QuoteOriginally posted by: CuchulainnBTW what does a quant do? Pencil and paper?If they are business side quants they don't deal with nitty gritty optimization for execusion, it's just not their job nor relevant.You can hire people willing to accept lower salaries to take care of that stuff.They use whichever tool their boss or other policy type people determines is a good fit I guess.

QuoteOriginally posted by: elioWell, at least in my uni back in Russia they do it the way you like (i'm well below 32). When the first thing on the list is the assembly language, students will know a bit about these things.That said I'm very happy with Python. Though I use C++ via Boost.Python I would rather prefer not to if performance was not an issue.I think I spend more time on development than people around (academia, finance, so people use matlab all the time), but I really dislike Matlab and woudn't want to maintain any code written in it.I gradually started to love unit testing and test-driven development. I think it saves time in the end, though I'm not fully converted yet. Do they teach it at universities btw? I was quite ignorant about that stuff.P.S. Cuch, where should I apply if I'll be looking for a job?)Even some hands-on experience is useful before starting life as a developer. These days CS tends to teach Java as first language.What kind of job are you looking for?

QuoteOriginally posted by: ashkarWhy the cut-off at 32?it's an atomic weight of SUlfur

QuoteOriginally posted by: quantmehQuoteOriginally posted by: ashkarWhy the cut-off at 32?it's an atomic weight of SUlfur2^5, also2^6 = 64. The Beatles had a song about 64.

QuoteOriginally posted by: quantmehQuoteOriginally posted by: ashkarWhy the cut-off at 32?it's an atomic weight of SUlfurSulphur stinks.

QuoteOriginally posted by: CuchulainnEven some hands-on experience is useful before starting life as a developer. These days CS tends to teach Java as first language.What kind of job are you looking for?I am a PhD so I am not looking for a job currently. Possibly in a few years...I am interested in commodities and what I can say now is that commodityquant/quant-dev or risk positions would be certainly appealing to me if Igo to the industry. Preferably close to FO so I can learn the business.Pure dev could be also interesting if the project is original and the team hasthe freedom and the courage to choose the right means to get the stuff done.Maybe it's a bit naive and too much to ask for, but I have quite a good idea ofhow it feels to work in a software company that is run by incompetentmanagement types. It's not from my personal experience, but nevertheless.For those "ideal" dev jobs the question becomes more like what I haveto offer. I hope that sharing the same values and appreciating the fact thatinternal processes are set up correctly is not exactly nothing. As an exampleof what looks exciting to me, I know some people use functional languagesto describe products and, for instance, price them more or less automatically.