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multivariatecopula
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Posts: 10
Joined: December 24th, 2018, 4:36 am

Which entry level job to take to set up a buy-side front-office quant career?

April 18th, 2019, 9:51 pm

Hi all,
Recently, I've gotten some pretty good news in terms of job offers. For background, I am a math undergrad at a semi-target. Here is the job situation:
  • (back-office) model validation analyst internship at major i-bank (received offer)
  • quantitative analyst at small startup-ish prop firm (passed all technical interview rounds, just have one more final round with a trader)
  • data scientist at tech startup (still on coding challenge part of interview)
  • data scientist at optiver (also still on coding challenge part)
For the optiver role I do not estimate a high probability of making it through all the rounds. The situation now is I have 2 weeks to accept the offer from the major i-bank, and I will ask the startup prop firm to schedule a final interview soon.

Basically:
  • If the startup prop firm don't get back to me in 2 weeks should I take the i-bank offer?
  • If I get both offers should I turn it down to still keep rolling the dice for optiver?
My ultimate career goal is QR/QA front office role at a hedge fund (doesnt matter if its one of the big ones like Twosig, DEShaw, etc. or a small one that's doing well).
What do y'all think?
Update: Just got another QA first round interview with a hedge fund that I applied to via college career portal, so throw that into the mix as well.
 
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bearish
Posts: 5186
Joined: February 3rd, 2011, 2:19 pm

Re: Which entry level job to take to set up a buy-side front-office quant career?

April 19th, 2019, 12:51 am

You use the term "internship" about your actual offer. We are talking a summer job here? That lowers the stakes slightly relative to a first full time job. Please clarify! 
 
multivariatecopula
Topic Author
Posts: 10
Joined: December 24th, 2018, 4:36 am

Re: Which entry level job to take to set up a buy-side front-office quant career?

April 19th, 2019, 4:15 am

You use the term "internship" about your actual offer. We are talking a summer job here? That lowers the stakes slightly relative to a first full time job. Please clarify! 
yes, summer internship. it would lower the stakes. what would you do (WWYD)? i started pursuing quant late in my studies, an extra internship wouldn't hurt. but i'd obviously rather get full time lol.
 
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ISayMoo
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Re: Which entry level job to take to set up a buy-side front-office quant career?

April 19th, 2019, 4:07 pm

If you get a full time job offer, are you going to drop out from college?
 
multivariatecopula
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Posts: 10
Joined: December 24th, 2018, 4:36 am

Re: Which entry level job to take to set up a buy-side front-office quant career?

April 19th, 2019, 7:13 pm

If you get a full time job offer, are you going to drop out from college?
I'm graduating in a month.
 
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ISayMoo
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Joined: September 30th, 2015, 8:30 pm

Re: Which entry level job to take to set up a buy-side front-office quant career?

April 19th, 2019, 7:42 pm

Ah, OK. I think it's time to get a real job.
 
multivariatecopula
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Posts: 10
Joined: December 24th, 2018, 4:36 am

Re: Which entry level job to take to set up a buy-side front-office quant career?

April 19th, 2019, 7:47 pm

Ah, OK. I think it's time to get a real job.
I did start pursuing a quant career late in my college career though (slacked off first two years trying to get laid..sigh), so an additional machine learning internship at a financial institution wouldn't hurt. However, I'd obviously prefer a buy-side full-time thing so I might just turn down this internship to keep rolling the dice, since when I apply to quant HFs on my college career portal they usually get back to me, meaning I tend to be in their desired cohort.
 
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ISayMoo
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Re: Which entry level job to take to set up a buy-side front-office quant career?

April 19th, 2019, 8:35 pm

Why don't you let the other places know that you have an expiring offer and ask them nicely to speed up the process?
 
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bearish
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Joined: February 3rd, 2011, 2:19 pm

Re: Which entry level job to take to set up a buy-side front-office quant career?

April 20th, 2019, 9:29 pm

I don’t know enough about prop trading shops to have anything to contribute there. I do know people in model validation, but none that are happy. I’d think a summer internship after graduation would only make sense if you have a burning desire to be at that place long term and think you have some chance of converting the internship into an immediate full time job. This would be irregular in a large organization, but certainly not impossible. Lastly, and this may be useful, “QA” is never used they way you use it.
 
multivariatecopula
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Posts: 10
Joined: December 24th, 2018, 4:36 am

Re: Which entry level job to take to set up a buy-side front-office quant career?

May 12th, 2019, 10:03 pm

hey everyone,

so i prodded a bit more about the role, and the situation is that they want me to work on a big anti-financial crime data science project, and as for smaller projects, to automate manual model val work. is this a good position to be in?
 
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bearish
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Joined: February 3rd, 2011, 2:19 pm

Re: Which entry level job to take to set up a buy-side front-office quant career?

May 12th, 2019, 11:46 pm

hey everyone,

so i prodded a bit more about the role, and the situation is that they want me to work on a big anti-financial crime data science project, and as for smaller projects, to automate manual model val work. is this a good position to be in?
Data science is good (or, I mean, it sounds good). Anti-financial crime beats the alternative (so, I guess we’re not talking Wells Fargo here). I would worry slightly about the last point, but if you think the people are reasonable, it doesn’t sound like a terrible opportunity.
 
multivariatecopula
Topic Author
Posts: 10
Joined: December 24th, 2018, 4:36 am

Re: Which entry level job to take to set up a buy-side front-office quant career?

May 13th, 2019, 7:54 pm

hey everyone,

so i prodded a bit more about the role, and the situation is that they want me to work on a big anti-financial crime data science project, and as for smaller projects, to automate manual model val work. is this a good position to be in?
Data science is good (or, I mean, it sounds good). Anti-financial crime beats the alternative (so, I guess we’re not talking Wells Fargo here). I would worry slightly about the last point, but if you think the people are reasonable, it doesn’t sound like a terrible opportunity.
yeah, i'll try to get them to put me closer to the big AFC data science project. the people sound pretty reasonable. hard to know until I see what i'm doing I guess.

it's one of the big IBs (GS, JP morgan, morgan stanley, deutsche, credit suisse, UBS, etc)

from what i've seen anti crime/financial regulation stuff fall under the quant job title as well (FINRA, SEC, etc. advertise their roles as quant on my school job portal), so that's what it is ("quantitative analyst intern") on my resume. i assume it's because you also work with price and volume data?
 
multivariatecopula
Topic Author
Posts: 10
Joined: December 24th, 2018, 4:36 am

Re: Which entry level job to take to set up a buy-side front-office quant career?

September 4th, 2019, 10:16 pm

got the buy-side trading research role. thanks everyone!