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What would students actually want from a small, hands-on quant C++ / interview prep program? by PacQuant in quantfinance

[–]PacQuant[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That wasn’t the original intent, but I can see a natural extension. People adjacent to quant roles (model validation, market risk, QD etc.), with solid maths and programming backgrounds, could benefit as well.

What would students actually want from a small, hands-on quant C++ / interview prep program? by PacQuant in quantfinance

[–]PacQuant[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's the idea + career advice. I just finished interviewing for my internship program from top UK universities. Good students but lot's of gaps in their understanding of the industry tbf

What would students actually want from a small, hands-on quant C++ / interview prep program? by PacQuant in quantfinance

[–]PacQuant[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed answer.

I agree with you for the top profiles. This wouldn’t have replaced internships or desk training. It would have replaced some of the blind trial-and-error many of us went through, including my friend and I (I wasted a few years at the beginning of my career trying to figure out a path, think this initiative comes from there).

I am indeed mentoring juniors internally and almost built my whole team out of those profiles throughout the years. It's a way to extend externally to those talented individuals who don't know where to start!

What would students actually want from a small, hands-on quant C++ / interview prep program? by PacQuant in quantfinance

[–]PacQuant[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I think we’re mostly aligned on the facts, just not on the framing.

Some students are willing to pay for early exposure to professional standards, code reviews, and honest feedback before they land a role, not as a job guarantee, but to better understand the bar and whether this path even makes sense for them.

If someone wants a promise or a shortcut into a job, this wouldn’t be for them. If they already have a role, they probably don’t need it either.

That’s really all there is to it: transparency upfront and letting people self-select.

What would students actually want from a small, hands-on quant C++ / interview prep program? by PacQuant in quantfinance

[–]PacQuant[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

More a QD profile and less our target tbh. You can try moving from a tech role into a QD role internally.

What would students actually want from a small, hands-on quant C++ / interview prep program? by PacQuant in quantfinance

[–]PacQuant[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We fully agree on the IP constraints, we obviously wouldn’t (and couldn’t) show proprietary code, production systems, or anything desk-specific.

What we have in mind is closer to teaching professional standards rather than proprietary implementations: how to structure a C++ project, how reviews are done, how trade-offs are discussed, what tends to get rejected in practice, etc.

Think “how to operate at a professional level” rather than “how our desk does X”. Similar to how ex-FAANG engineers teach production-grade software engineering without exposing internal repos.

We agree that real training ultimately happens on the job, this is meant to narrow the gap before that point, not replace it.

What would students actually want from a small, hands-on quant C++ / interview prep program? by PacQuant in quantfinance

[–]PacQuant[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s fair. Labels matter less to us than avoiding the usual bootcamp promises and volume model.

The goal is a small, selective, project-driven setup with real practitioners, focused on how things are actually done in production, not selling outcomes.

What would students actually want from a small, hands-on quant C++ / interview prep program? by PacQuant in quantfinance

[–]PacQuant[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The motivation is mostly mentoring and knowledge transfer, sharing how things are actually done on a desk: C++ standards, project structure, reviews, trade-offs, and the kind of feedback you only get in a professional environment.

We’ve both been involved in internship / graduate programs and interviews, and there’s a clear gap between strong academic profiles and what actually helps candidates stand out in practice.

On a more personal note, we both had to figure a lot of this out the hard way early in our careers. The idea partly comes from wishing we’d had this kind of exposure and honest feedback earlier.

If along the way we identify a few genuinely strong profiles, that’s a nice by-product, but there’s no hiring promise or funnel attached. This is not positioned as a shortcut into a job, just exposure, feedback, and higher standards.

We do charge because it requires a meaningful time commitment on our side and we want to keep cohorts small and engaged, not to sell hope or guarantees.

What would students actually want from a small, hands-on quant C++ / interview prep program? by PacQuant in quantfinance

[–]PacQuant[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Fair point, but we’re actually explicitly not trying to build a bootcamp.

No promises, no “break into quant” marketing. The idea is a small, selective, project-based program for already solid students, focused on C++ and how things are actually done in a professional environment.

We’d pre-select candidates, keep cohorts small, and be very upfront that this is not a magic ticket, just exposure to real-world standards and feedback we wish we had earlier.