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I would be interested in your opinion/experience of how important the first job is. I am finishing my PhD (in Zurich) soon, and I am starting to look around for jobs in the industry. For personal reasons, I might stay in Zurich for another two years, and only then try to move to London. From what I have seen so far, the opportunities for a wannabe quant in Switzerland are kind of limited. (But I am just starting to look -- I don't have any offers yet, I haven't even gone for interviews) So probably, I would find a much better first job in London, I know. But let's say I find a solid quant job in Zurich, would I lower my chance of being considered for a junior quant job at a top IB/fund in London after two years, compared to applying right now as a fresh PhD graduate? Also, how much does the area of the first job (equity, credit, ...) determine my medium term career path? Is it still possible to change lanes?Thanks.

Lane changes are tricky, but a lot goes to the quality of work.If you put the effort in, I don't doubt you can get a quant job. But...Will you be doing stuff that impresses your next employer ?A lot less of cutting edge stuff in Zurich and my view is that your probability of falling into a junk job is much greater.But your goals are your goals, and if you are doing this, then I would advise a few optimisations.You should try harder to get into a firm whose name is good globally.An ideal role will be as part of a unit with staff in London, but as long as you aren't a puppet for them.Avoid anything with a sales aspect.Look very hard at the work for portability.

How important is thefirst job?I've heard someone say that careers look like martingales. In other words your next job is going to look a lot like your current one.

DCFC (and anyone else who'd like to join in), would you be able to comment a little more on quant jobs in Switzerland and Zurich in particular?I'm currently doing (and getting to the end of) a PhD in gravity-related stuff in the UK, and am thinking of a move in math/quant finance too. I'm from Switzerland and, for personal reasons, I'd also prefer to spend at least 1-2 years following my PhD there. However, I'm not prepared to jeopardise my professional future by taking up a job leading me to a dead end in terms of career development...Also, assuming that I do decide to spend some time in Switzerland and that taking a quant job there isn't a good idea career-wise, would it be any better to just get a 1-2 year postdoc (say, analyzing LHC data, especially since my PhD involves more pure maths and barely any numerics) or a job in software development? Here I'm thinking more in terms of pro/contra relating to personal/career development rather than in relation to money earnings.Many thanks for your replies. (Quantio, I hope that my post won't sidetrack us too much from the original topic and that any replies are going to be informative for you too.)