Is this normal? I started in March and I've seen so many people leave after being with the firm from anywhere between 1-4 years. I guess I'm not used to it since I came from an industry where people averaged 10 years before moving on.If an entire group leaves due to attrition, do they just simply lay you off if you're one of the few remaining? Any advice on how I should prepare myself?

just sit tight.

QuoteOriginally posted by: blackscholesIs this normal? I started in March and I've seen so many people leave after being with the firm from anywhere between 1-4 years. I guess I'm not used to it since I came from an industry where people averaged 10 years before moving on.If an entire group leaves due to attrition, do they just simply lay you off if you're one of the few remaining? Any advice on how I should prepare myself?totally depends on the firm and the situation.... there are both positive and negative reasons for high turnover.Generally however, if you are good at your job and you have some allies higher up the food chain you should be somewhat protected.

QuoteOriginally posted by: blackscholesIf an entire group leaves due to attrition, do they just simply lay you off if you're one of the few remaining? Any advice on how I should prepare myself?if it's a group that's essential, think of it as an opportunity to move up the ladder into one of those vacant positions

QuoteOriginally posted by: ppauperQuoteOriginally posted by: blackscholesIf an entire group leaves due to attrition, do they just simply lay you off if you're one of the few remaining? Any advice on how I should prepare myself?if it's a group that's essential, think of it as an opportunity to move up the ladder into one of those vacant positionsIndeed.

QuoteOriginally posted by: blackscholesIs this normal? I started in March and I've seen so many people leave after being with the firm from anywhere between 1-4 years. I guess I'm not used to it since I came from an industry where people averaged 10 years before moving on.If an entire group leaves due to attrition, do they just simply lay you off if you're one of the few remaining? Any advice on how I should prepare myself?what do you do, risk or what?

QuoteOriginally posted by: blackscholesIs this normal? I started in March and I've seen so many people leave after being with the firm from anywhere between 1-4 years. I guess I'm not used to it since I came from an industry where people averaged 10 years before moving on.If an entire group leaves due to attrition, do they just simply lay you off if you're one of the few remaining? Any advice on how I should prepare myself?Do you by any chance work at Barclays?

I used to know a fellow who was head of fixed income at UBS (to be more precise, the old Union Bank of Switzerland), and the key promotion in his career appears to have happened because everybody who knew what they were doing suddenly left.

QuoteOriginally posted by: ppauperQuoteOriginally posted by: blackscholesIf an entire group leaves due to attrition, do they just simply lay you off if you're one of the few remaining? Any advice on how I should prepare myself?if it's a group that's essential, think of it as an opportunity to move up the ladder into one of those vacant positionsAbsolutely. In a bank, if you are senior enough they will let you hire staff and make you a manager in the next promotion. Otherwise you will be transferred to another manager and he will hire few staff. Generally they won't lay you off if you're good and paid at or below market rate. From two of my friends' experiences in the past year, its important to keep your programming skills up-to-date with the market. I think most banks are not replacing the more research type quants when they resign. The emphasis seems to have shifted towards quality of code and scalability of the quant lib.