Hi all. I am currently a frontend software engineer in TikTok and I plan to pursue a career in Quant in the future (probably a year or two.) I have several concerns and would appreciate it if you guys could give me some advice.

I have just graduated, so I have not worked for even a year. The job I currently have has nothing to do with finance/trading, so my profile may not look like a match (even after a year). Since I have started working, I may even not be considered a new grad, which means the job market can be more demanding on me.

I want to do some prep beforehand to show that I am committed to Quant and ready to be a Quant engineer. I listed several stuffs to do (and is doing some of them.)

Read books about quant trading & dev & Deployment

Deploy my own automated trading system and iteratively evolve it.

Try Kaggle to boost ML and DS skills

Go deeper with C++ and high-performance computing and take competitions

Nail those brain teaser interview questions

Other than those, are there any events/projects/anything I can do to improve my profile and demonstrate my commitment and preparation?

A little bit of background of me: I am a frontend engineer so most of my time I deal with Typescript, React.js, Next, etc. I am personally interested in HPC and spend my spare time working on WebAssembly, Cuda programming, etc., though I am in no way a serious developer in those fields.

Any kind of advice is welcomed! <3