Of course cultures must vary to some extent across banks. This is my experience...I don't recognise the descriptions of fierce competition, eg not sharing of code.Equally, however, when I started I was expecting much more help and mentoring than I actually got. It took me a while to get used to this and figure it out. Quants have a culture of independence. It's not the same business model as something like accountancy where there are lots of juniors who get very closely managed. In banks (front office at least) you're expected to show some initiative and work things out for yourself, pretty much from the start. Other people are too busy to help extensively or validate your work. They wouldn't get any credit for it, and there's only downside if they're associated with it and something subsequently goes wrong.In summary, asking questions is fine and well received. (And generally you do have to ask, since most people are too busy to go out of their way to teach you.) But as others have already said, people won't do the work for you. Eg if there's a problem with your code, you can't expect anyone else so sit down and help you work out what it is.

DCFC: Maybe I should clarify my previous comment; my experience is that one a day-to-day basis you might be struggling with a particular aspect of Levy processes, or whatever. My boss doesn't really care; he cares about the end result and wants to see the simulations based on this or that or those. When HR come down to the floor once every 6 months and ask you what your development needs are and you start talking about some stochastic analysis, statistics or math, their eyes glaze over.Quants need a certain amount of self-motivation to suceed in the job. The most striking thing I found is that quants might be in different lines of business, but over time an informal network has developed where the quants share ideas and code. I think the informality helps in as much as people interact when they want to , and they know there are people available who are willing to help. Of course, it's reciprocal.

in my experience, the best quants are helpful -- they don't feel a need to act so competitively because they are confident of their own abilities. however, some subpar quants need to hide their code because they feel insecure about their abilities and, so, are always afraid somebody will steal their measely code and their job.

totally agree with you. I noticed this long ago when I was a little innocent person coming to the trading floor and found my teammates or ppl around were generally rude selfish and sometimes tricky. At first thought that's the trading culture.however over time I received enormous help or (good) shouting from truly smart people who were not afraid of being overthrown hence practiced random act of kindness. I still have high respect for them and hope to become same down the road.

"Eg if there's a problem with your code, you can't expect anyone else so sit down and help you work out what it is."How many codes you usually wrote each day?One software company counts that. That's kind of funny...