I want to know the typical background of people that do the model building/research in quantitative funds. The questions I'm hoping to answer are:- What percentage have PhDs on average?- Will they take on people that have demonstrated quantitative ability even if they don't have an educational background that's physics/maths/computer sci/statistics/engineering/machine learning/computational finance ? For example someone that received an education with only a handful of mathematics subjects but has been doing a lot of quantitative stuff since then.- What's the presence of econometricians in these places? Are they desired? (e.g., economics PhD with an econometrics thesis)- Other relevant stuff that you can think of!If you need to customize your answer to take account of the heterogeneity of research positions in quantitative funds, that's fine.

This whole thing depends a lot on the roles and strategies involved and also the people in charge.1) As above. I've seen 0% and 100% (excluding secretary) and everything in between.2) Again depends on the fund, but if they need someone with strong quantitative they have enough options to not care about people that may lack the skill set.3) Depends on fund and strategy, I'd guess more often a plus than not.

operationsresi don't know about quant funds ( am on derivs side)but in most of these jobs generally PhDs are more of a filter to get an interview ( given that there are 1000s of applicants for a single place) rather than required to undertake the job.so ( random) quantitative experience [eg designing bridges?] is useless to get you into an interview. Whereas previous experience at a fund will trump a PhD.so you really need your CV to stand out in some way.

how much demand is there for finance phds at these quant funds?

QuoteOriginally posted by: PDEfanhow much demand is there for finance phds at these quant funds?This depends on:a) The quality of the schoolb) The types of modules taken within the program (e.g. the weightings between mathematical/statistical courses, normal "finance" courses and programming courses)c) How related your thesis is to the fund and their type of tradingMost MFE and Math. Fin. PhD programs are geared towards derivatives pricing. Funds these days are on the look out for machine learning and econometrics experience. Are you currently doing a PhD in Finance?