I searched but did not find any threads which address specifically this.I suspect that in general usage the word 'quant' has become much like the word 'analyst' - a weasel word with almost no inherent meaning. The devil is in the details. So, I seek opinions in this forum about what constitutes a real, actual 'Quant'. Which types of jobs make the cut, and which don't?I recently graduated from a mathematical finance program. (Masters level) Prior to this, I worked for a market-neutral equity hedge fund in a quasi desk quant role. The fund focuses on fundamental analysis, so my work was limited in depth and quantitative sophistication. I am also a CFA charterholder (as if that helps) and never intend to do a PhD.Now that I am conducting a job search, I have one pressing concern. I don't want to accept a job that sounds good but turns out to be devoid of any "real quant" potential. The big risk here is that not only would I start off badly post-degree, but I might get pigeonholed in the process. Of course this means I need to know what a quant is!So, what jobs do you consider "real" quant jobs, which do you consider "close second" types, and which are not even in the ballpark. (e.g. pure programmer/developer I assume)I appreciate the responses.

A lot of people here talk about quants as programmers. Most of their time is done writing codes.But coding is just the "means" and not the "goal" of quant work.

Some people are a lot more narrow when defining quant than others. To the extent that when the book "how I became a quant" came out, there was a big discussion on Wilmott where some people didn't think that some of the people in it were real quants, because they weren't doing derivatives.So, I'd conclude that if you are using mathematical skills to come up with and code derivative pricing algorithms, I'd say that there'd be little doubt that you're a quant. On the other hand, if you are working in finance, and doing a job that requires more maths than many of your colleagues would have, then you could possibly call yourself a quant (but not necessarily everyone will agree with you).

What about if you do a lot of math stuff without only minimal coding?

>>What about if you do a lot of math stuff without only minimal coding? I'd call that a quant, but I appreciate that not everyone would.

I think there are several different kinds of quants these days who do very different kind of job, so it's difficult to give one definition. I met several kinds so far, so I can only talk intelligently about them.1. A person who supports a desk. When the market is open he/she does a lot of different tasks for traders. Each task takes only about 10-15 minutes to do and it has to be done quickly (or you getting yelled at), and it's usually to assess the risk of a trade, give traders a benchmark for a hedge ratio for some product, or to run a stress scenario on a trade that a trader told you to run. Does he/she do "a lot of programming" during market hours? Some would say no as it is a collection of small Matlab-like functions written only for that specific task. But the person is definitely a quant, and one of the most prestigeous kinds in my opinion. After the market is closed quants usually switch to long-term projects which require more programming than during market open hours. Information about those tasks people don't share as openly, so I don't know anything here, besides my own projects.2. Algo trading quant. A person does not do any model development that he/she/all of us studied in Grad School - no stochastic volatility model calibration, no HJM calibration, no derivatives pricing... etc... The job is to take data (market data or news feeds for example) and to test a strategy that your boss told you to test. Very interesting job in my opinion (at least at first), the person is a quant, but he does nothing like what she/he was preparing for in school. 3. Risk quant. Similar to 1 in terms of many little tasks during the day and doing long-term project during the night hours and programming, but instead of judging risk of a particular trade, risk quant is judging risk of the whole position that a trader/firm holds. Not as hands on as desk quant, but the advantage is he/she is better exposed to a variety of different products. A desk quant might be a specialist in 2-3 kinds of derivatives, a risk quant has to know many many more, but maybe not as good as a desk quant knows his 2-3. The job also usually involves some reporting responsibilities such as VaR, stress scenarios, etc... 4. Model developer quants (research quants?). Almost a back office job in a way. These people develop/test large complicated models such as interest rate models, prepayment models, default models. The job incolves a lot of math and a lot of programming. Very good experience, i.e. very possible to move to 1 and 2, but you need to be geeky to do this job.

Yura - Really interesting, thank you!