i love the whole quant stuff. However, I am not a big fan of long hours. Is there any companies where quants work not so long hours (perhaps average 10/day). I am not worried about earning a low salary, i just want to work in the field. Please let me know about companies where there is a good work/life balance.Thanks

10 hours a day is considered a "part-time" position

thanks. is such 'part time' positions possible in industry?

Sorry buddy. A good life and a quant life dont go side by side.

I know of only one institution where all of the quants in a certain asset class work 9-6 (most of the time) - however this is just one institution and all the guys in the quant team came from very good banks and have basically chosen the work life balance option in favour of maximising income (although they still do quite well from it). For juniors especially you have to earn your worth and be willing to put in some hard graft which includes long-ish hours; this is true of most career paths where the rewards can be substantial in a relatively short space of time. You can have less hours with some middle office quant positions or perhaps with one of the professional services firms.

Such hours are available in regulators. We did one role last year where "quality of life" was seen by them as a selling point.The money wasn't GS, but copared to normal non-finance jobs was pretty good.In my experience, the consultancies typically don't give you much better hours, but pay rather less. Though that varies quite a lot.

I still maintain that nobody can fruitfully do quant work for more than 4-6 hours per day, 5 days per week. Everyone might sit at their desk trying or pretending to work -- but beyond 30 hours per week, your productivity diminishes notably. You can get more done by working hard 30 hours per week than by sitting in the office 90 hours per week. When you sit there that long, inevitably 50 hours is wasted by meaningless thoughts and posting on wilmott. The banks would find their quants are more productive by giving them flex hours and not requiring so much "face time" at the office.

I agree, but how do you achieve that ?

QuoteOriginally posted by: DCFCI agree, but how do you achieve that ? Some quants I know rent a private room in a shared apt near the office. This allows them to take a long lunch and, during breaks, sneak to their room and take naps and watch tv in the middle of the day. Thus, they only work 30 hours per week but their jacket hangs on the office chair 90 hours per week.

KT your plot sound to be taken from a new movie ?a while back I had an interview with a head of a team at an energy company who appeared rather eccentric. He said culture in his office is similar to academic environment where people are not committed to certain starting time, have XBox to play at will (provided by him), even a room to watch DVD together or read books if they find their minds are blocked. More so, he spent the whole 'interview' lunch talking about our shared interest in astronomy, the observatories in our state and how to get into their fields for a look. But that sort of attitude indicates demand for high quality at work, I think. So there are pros and cons, i.e. to perform exceptionally well all the time is tiring too.

Hm. I'm having an internship this summer in QA division. This is my first one so I'm not really sure what to await. But reading all these posts makes me feel like I'll be working at the office from 9 till midnight. Is this true? Honestly, I thought it'd be more like 9 to 7 =)

In rating agencies (s&p, fitch, moodys,..) people don't have to work long hours.But you have to remember that what you get from your job is related to what you put in it, so if you don't work that much/long hours don't expect to be doing interesting things.Also I don't think it is a good idea at the begining of your career to try to shrink the time you are spending at your work

QuoteOriginally posted by: meteorIn rating agencies (s&p, fitch, moodys,..) people don't have to work long hours.But you have to remember that what you get from your job is related to what you put in it, so if you don't work that much/long hours don't expect to be doing interesting things.Also I don't think it is a good idea at the begining of your career to try to shrink the time you are spending at your workI'm not trying to shrink the time =) I'm ready to work however much is needed... It seems I was just completely uninformed what real quant worklife looks like

Who informed you?I don't think it takes a lot of research online to get a pretty realistic idea of the hours in this business.

QuoteOriginally posted by: Zedr0nQuoteOriginally posted by: meteorIn rating agencies (s&p, fitch, moodys,..) people don't have to work long hours.But you have to remember that what you get from your job is related to what you put in it, so if you don't work that much/long hours don't expect to be doing interesting things.Also I don't think it is a good idea at the begining of your career to try to shrink the time you are spending at your workI'm not trying to shrink the time =) I'm ready to work however much is needed... It seems I was just completely uninformed what real quant worklife looks likeas an intern you should be fine, because your manager will not want to exhaust/disgust you as they might be interested to hire you full time...