Hi Everybody,I know I am lucky but I have to make a choice between two opportunities. One is an Investment bank to be quant in front office in Switzerland. It’s a 1 year internship. The other is for a great software company in the city. It’s a permanent contract.The two jobs are the same. Come in London would be of high benefit for my English which is not so fluent (I’m French). In Switzerland I would work for an investment Bank. It would allow me to move from a position to another but it’s an internship and is in Switzerland.What choice would you make? I love quant finance and i really want to work in that field.What’s the market value in London of a quant with 1 year experience? Thanks for any reply.

I think you got something wrong. You are saying one job is quant in the front office and the other in a software company, but both jobs are the same? Do software companies nowadays hire quants or are you in fact not a quant, but an IT guy?In general I would state that to gain relevant experience in the field where you want to go is much more important than the type of contract, the place or the spoken language.

Both two jobs ask me to develop models such as LMM, Heston…, take care of recent innovations in the field… I am suspicious about internship because I have some friends who were just making coffee. What do you call an IT guy? Indeed, I compute, I don’t really like that but I think I can’t go by. Software companies sometimes sells pricers to bank and other institutions but I don't know if they are at the top of the research.

It's tough.In general FO quant beats s/w house, but Switzerland is not exactly the centre of the world.I'd like to see the exact text of the job offer, but I'd guess you will learn more from the IB quant job, even tohugh there is of course considerably more work to move to your next job.Although some internships are "coffee making", that is actually pretty rare.

Hi, many thanks for your replies Zymonick and DCFC, I really appreciate it. As you asked me, this is the offer from the IB (Switzerland): The successful candidate will integrate FO interest rate modelling team.He will work on three missions: trading development (model development and product analysis), structuration support, pricing model development.He will be in contact with traders and structurers.More precisely he will- develop pricing library in c++- develop excel pricing tools for trading desks and structurers- develop new pricing models and improve existing ones- work on specific projects such as multi asset MC pricerAnd this is the offer from the software company (London City)We are seeking a Financial Engineer with previous work experience in the IR and IR option market.Responsibilities include developing algorithms for pricing and risk management, testing, documentation as wellas interaction with clients. Knowledge of OO programming.Primary Responsibilities: * Developing pricing algorithms for IR and IR derivatives * Evaluating existing pricing and risk functionality, identifying problems/gaps and creating an action plan to address them * Testing and documenting pricing algorithms developed * Communicating FE-related issues internally as well as externally to clients and prospectsSkills & Requirements: * Minimum 3 to 4 years working experience working in treasury markets and/or (financial) software industry. * A thorough understanding of financial mathematics (PDE, SDE,stochastic calculus, numerical solution techniques, Monte Carlo) is a must. * Familiarity and experience with pricing algorithms of financial derivatives, market data generation and risk reports is essential. * M.S. / MBA or PhD in finance, mathematics, physics, engineering or equivalent disciplines.What do you think about these? I know the first one sounds more attractive, but as i told : internship + switzerlandthe second = London + attractive package (money is not my priority by now (even if one day, I should think about making some economies…), my priority is to have a significant experience)Thanks for any replies

No one for an advice?

QuoteOriginally posted by: amazingJosHi, many thanks for your replies Zymonick and DCFC, I really appreciate it. As you asked me, this is the offer from the IB (Switzerland): The successful candidate will integrate FO interest rate modelling team.He will work on three missions: trading development (model development and product analysis), structuration support, pricing model development.He will be in contact with traders and structurers.More precisely he will- develop pricing library in c++- develop excel pricing tools for trading desks and structurers- develop new pricing models and improve existing ones- work on specific projects such as multi asset MC pricerAnd this is the offer from the software company (London City)We are seeking a Financial Engineer with previous work experience in the IR and IR option market.Responsibilities include developing algorithms for pricing and risk management, testing, documentation as wellas interaction with clients. Knowledge of OO programming.Primary Responsibilities: * Developing pricing algorithms for IR and IR derivatives * Evaluating existing pricing and risk functionality, identifying problems/gaps and creating an action plan to address them * Testing and documenting pricing algorithms developed * Communicating FE-related issues internally as well as externally to clients and prospectsSkills & Requirements: * Minimum 3 to 4 years working experience working in treasury markets and/or (financial) software industry. * A thorough understanding of financial mathematics (PDE, SDE,stochastic calculus, numerical solution techniques, Monte Carlo) is a must. * Familiarity and experience with pricing algorithms of financial derivatives, market data generation and risk reports is essential. * M.S. / MBA or PhD in finance, mathematics, physics, engineering or equivalent disciplines.What do you think about these? I know the first one sounds more attractive, but as i told : internship + switzerlandthe second = London + attractive package (money is not my priority by now (even if one day, I should think about making some economies…), my priority is to have a significant experience)Thanks for any repliesThe the job description of London office is more detailed in terms of skills, etc. Probably it is just a marketing strategy to fish more resumes. But it also shows their seriousness about the role. Based on job descriptions,the two role look almost similar but it is better to be in London than in Switzerland, especially if you are interested in quant jobs. Since I do not know your background or what you want to be , I can't make choice. But, if you want to be a pure quant some 5 years from now, I think London + this job should offer you a great opportunity.Besides you can attend seminars, evening classes and do networking in London that shall be useful from long term perspective. Internship in itself is a good thing because it does not look bad on the resume. You can quit in 3 months and say you found what it is about. A full time job is a more serious position and so quiting in a few months won't be nice. And trust me you will be tempted to find alternatives once you are in the city. But if you are suspicious of the internship being more of coffee fetching role, then it would be better to give the London job a try. To be on the safe side, try finding as much info as possible so as to make sure you have little surprises after joining the firm.

London is of course a better place to be, as enumerated by cryptic.Three months internship at a well branded bank will put you in a better position than the same time at a s/w houseYou will probably learn more and they are in effect giving you a free option. If you do a good job you can join them, or use the fact that some value has been added to blag yourself a better job in London.