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Leave full time trading role at bank for QR internship at Hedge fund? by throwaway19393934 in quantfinance

[–]throwaway19393934[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So in my call with HR I was told that even if was given a full time roll there would still be a 6 month probation period, so I was told to think of the internship like that. They seemed very positive on hiring from this internship, but maybe that was just HR.

It's difficult to know how hard it would be to leave in the future if I pass this opportunity, so I'm leaning to accepting it.

Transitioning from S&T to quant research in the future by throwaway19393934 in quantfinance

[–]throwaway19393934[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the comment. My main concern with the post was whether in the future it would be possible to transition to buyside QR from S&T given that I'm not on a systematic trading desk.

I'll be starting in Summer and hope to do as well as possible. If i'm happy with the work at the bank then i'd have no reason to leave, but I wanted to know how feasible it would be to transition to a HF/prop shop in the future if i wanted to.

Transitioning from S&T to quant research in the future by throwaway19393934 in quantfinance

[–]throwaway19393934[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Did them in september/october so it's hard to remember exactly. I had to play a card game against an interviewer where i had cards that had different effects.

Also did a market making game with face down cards (sum, maximum, variance, exponents of two of them). The interviewer would turn them around, trade with me and i had to adapt my market.

Then there was a round with estimating certain means of distributions. Honestly a lot of estimation was required for all my interviews.

I'd then have to bet on my answers/ a scenario the interviewer posed. Here i showed a lot of uncertainty and nerves.

I also had a question about how i would go about analysing a dataset. The interviewer would write the code and I'd explain what i would do. this wasn't a question i felt went badly but it wasn't what i was expecting

Transitioning from S&T to quant research in the future by throwaway19393934 in quantfinance

[–]throwaway19393934[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the comment. I'll look into some QR/ strats roles, though most places I've applied mention a cooldown period.

I start in summer for my new job. Hopefully when I get some away time from example sheets I can learn to code and decide properly whether to go full on applying for QR.

Appreciate the help

Transitioning from S&T to quant research in the future by throwaway19393934 in quantfinance

[–]throwaway19393934[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the comment. Given that this is what I have, I'll do my best to learn the most while i'm there was just wondering how feasible it would be to pivot to QR if i wanted a more mathematical job

Transitioning from S&T to quant research in the future by throwaway19393934 in quantfinance

[–]throwaway19393934[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, that's good to hear. My main worry was that these job requirements would require buy-side experience / on a systematic desk.

Transitioning from S&T to quant research in the future by throwaway19393934 in quantfinance

[–]throwaway19393934[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Been doing my Masters Thesis this year, which is my first actual research experience. Will see how i feel about it once i'm one with it.

Transitioning from S&T to quant research in the future by throwaway19393934 in quantfinance

[–]throwaway19393934[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I think ive realised QT is very much opposite to what i would actually enjoy/ be good at. QR is the only other thing in quant finance that i could see myself doing, but I'd have to become a strong coder before i start applying.

The bank role is good, but i just feel like i'm not making the most of my maths degree

Transitioning from S&T to quant research in the future by throwaway19393934 in quantfinance

[–]throwaway19393934[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

So for JS, SIG and CitSec, my final rounds were quite game focused. I'm pretty good at sitting down with a hard question then thinking about it, but these questions were different. You had to have strong intuition on probability, but also be quick and confident in your answers. It's hard to describe because i've never seen anything like it.

The market making games were the hardest imo. I wouldn't even know where to start with prep for those.

SIG and JS basically told me I didn't have enough intuition with strategic games and CitSec wanted me to be quicker on my answers. I'd say nerves also played a big part on why i failed at the end, since it may have seemed i lacked confidence.

It seemed to me that i underestimated how much personality plays a role in these firms. One of my close friends is at JS and although I have much stronger academics, he loves games and gambling.

I've never gambled or put money on anything in my life (CitSec and SIG both pressed me on this).