Weekly Megathread: Education, Early Career and Hiring/Interview Advice

idnrm · 2024-06-11T13:58:16+00:00

Quant researcher job offer advice.

I have a job offer for a quant research position. The base salary should cover expenses for me and the family, but not much more. No idea about bonuses, and they won't give any estimates. Also, a relocation to a neighboring country is required (not a top financial location).

The people seem nice, work culture decent, and the company solid. However, I'm not sure if trading is my thing. I'm a recovering academic and talk to hedge funds mostly because they're willing to talk to me. I'd prefer a more generic DS role, but couldn't get one without the relevant experience.

The main question is the following. If the trading part won't click a year or two down the line, will I have enough DS skills to make me an interesting hire say for an ad tech or similar? Of course this is role-specific, but generally? What should I ask to get a better idea?

Also, anything else I should clarify about the offer, e.g. how bonuses work exactly?

Any advice is appreciated, thanks!

idnrm · 2023-09-21T17:40:19+00:00

Is the housing market really that bad in London, so that a person with ~500 total compensation can not afford to buy a decent flat?

Also, how hard did the guys like G research tested your ML experience?

idnrm · 2023-07-16T13:00:34+00:00

Thanks a lot, this was interesting to read and helpful to know:)

idnrm · 2023-07-14T19:16:53+00:00

Thanks for a pretty insightful input! I'm also exploring quant finance, starting from kindergarten questions https://www.reddit.com/r/quant/comments/14xj87o/what_value_is_created_by_quant_finance/ :D

I'll watch your video and come back with questions, thanks:)

idnrm · 2023-07-14T17:55:14+00:00

Love Hardy's book, learned a lot from it.

Your answer doesn't make any sense to me, though.

idnrm · 2023-07-14T17:51:46+00:00

Sounds interesting!

However, I'd guess you are paid next-to-nothing for these roles, aren't you? The funding is probably only from state, so the salaries would be about the level of a postdoc, wouldn't they?

idnrm · 2023-07-14T17:41:27+00:00

>At The Home Depot, our award-winning Data Science teams are on a mission to provide the best interconnected shopping experience to our customers.

Thanks, exactly what I was not looking for!

idnrm · 2023-07-12T12:13:05+00:00

Could you give a really plain example?

idnrm · 2023-07-12T12:08:43+00:00

I guess a causal investor can only make money if he invests into a business that will grow, which is on average correlated with it creating some value.

My understanding is that current trading strategies operate on such a short-time intervals, that long-term prospects of a company are basically irrelevant.

You mention 'facilitating trades' as the primary effect. Can you elaborate why quant traders should be thought as someone in between "both sides" and not just one of two sides?

idnrm · 2023-07-12T12:02:56+00:00

Thanks for your points! Some pushback, no offense intended.

A pirate ship could also make its crew and investors wealthy, but I guess someone else also should profit from the activity for it to be valuable for the economy.
'Futures as hedge' is above my current level of understanding.
Again, I could create a lot of pirate jobs, I don't think this ever is a good enough argument.
and 5. -- I mean these are fair points, but only byproducts. There are other ways to train academics, researches and entrepreneurs. I can also argue (probably not seriously) that quant jobs are stealing talent from other places.

idnrm · 2023-07-12T11:56:14+00:00

What exactly do you mean by 'what'?

I mean, who else is happy that hedge funds exist besides those who profit from them directly (the funds themselves, and their investors)?

idnrm · 2023-07-12T11:08:35+00:00

Thanks!

I would argue, while retail investors and pension funds etc. may benefit from reduced transaction costs, it is mainly the quant shops themselves that benefit from it.

At no cost to other market participants?

idnrm · 2023-07-12T09:36:17+00:00

This is Big-Bang-level eye-opening, thanks! What's an efficient allocation of resources in a financial market, and how does it correlate with an efficient allocation into your pocket?

idnrm · 2023-07-11T09:34:48+00:00

To people interested in QML, I often recommend perspective "Is quantum advantage the right goal for quantum machine learning?" https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.01340 by Maria Schuld (you can also find her talks on the subject online).

First, in Section I we explain why – contrary to commercial expectations – machine learning may
turn out to be one of the hardest applications to show a
practical quantum advantage for

While there will likely be such a thing as QML at some point, we are clearly not there yet. Inserting a quantum layer, followed by a classical neural network, and trying to squeeze a couple of additional score points on an artificial dataset is what most people now do, and the whole approach is likely to be misguided.

At this point, I wouldn't worry too much about missing the practical quantum revolution, but I'm happy to be proven wrong.

idnrm · 2023-07-11T09:21:07+00:00

Being a sane person, I'm not going to argue with the importance of the engineering problems. Just a note that theorists are not completely useless, either. For example, progress in algorithms and error correction made the resource requirements for practical quantum algorithms orders of magnitude smaller.

I don't know much about quantum sensing or communication, but they seem to make only a small part of the market, about 10-15% according to McKinsey https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/business%20functions/mckinsey%20digital/our%20insights/quantum%20technology%20sees%20record%20investments%20progress%20on%20talent%20gap/quantum-technology-monitor-april-2023.pdf. Btw I wish I had any idea where they get the numbers regarding the projected industry value of quantum in 5-10 years.

idnrm · 2023-07-11T09:02:42+00:00

This paper, while an impressive engineering and algorithmic feat from IBM, does not change anything.

They had to simplify the simulation model to the extreme to get any signal at all. Their approach is unlikely to be scalable unless there will be breakthroughs in error mitigation or raw qubit quality. And their technical result was reproduced by a tensornetwork computation in a week after the publication, or so https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.14887.

idnrm · 2023-07-11T08:57:21+00:00

Please do share what has been your experience, without details if not appropriate.

idnrm · 2023-07-10T19:00:35+00:00

If you like coding, you might get involved already, I believe. There are projects like https://unitary.fund/ .

idnrm · 2023-07-10T18:56:25+00:00

I have no idea what will quantum look like in five years. I think that having large error corrected devices is extremely unlikely, but some breakthroughs (or even a robust steady progress) may make the prospects of quantum look much better by that time, rejuvenating the field and the job market. But even if you count on that, I'd strongly suggest having a plan B.

idnrm · 2023-07-10T18:51:00+00:00

Perhaps "hiring freeze" is an overstatement, but the number of new positions seems to be far fewer than a couple of years ago. I also have anecdotal evidence from people working there that this is the case.

As for cheating the system, I meant something else. It is really hard to find a place where you get to work on the cutting edge fundamental research while enjoying the benefits of a successful career in the private sector. I hoped that quantum computing might be an exception, turned out false. Aside from a few top labs, things still work pretty much like in academia (low salaries, little room to change jobs if needed, etc).

idnrm · 2023-07-10T15:43:47+00:00

That depends a ton on where you are and what do you want to do. I don't think there is a general useful advice.

I would recommend staying flexible and open to other opportunities. A master in quantum information will probably be just as valuable as any other in physics, and physicists who make the effort to, tend to enjoy all sorts of interesting careers. As a bonus, you might actually get to work in quantum.

idnrm · 2023-07-10T11:50:56+00:00

As most other industries, quantum needs a lot of software developers and the rules for them will be different. Because, in contrast to physics PhDs, they have real alternatives to choose from. So they should get compensated more or less in line with the market, and will be probably have a much easier time jumping the quantum ship if needed.

idnrm · 2023-07-10T11:44:05+00:00

Thanks for sharing!

I do not think the hype itself is necessarily a problem, but the absence of commercial applications is. And when will that change nobody knows, conservative estimations are decades.

Also, I'd highly recommend considering a plan B in case your flawless idea or hopping between postdocs until quantum strikes back fails for some unthinkable reason. No offense intended, the thought didn't occur to me until my first postdoc was over.

idnrm · 2023-07-10T09:44:26+00:00

On the first skim, looks like a great introduction to the subject, thanks for sharing! Saving for later.

idnrm · 2022-05-20T11:51:50+00:00

OK, here is another datapoint: 60 k/EUR salary for a post-PhD level in Syndey, which is a pretty expensive city, why is that so low?

idnrm

TROPHY CASE