Weekly Megathread: Education, Early Career and Hiring/Interview Advice

[u/AutoModerator]

Attention new and aspiring quants! We get a lot of threads about the simple education stuff (which college? which masters?), early career advice (is this a good first job? who should I apply to?), the hiring process, interviews (what are they like? How should I prepare?), online assignments, and timelines for these things, To try to centralize this info a bit better and cut down on this repetitive content we have these weekly megathreads, posted each Monday.

Previous megathreads can be found here.

Please use this thread for all questions about the above topics. Individual posts outside this thread will likely be removed by mods.

[u/DeepAcanthisitta363]

I completed my undergraduate degree at a top university and landed a software role. But I don't enjoy coding at all, and I think I was hired just because of my resume. I have a good background in maths and have also completed a maths minor alongside a cs major. During my final year, I tried to get a quant trader or similar role, but my resume was getting rejected everywhere. And yet, despite not knowing much about coding (except for logical parts), they hired me for a software role based on that stupid resume, and yet that same resume can't even get me a single interview call for quant roles. The point is that my resume had nothing fancy that would attract a software hiring manager, again, because I don't do much coding. But that's not the point; the point is that I will be starting my job soon and want to switch to a quant role. Can someone suggest some projects or ideas I can work on to build my resume over the next 1-2 months, so that it at least gets me an interview call, given that I'm very well prepared for the interview, mental math, and probability? I have even started studying some quantitative analysis.

[u/QuantGrindApp → u/DeepAcanthisitta363]

Honestly most quant jobs use way less stochastic calc than the coursework makes you think. The Ito stuff matters on options/vol desks for pricing and hedging, but a huge chunk of the field is really stats, data cleaning, and coding, figuring out if a signal is real or you're fooling yourself with overfit. Day to day you're asking things like "does this pattern actually predict returns after costs" and "why did my PnL do that today," not deriving anything. The coding matters more than people expect, so keep sharpening that. And going into 12th grade you're not early, you're ahead of basically everyone, so don't stress the contingency plan too hard yet.

[u/QuantGrindApp → u/DeepAcanthisitta363]

Honestly, projects barely move the needle for trader screens. QT resumes get filtered on stuff like competition math, school, gpa, any signal you're fast and quantitative, not github repos. That's more of a QR/dev thing. If your resume got you swe interviews but zero quant callbacks in 1-2 months, spinning up a project won't flip that. What actually gets QT interviews is applying wide, referrals, and putting your comp math or any olympiad type results front and center. Also the trading arms of the bigger shops screen way looser than the pure QR roles, so aim there if you haven't been.

[u/Infinite_Drive_9205 → u/QuantGrindApp]

Does getting normal math interviews from Sig and JP Morgan for trader roles mean my resume is good, and I should focus on not performing badly on interviews, or does everyone get the 1st interviews?

[u/QuantGrindApp → u/Infinite_Drive_9205]

Getting the first math round is a real signal, not everyone clears the resume screen for it, so yeah your resume is doing its job. Shift focus to the interviews.

That said SIG's early rounds are pretty high volume, they push a lot of people into the timed math/probability test, so passing the resume there is a lower bar than actually getting through the test. JPM's a bit more selective up front. Either way you're past the part projects would've helped, now it's just being fast and not fumbling the mental math under time.

[u/DeepAcanthisitta363 → u/QuantGrindApp]

Hey, thanks for that. But I still want to do something while I'm applying. But most of the competition and other stuff is over once you pass the college (right? Honestly, I don't know this for sure, but I'm not aware of any), so I can show that I'm good. I do have a decent number of national-level achievements in a bunch of exams. But appearing for those national-level exams (olympiads) was never my main aim, so I gave them without any specific preparation. And if I had done it (like knowing it would have a direct effect on my career), then things would have been better. But the thing is, I don't want to sit up and give up just because I didn't do well in the past. There has to be a way to prove to them on the resume that, although I was decent at the school or college level, I'm much better for the role.

Because I like doing maths, if it hadn't been a job, then I would've been studying maths on my own. Please advise on that, mainly with some tips for competitions that are still open to me. Because, again, I do accept that I should give up, since I did not optimize things in the right direction in the past. I'm really considering all options right now, like quitting this job and starting to search for a QT-related internship, and then building on that. IDK, start spamming all the HR.

[u/qualityfun28]

Hi, I am a rising senior at the University of Florida studying Econ + Math. I applied and was accepted to Columbia GS for the fall to study a joint major of Econ + Math. Is being from a school in the south enough of a roadblock to make it worthwhile to transfer to Columbia? It would add 2 years for me to graduate vs 1 at UF and also cost $200k since I do not qualify for aid.

[u/QuantGrindApp → u/qualityfun28]

Not worth it. UF isn't a roadblock for quant, plenty of people land trading/research seats out of state schools, especially if your math is real and you can grind the interviews. Columbia buys you some recruiter attention and easier access to NYC career fairs, but not $200k-and-two-extra-years worth. Where you go matters way less than being able to actually do the brainteasers and the stats. Spend a fraction of that money and time getting good at those and applying wide.

[u/TornadoInSneakers]

Hi all,

I’m a QD with 2 YOE, working at a front office desk in a hedge fund. Got a little bored of building dashboards and doing operations stuff, what are my chances of pivoting to being a quant trader?

My current firm only has execution traders so I’m not really able to make the lateral move. I’m okay with mental maths so I know I’ll have to grind probability puzzles, market making games and the Green Book. With my experience and a CS degree from a T10 uni, can I pass the CV screen? Most quant traders I see are from a maths background and are hired straight from undergrad, do I still fit the candidate profile?

[u/Ivo_Sk7]

hey everyone!

i have been interested in the quant space ever since I did a minor in finance last year alongside cs as my major. I started to apply for quant roles and preparing for interviews when I bumped into a problem - I could not find any ‘leetcode’ for quant finance where you could practice math questions, practice mm games, probability and everything needed for a quant interview.

with my cs background, i decided to fill the gap and build it myself. that is how NeetQuant was created https://neet-quant.com. it has a growing question bank of 600+ questions spread across probability, EV, conditional probability, combinatorics, statistics, random variables, linear algebra, stochastic processes, finance & derivatives, brainteasers, programming/DSA, market making & betting games and more. it also has an Optiver’s Beat the Odds inspired online assessment simulator which gives you 90s for each probability focused mcq. you can configure the difficulty and also amount of questions for each practice run. it also has a market making timed game, kelly betting simulator, fair or rigged?, take the bet? (quick fire EV estimation) and more. every game is configurable and random seeded so you can play it many times and each is different. 

it has really become a passion project for me and I am actively working on it and expanding it week by week. I would love to get an opinion on the website - what you think of it overall and if you consider it helpful for interview prep. also feel free to share extension ideas, I am keen to hear feature ideas to implement.

thanks for feedback!

[u/Aggravating_Pay7617]

Hi! Do companies care about what you put in their essay part of the application? For example, Jane Street has the tell me more question at the end of all their applications. What should I put there?

[u/deln_ai]

Hello,

I'm a former Google software engineer exploring GPUs and model auditability in finance. I was wondering if anyone here had experience in this stack on finance and I could ask them some questions. Really appreciate you reading my post.

Thanks

[u/Dangerous_Line_9189]

Hi all,

I am a rising undergraduate sophomore at a top 5 liberal arts college with a double major in physics and CS. I see a lot of people sharing about how to prepare for the tech & behavorial interviews and how you should study a lot of math to get into a quant trader/researcher internship, but I was wondering 1. how good your CV has to be in order to pass the CV screen? I understand that liberal arts college are generally not target schools for quant companies and all I have on my resume right now is an ongoing research assistant job in a computational physics lab. I was also wondering if quant firms don't consider hiring sophomore interns at all? If that's the case then 2. what type of internship/experience should I have during my sophomore year in order to increase my chance of getting a quant internship in my junior year?

[u/CasualLFRScrub]

How transferable is ML experience to quant trading/research? Naively, it seems like they prioritize similar skill sets, with quants having to wrangle less structured data

[u/Striking-Sport-665]

[EU Fully-Funded] M.Sc. Applied AI Student & C++ Quant Dev looking for an off-cycle internship (UK/CH/Asia)

Hi everyone, I'm currently completing my M.Sc. in Applied AI and I have 5+ years of freelance experience building C++ automated trading systems (HFT focus).

I have secured a European Extra-UE mobility grant. This means my base salary/expenses are already covered by my university for a 2 to 6-month internship anywhere outside the EU (e.g., London, Zurich, Hong Kong, US). Basically, zero headcount/budget friction for the hiring firm.

I also recently published two ML papers (IEEE/Springer) and I'm currently working on a third. Does anyone know of any prop shops, hedge funds, or tech firms that take on off-cycle interns or could benefit from "free" engineering capacity? Happy to share my CV/GitHub in DM.

[u/Flashy-qking]

Hi everyone,

I'm currently looking for Software Engineering Intern, C++ Developer, Systems Programming, or HFT/Low-Latency Engineering opportunities.

Over the past year, I've focused heavily on C++, Linux, competitive programming, and building projects that pushed me beyond my comfort zone.

A few highlights about my profile:

• Codeforces Specialist
• CodeChef 4★
• Strong foundation in DSA and Modern C++
• Comfortable with Linux, Git, and CMake

I've built two major C++ projects:

• A systems programming project focused on low-level software engineering and performance.
• A low-latency order book/trading systems project that has received 50+ GitHub stars and valuable feedback from engineers with HFT backgrounds, including people associated with firms like IMC Trading and Jane Street. Their suggestions helped me improve both the project and my understanding of high-performance systems.

I'm particularly interested in roles involving:

• High-Performance C++
• Systems Programming
• Backend Engineering
• Low-Latency Infrastructure
• Distributed Systems
• Quant/HFT Technology

I'm always eager to learn, take on challenging engineering problems, and contribute to real-world systems.

If your company is hiring interns or new graduates, or if you know of any opportunities that match my profile, I'd greatly appreciate any referrals, advice, or connections.

Feel free to D M me if you'd like to connect.

Thanks for reading!

[u/badaka12]

Incoming second-year MBA at a T15.

Background is in chemical engineering with experience in tech consulting. What are my chances of breaking into a strategy role at a quant fund?

I’ve found it challenging so far. My engineering/math background seems to get recruiters to view my LinkedIn, but it hasn’t translated into interviews.

Assuming Quant Research roles are out of reach, what should I be doing to break into the business/strategy side of a quant firm?

[u/SuperchargedCareers]

If you have an upcoming interview, check out the Canary Wharfian Quant Interview Guide. I'm the publisher, so if you have any feedback, let me know and will incorporate into the next version! We also have an extensive job board covering all hedge funds and prop firms!