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How to Get a Quant Job in Finance

financejobs.co

11–20 of 143 posts

Re: How to Get a Quant Job in Finance

#11
"Hirers tend to be looking for strong programming and data management skills as much as mathematical ability"

This cannot be over emphasized. You cannot just have an aptitude for math/statistics/probability. You will need to be able to write high performance production quality code.

Re: How to Get a Quant Job in Finance

#12

Interesting! Thanks a lot for writing/posting this. I enjoyed the read. One thing I had to chuckle at was this: >Mark Joshi obtained a B.A. in mathematics (top of year) from the University of Oxford in 1990, and a Ph.D. in pure mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1994. He was an assistant lecturer in the department of pure mathematics and mathematical statistics at Cambridge University from…

"Following which he worked for the Royal Bank of Scotland from 1999 to 2005 as a quantitative analyst at a variety of levels, finishing as the Head of Quantitative Research for Group Risk Management."

No wonder he moved to Australia.

Re: How to Get a Quant Job in Finance

#13
post #2

" Brainteasers are popular." Can somebody explain why? I'm genuinely interested, since in software dev interviews we see less and less brainteasers...

Hedge funds have a hard-on for these kind of questions regardless of the role. I got a few of them in the interviews I had for the one I did IT support for... They also liked taking Ivy grads with BAs and giving them receptionist jobs.

It's the perfect market at work, I tell you. The private industry can do no wrong because then people would stop investing in the company and/or stop buying their services.

/s

Re: How to Get a Quant Job in Finance

#14
post #2

" Brainteasers are popular." Can somebody explain why? I'm genuinely interested, since in software dev interviews we see less and less brainteasers...

I work as a quant and I like to give brainteasers in interview. It definitely does not tell me if someone will necessarily be good at his job or a good fit for the team, but it does help me rule out a lot of potential candidates.

These are not very tricky brainteasers that depend on getting a particular insight. They're actually somewhat pedestrian. However, if you can't manage to competently work out a simple, well defined problem, you're going to struggle with the more complex issues we deal with.

Re: How to Get a Quant Job in Finance

#15
post #2

" Brainteasers are popular." Can somebody explain why? I'm genuinely interested, since in software dev interviews we see less and less brainteasers...

Interviewers are (should) not interested in the correct answer. They are interested in seeing the candidate think out loud. They want to see how you start tackling difficult problems.

Re: How to Get a Quant Job in Finance

#16
post #11

"Hirers tend to be looking for strong programming and data management skills as much as mathematical ability" This cannot be over emphasized. You cannot just have an aptitude for math/statistics/probability. You will need to be able to write high performance production quality code.

Bug free first time and write code fast also helps.

Re: How to Get a Quant Job in Finance

#17
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hedge funds have a hard-on for these kind of questions regardless of the role. I got a few of them in the interviews I had for the one I did IT support for... They also liked taking Ivy grads with BAs and giving them receptionist jobs.

It's the perfect market at work, I tell you. The private industry can do no wrong because then people would stop investing in the company and/or stop buying their services. /s

I don't see why the sarcasm. Hedge funds are not banks; they live or die by the brains of the people they hire. If they perform well, they get more investors. If they fail to perform, they go bust, and noone is there to bail them out.

Re: How to Get a Quant Job in Finance

#18
post #10

Interesting! Thanks a lot for writing/posting this. I enjoyed the read. One thing I had to chuckle at was this: >Mark Joshi obtained a B.A. in mathematics (top of year) from the University of Oxford in 1990, and a Ph.D. in pure mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1994. He was an assistant lecturer in the department of pure mathematics and mathematical statistics at Cambridge University from…

What's the upside to admitting on HN to having front office experience?

Seriously? Why are you on HN at all?

Re: How to Get a Quant Job in Finance

#19
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hedge funds have a hard-on for these kind of questions regardless of the role. I got a few of them in the interviews I had for the one I did IT support for... They also liked taking Ivy grads with BAs and giving them receptionist jobs.

It's the perfect market at work, I tell you. The private industry can do no wrong because then people would stop investing in the company and/or stop buying their services. /s

That's basically it though. The company can do no wrong so it tries to hire people who are extreme serial achievers. They're very sensitive to what people in the company say externally.

Re: How to Get a Quant Job in Finance

#20
post #17
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the perfect market at work, I tell you. The private industry can do no wrong because then people would stop investing in the company and/or stop buying their services. /s

I don't see why the sarcasm. Hedge funds are not banks; they live or die by the brains of the people they hire. If they perform well, they get more investors. If they fail to perform, they go bust, and noone is there to bail them out.

As in most industries, I think you are undervaluing the importance of sales. It's true that long term performance dips will cause a fund to go bust, looking at the number of funds that don't outperform (or only marginally outperform) the market, year after year, makes it obvious that sales are an important part of the hedge fund industry.
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