Hey guys,I graduated from school a year ago and I recently received two offers:1) RBS as an Interest Rate Strategist, AVP, excellent opportunity for me to jump into front office2) Two Sigma (top hedge fund like DE Shaw) as a Research Engineer. The firm is very small, full of technology world class experts - some of the best people on the street. Role is a Research Engineer - basically more of like a quant developer type of role, working closely with researcher (quants) and implementing their trading strategies and ideas.Two Sigma pays more than RBS. Any advices or thoughts would be very appreciated!

I would take TS. Great Company.

two sigma - very good track record

what do you want to do later?

i am starting at Two Sigma in May as a Quantitative Analysti have extremely positive impression about them (so far)great location (love SOHO), very nice and smart people, a lot of learning opportunities, feels quite entrepreneurial,they were very patient during the hiring process: never pushed me to give the answer although they knew that i was interviewing with other companiesif you'd like to talk more about them, send me a private message

This is an easy one. No matter what you want to do later, there is only a sensible decision: Two Sigma. Only go for RBS if you have a desire for a bureaucratic civil service career.In fact, I worry that you feel the need to even ask the question!

"Bureaucratic" is not the word I'd use to describe RBS at this time, and as it happens I've done consultancy for the government and will assure you that no part of the British civil service is in anyway like RBS.My problem is that I genuinely don't understand what the fuck iis going on there. When younger I was a a bit of a plane geek, and when the first plane hit on 9/11 I foolishly said "it must have been a light aircraft because if it had been a jet, it would have fallen down by now"That's how I think about RBS.The classes of fuckup we've had so far in various banks have been a mix of dishonesty, greed and lack of leadership.But mostly done by smart people, dumb ones simply could not cause this much damage.RBS is bleeding smart people, as far as I can tell, they are simply optimising their exit strategies in a market that is not yet ideal for a move.I've seen this happen before, sometimes a business unit will lose critical staff, and even though it was profitable, has to be wound down because it can't go on with the people left behind.This can be painful to those involved, but the nature of banking is that units die often enough that there is institutional competence in dealing with it.Where my model collapses in a heap, is when you scale that up, and you don't let the business die.The UK government wants to keep RBS alive, to get back the money it put in, which means that parts of it that should be shut down, aren't.But they are no longer staffed by the right people, sometimes by people who contact me and tell me that they are not the right people.Given the self image of people in this business, you have to be very far out of your depth before you ring a HH and say you can't do your job.So what I can't yet work out is why something really bad hasn't happened at RBS, yet.

I'm with Dominic on this one, the CEO himself said that several thousand of their best people left the company when they were stopped from paying bonuses and that this contributed to a loss of profit of at least £1 billion in the last quarter. It sounds like a time bomb waiting to explode.

I wouldn't touch RBS with a 10-feet pole. If you had a similar offer from a good bank, then there would be a decision to be made. In this case however, there isn't. Go to 2-\sigma.

No brainer. Two Sigma as the rest pointed out.

Hi - quick question for folks here - how would experience at RBS look on a CV? About me: I'm joined them recently, doing FO risk. I like my group, comp is ok. But I'm junior (2-3 yrs experience in finance) and trying to build my career. Thanks for any advice. - Risiko

QuoteOriginally posted by: barnyI'm with Dominic on this one, the CEO himself said that several thousand of their best people left the company when they were stopped from paying bonuses and that this contributed to a loss of profit of at least £1 billion in the last quarter. It sounds like a time bomb waiting to explode.Would you believe what the CEO is saying? I don't think RBS problems have anything to do with pay/bonuses.