "pure" quant jobs (risk mgmt, pricing) are capped at around 500K, while for trading (this includes quantitative traders) quite a few of them are 1MM++. But as rupert mentioned earlier, job security for quants is better.</p>
<p>Yes. New York, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Dubai is the precise ordering. More and more, however, commodities and energy trading is becoming prominent and for these, Chicago, Dallas and San Francisco are emerging as hubs.</p>
<p>ramaswami, dont you think you spend a little too much time fretting over your kid's major? You seem more worried about it than he/she is. Is your current profession related to finance, or more specifically quantitative finance?</p>
<p>I agree. I think we're all enabling ramaswami as a helicopter parent. it's time to cut the cord.</p>
<p>Although that (parody?) post where someone claiming to be his son replied in a thread and ranted about him was one of the funniest things i've ever seen. I wish I could find it now, it was a classic.</p>
<p>Forgive my saying so, you don't have to respond or engage me but perhaps, when you hardly know me (and vice versa) expressions like helicopter parenting and enabling are part of the hackneyed psychobabble abroad. Thanks and permit me to bid you goodbye and well.</p>
<p>My advice: don't slur during your interview, if your interviewer is hot, don't look him/her in the eye--ok, I kid (if I could only have that fateful day with Bain back), if you're a quant and intelligent, show it. Have a personality and don't be a ******. Also, smile--it gets awkward if your interviewer is surly and he/she has to smile back. </p>
<p>If you can do advanced math, can think on your feet and are a generally competent human being, chances are you'll get hired. If you're a brilliant quant and an undergrad, they'll probably take you over the PhD mathematician--you cost less, and don't have starting a family on the books. If you're lucky, they'll pay for B school.</p>
<p>P.S. since no one knows anyone else on this forum, everything is based on appearances, and assumptions are going to be made about personality traits and habits based on the posts. So, if you appear like an obsessive parent, someone's going to say so. Real waste of energy to get on the defensive when it's what you're basically signing up for.
People probably think Denzera's an insensitive tool, chances are he's not. The anonymity on this forum is going to invoke snark, so man up and deal with it, people. Don't whine about the labels you get on this site when you (hopefully) have a life to lead in the real world.</p>
<p>Hey now, I know at least 4 members of this forum personally, 3 of them quite well, and they can all testify to my being a legitimate jackass. All told, though, I'm probably not among the biggest jackasses of this forum - didn't even make the quarterfinals.</p>