Does anyone have any opinions on the Barclays Capital milkround-type scheme for 'quantitative associates'? Is this a new thing? It's the first structured program I've seen for those with quantitative PhDs and looks very interesting. Any information would be much appreciated..

Nobody out there that could offer an opinion?

While I have no experience with BarCap, and have no opinion on them either, I found this in my in box today:eFinancialCareers.com - BarCap puts brake on hiresBarCap puts brake on hires Nick Gilbert from Financial News Online 7 Sep 2004 UK banking group Barclays has applied the brakes to the frantic recruitment drive at Barclays Capital, its investment banking subsidiary, which specialises in fixed interest and derivatives. BarCap added 1,300 jobs worldwide in the first seven months of this year, taking its payroll to about 7,000. This expansion formed part of a plan to add 3,000 jobs over three years put in place by Bob Diamond, its American chief executive. He lost out last year to John Varley in a battle to succeed Matt Barrett as head of the group. Barrett became chairman and Varley chief executive last week. Recruitment sources said BarCap has imposed what one called a 'tentative hiring freeze', while continuing to recruit in selected specialist areas, after spending large sums on new hires in recent months. BarCap is understood to have spent several hundred million dollars. Diamond is on holiday and could not be reached for comment. 'BarCap has been the most aggressive hirer in the market this year, paying way above premium to new hires, with lots of deals involving guaranteed bonuses of around two years,' said a source. Stories of young proprietary traders offered pay packages of more than ?m (€1.5m) have attracted recruits while deterring their previous employers from trying to keep them. BarCap denied a clampdown was in place. 'We have not put in place a hiring freeze and we are continuing to recruit, as we are still going to grow the business globally,' said a spokeswoman. However, a source at the bank said: 'There is not the frantic rush to recruit and, though hiring continues, it is not at the same pace. It takes time to take stock of the new hires after the big influx in the first two quarters.' One observer suggested BarCap might prefer to avoid paying recruits their potential 2004 bonuses by waiting to hire them until next spring, when they will have collected bonuses from their present employers. As part of his ambitious expansion plan, Diamond boosted his internal recruitment division and brought in Mike Clarke from Royal Bank of Scotland to head it. BarCap's expertise lay in sterling bonds and treasury, but Diamond has been keen to expand in the US in high-yield bonds, energy trading and mortgage-backed bonds, as well as extend the European bond and derivatives business. BarCap has conducted some well publicised recruitment raids, including hiring a team of three bond salesmen, led by Omar Selim, from Credit Suisse First Boston, in Frankfurt in May. It repeated the trick a month later, recruiting a five-member team from the Swiss-American bank that specialised in Nordic debt and derivatives. Naquib Kharaj, Barclays' finance director, suggested this year that BarCap would find it difficult to repeat its record first-quarter income in the rest of the year. The subsidiary reported interim pre-tax profits of ?99m, an increase of ?38m on the same period last year. The investment bank's contribution helped Barclays Group pre-tax profits rise 23% to ?.4bn. BarCap has recently been linked with a possible bid for Cazenove, the UK independent broker that is being courted by JP Morgan Chase and Lehman Brothers.

its a subset of the general graduate programme. so you're in there with the graduates and mba's. the quant's are treated as part of the graduate group (assumed no finance experience or knowledge); both in classes and in terms of pay (better than a graduate; not as good as an mba)you'll be allocated to a desk; probably eithier the quant group, as an embedded quant i.e. in middle office risk; or less usually in sales or trading (obviously in derivatives or something that requires more than the ability to count to 2 and say buy). theres no rotation except for IB, where you're unlikely to be placed in any case. theres a 16 month training programme; first four months in the classroom then on the desk with evening classes.PM me if you want more detail... rather not go into detail that might identify me.

Be aware also that Barclays is "reviewing" a lot of the hires it made during its big expansion.

I joined Barclays in NY in Feb 1999 in the graduate program as a freshly minted PhD, and was put into IT. I left IT to join the credit derivatives desk in December 1999.First, about Barclays IT and Barclays NY IT:- By Feb 2000, not a single IT person who interviewed me remained - including both senior and not senior people.- The CIO at Barclays NY and Barclays London in Feb 1999 were top-drawer people. - My direct report in IT was a great guy, and we remain friends- By October 1999, a new (and distinctly not talented) regime ran IT in London, and decided that NY should not be at all independent. This drove many good people outI was offered a job in credit derivs in November 1999, and jumped at it. London IT initially refused to let me transfer out, despite the fact that the head trader of that group was an MDThe lame-duck NY CIO stuck his neck out to get me transfered (he already was on his way out)London IT completed its screw by giving me an IT bonus for the 2000 year (despite record revenues on the CD desk), because I was not OFFICIALLY reporting to the MD of credit derivs until September, 2000. Conclusion: if you are offered a job in Barclays IT, just say noI am still friends with quants remaining on the CD desk. I learned lots from these guys, and from the MD. I will be in their debt always. We operated as an independent entity within the organization, shielded from the bureaucracy of the place.The MD left two weeks after I left (July 2001).After this, Barclays hired a guy to run the CD desk who knew nothing about credit derivatives. More than a few top quants left.Conclusion here: there are some very good/excellent people remaining. BUT- Barclays is highly bureaucratic- there's a high amount of politics- if you are in NY, you are vulnerable to whims of people in LondonOverall? like everywhere else, it's what you make of it. There was minimal formal training. Lots of PhDs ended up doing boring support work, or were groomed to manage IT. If that floats your boat, fine. You will have to fight to get what you want.Be forewarned - there are a LOT of overqualified people out there being paid to be under-utilized.

I have been invited to a quantitative associate event for Barcap in the next couple of weeks. Anyone know what to expect and what to brush up on?ThanksFV

Two quick points. Howard. you complain about the London bias so think how it is for any person working in IT in London for a US bank. By your logic it would be great to work on Barcap London IT since it is all run from there.Dominic, In terms of reviewing hires made, I think this is more applicable to the high contract base rather than the perm staff

Hi I passed the numerical test online and I have an telephone interview tomorrow. I’m very, very stressed about. Because my English language is not very good.Do you know what it looks like, if you have done this kind of interview before?Friendly Sokol

I got the invitation from Barcap as well. However, I will be either on a plane or in the annual funding meeting of my current academic project tomorrow morning. It clashes completely with the available phone interview slots. I got their email four days ago... But, by that stage, I cannot really do anything. Put that this way, even if it arrives a wee bit earlier, I cannot do much either. Tomorrow is one of the two days in the year that I can't take a day off (if I don't want to get kicked out from the lab immediately...) I've sent an email to campus.recruitment@barcap.com to see if there is any alternative... So far, I have not heard anything from them... bummer.

Call them. They get thousands of emails. Show some initiative, find the number, and get on the phone to them.Ask for graduate recruitment, tell them why you cannot make the interview, and ask, politely, if you oculd be fitted in at a different time.For a job that can pay so well, and that demands such dedication, people seem very unwilling to put in some effort to get them sometimes.