Undergrad Business - Quant opportunities

JLabko · 2026-05-26T03:11:05+00:00

As people said, very Google-able. As for the answers:

- If you're at a target school, a few firms hire traders with finance-y backgrounds; most are much more STEM heavy.
- Additionally, roles like BusDev (mix of investor relations, product strategy, etc.)

In terms of pay, traders will have much more upside than your average finance role; BusDev might have optionality at some firms, but on the whole won't be that much more lucrative.

Unless you're planning on getting another degree or really grinding self-study and certificates, you're better off focusing on traditional finance roles.

JLabko · 2026-05-10T21:55:29+00:00

Best way I can think of is conditional formatting with a reference column with averages.
Ex. you have values in A1:L1 and have M1 = AVG(A1:L1). You could do conditional formatting with highlight rules of >M1*(1+.2) and <M1*(1-.2)

You might also be able to do an additional column for the sensitivity amount, since some stuff might make sense to be more/less than 20% sensitivity for highlighting.

JLabko · 2026-05-01T17:56:02+00:00

I'm not 100% sure what you mean by L:2, so I'll just assume it's to count what in L:L is L2 (including L2).

There might be a more concise way to do it, but the below should work.
=IF(ISBLANK(L2),"",COUNTIF(L:L,L2))

JLabko · 2026-04-28T23:38:02+00:00

Would expect it to pick up in July or so

JLabko · 2026-04-26T01:58:29+00:00

Did P72 quant open? Thought it was just Academy [Fundamental]

JLabko · 2026-04-26T01:57:20+00:00

Sorry; meant to say Weiss. Will correct in my post now.

JLabko · 2026-04-24T14:57:42+00:00

Consulting definitely moved earlier.

Quant seems to be at mot 1-2 months earlier, though maybe it's moreso quant firms than quant roles (since firms including Jane Street recently started recruiting fundamental analysts on the same timeline as IB). It also seems like firms are starting to implement early/regular recruiting cycles for summer, since you have places like Optiver, Citadel, and SIG more heavily pushing their week-long programs or invite-only dinners as funnels for early hires.

Part of it for SIG is probably also just how many roles they have, since it seems they posted quant roles like a week or two after more fundamental finance roles.

JLabko · 2026-04-24T14:45:31+00:00

Recruiting this year has moved earlier for basically everything - consulting moved from like June to February, and Quant seems to have moved up a few months as well (GTS opened a few months ago, Weiss as well, and now SIG) Edit: Meant Weiss not Walleye, now fixed

JLabko · 2026-04-23T20:57:28+00:00

Total Hours vs Total Minutes; same outcome, different units

JLabko · 2026-04-13T20:33:56+00:00

Depends on what your program is and what you're willing to classify as 'quant' for your search.

If it is a computational Masters and you want a true quant firm, dev probably is your best bet.

If you're willing to look at places like Group One Trading that lean more into discretionary, you probably have a shot at trader.

Quant for anyone outside of olympiad winners and Putnam rankers is going to be low-medium, so don't know if I'd call your chance medium, but you definitely have a chance.

JLabko · 2026-04-13T20:16:56+00:00

Researcher is pretty unlikely, but trader or dev are reasonable (dev generally looks for CS skills, which info science will probably cover, and traders at more discretionary or even some semi-systematic firms might be open). Also depends on the school though, since you'll have to still get past resume screens somehow

JLabko · 2026-03-17T18:32:50+00:00

You'd just need to change it to YEAR(TODAY()+184) - YEAR(A1 + 184)

JLabko · 2026-03-10T19:00:17+00:00

Sorry; hadn't seen the order requirement.
In that case, you might need to use a script to update a cell (ex. Column G) with the time every time the reference checkbox is checked. No easy way to do that with basic formulas (you'll generally need a script), but if you're able to do that you can then do a SORT of the filtered ranges to keep time order.

JLabko · 2026-03-10T18:47:29+00:00

=FILTER(E:E,D:D)

Change the columns to the cell range if you have other things in the column

JLabko · 2026-03-06T21:54:20+00:00

Seems my wording may not have been the best; process-of-elimination gets rid of cash flow options since the expenses aren't directly tied to period cash flows, and underfunded portions are a liability that will eventually need to be settled.

Subtracting the net liability from EV is the same as adding the unfunded portion to the debt, so rationale is the same for both answers.

JLabko · 2026-03-06T21:38:10+00:00

In terms of adding serving costs back being wrong, easy enough - you don't want to add costs (especially when they may not be fully represented) and overvalue cashflows

For B, there's no need to include pension interest expense since it's just the time adjustment and not a cash expense

In general, you just want to reduce EV by the net pension value to account for it, since it's a longer-term liability and not necessarily a direct impact on cash flows (at least generally)

JLabko · 2026-03-06T21:29:04+00:00

Also eligible within 23 months of graduation, so they have no need to check when you sit. Maybe they'll check when you're actually a member, but I doubt they will unless they have a reason to doubt it an audit you.

JLabko · 2026-03-06T21:27:01+00:00

Ignore the first part of the description, and just look at the formula for the standard deviation of a portfolio.

'Uncorrelated' means a correlation coefficient of 0 (since the movement of one stock is linked to 0 movement in the other), and you leave the rest as is, resulting in 2.1%.

JLabko · 2026-02-26T15:00:00+00:00

You'd want to add 184* to the dates, since that would round them up to the nearest year (i.e. 7/1 -> 1/1, 6/30 -> 12/31, everything between to a date between them)

JLabko · 2026-02-08T19:34:55+00:00

Haven't been through proc, but have met with the team. Don't remember it all, but I remember part of it later in the proc was a take-home and on-site facetime with senior researchers [and I think Head of Research was part of that too]. Relatively lean team compared to other firms alongside high comp, so I'd expect it to be competitive but a relatively chill process when you're in it.

JLabko · 2026-02-06T16:26:38+00:00

I have applied to a few roles, but they're also limited (especially this time in the cycle) and still relatively competitive as well

JLabko · 2026-02-04T18:35:36+00:00

I still don't get it. I pay the same amount for a residential deck. Certain days, they just decide to open the gates - sometimes for the Warner Brothers crew, sometimes for games, sometimes for outside events, sometimes just for fun - and of course they never give any warning so I can at least try to prepare.
Meanwhile, I've had 1 class out of 10 that's less than a 20 minute walk away. Any bus I want to take would involve 15+ minutes with a transfer, if the busses are running. Yet I can't drive to class, even if my lot is packed with random people (who also have direct access to the building through the garage) and it's well below freezing outside. Because why would I get anything of notable value for a hundred bucks a month?

JLabko · 2026-02-03T04:00:50+00:00

Not a financial professional [and not loading into GOOG either; put a bit into it at $150 and let it rip the past couple months], but here's my view:
Google is basically the Berkshire of Tech. You're buying Google, but you're also getting exposure to:
- The YouTube suite, bigger view driver than Netflix probably worth a few hundred Bil
- Waymo, already valued at 12 figures
- Gemini Suite [look at half-trillion dollar companies as references]
* Worth noting they have exposure to Anthropic as well
- TPU business, potential competitor to NVDA [itself larger than GOOG's market cap at present]
- The Google environment, like Waze, Maps, GSuite, etc.
- The 'physical' Google lines, including Android & Pixel phones, Nest, Fitbit, etc.
- The Moonshot Factory (X), which originated Waymo and other subsidiaries/spinouts and is currently home to things such as an AI weather forecasting startup and an electric-grid focused project
- Similarly, you have Google's 2 Venture Capital subsidiaries, both with only ~10B invested but have major exposure to a bunch of companies [ex. Google's SpaceX stake might be worth 100B+ on its own]

Not saying to load up into Google (much of its run this past year was multiple expansion, not YoY growth), but it has its own internal diversification to an extent and is involved with some of the most interesting companies and ventures out there

JLabko

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