Hi everyone,
The TLDR:
Fairly average student became one of the top students at a top MFE program and landed a top buy side Quant role. Have ~1 month before full-time work starts and want to help others as a side-hustle. Privately message me on QuantNet for further inquiries -first person to message me would get a coaching session for free (already claimed).
The Post:
As I’ve seen several discussions (sometimes misguided) on this forum about MFE programs and quant jobs, I decided to make this post to offer advice to help you land your dream job or program, coming from my personal experience. I recently graduated as one of the top students at a top MFE program (attached proof), and will be joining one of Cit Sec/Optiver/Jane Street as a fulltime QT while having superdayed for many of the top firms for QR as well. There seems to be a strong misconception reoccuring in several QuantNet threads that you have to be a math or programming prodigy from a top school to land these type of jobs. Although these are the 'target' students for these firms, this is merely a sufficient but definitely not necessary condition to land the internship/new grad offer - more average students do have a chance as well as long as they start preparing early and properly. Personally, my background before MFE was fairly ordinary - I was not a math contest wiz (never made it into even USAMO), and came from an undergrad program practically unknown by people in the states. Therefore, I can offer a lot of valuable and unique advice on how to go from a fairly ordinary student to a top performing student at a competitive MFE program to ultimately landing a dream job. I noticed on various forums that there is a general lack of emphasis on one of the most important traits: the appropriate mindset and attitude, which I can provide a fairly unique insight on. For example, many people know the Green book is a great starting resource to prepare for quant interviews. Since basically everyone knows about this book, just doing the questions doesn't really provide any 'edge'. The distinguishing factor in my opinion is how a student responds when they just can't figure out a question and look at the solutions. Students can either: A) try memorizing the solution B) try understanding the solution or C) try identifying what specific part of the question they get stuck on and how the solution addresses it, why they couldn't think of this solution in the first place, can we decompose the question and recognize underlying patterns that may help us solve other similiar problems. On the other hand, I seen too many cases where quantitively strong candidates are ecstatic in passing all the technical rounds just to end up ultimately failing the 'pseudo-behavioral' rounds with the Partner/Team Leads - this is a whole other battle that many candidates neglect preparing for (I learned this the hard way).
These are just a few examples of insight that I can provide that may not be readily available elsewhere. I will be offering coaching services for ~1 month ONLY until February 20th as I have a break before full-time work starts and want to use this time to help others. I am very flexible on what a coaching session would entail, tailored to your specific need, but the information I can provide would be most helpful to high school, undergrad and graduate students; I won't be of much help to experienced hires. To request a coaching session, send me a private message on QuantNet with your LinkedIn profile and a list of questions, requests, or general topics you want me to go over during the session (if you don't have a LinkedIn profile, I would like some proof of your identity as I do not want to disclose my information to anyone anonymous). If I believe I can give valuable insight on your list of questions/requests/general topics I will add you back on LinkedIn, prepare an outline for the session, and set up a Zoom meeting. Each session would last ~45 minutes and we would discuss pricing in private chat - the price may adjust depending on demand but would be far lower than what most career coaches charge while I'm just as qualified, and payments can even be made after the session is over if the client's profile is credible. Here are just a few examples of requests that I would be glad to talk about during a session: providing insight on what the current new grad quant job landscape looks like, when/how you should start preparing, how to do well in school, how to land a top MFE program, how to land a decent internship with a very limited # of interviews, how to maximize your chances to receive a return offer for your internship, how to land a top new grad quant role, give a resume/statement of purpose/profile review, create a detailed plan on how to best spend your limited time to reach your career/school goals, share my personal experiences or anything you're curious in a coffee chat format if you want. However, I will NOT be sharing the questions I got asked during my superdays or share any sensitive information. If interested, I can also provide deeper insight in many of the top MFE programs as I have very close friends who went to Princeton MFin, CMU MSCF, MIT MFin, and Columbia MFE who landed top buyside (IMC, Citadel, DRW, etc.) and sellside (Goldman, Morgan Stanley, etc.) job placements, and so I can ask them anytime if there is a specific program-related question that I'm not too confident about. Throughout my various superdays, I had several conversations with HYPSM undergrad and PhD, Baruch MFE, and NYU Courant students so I also have some (but limited) information on those programs as well. Detailed questions about programs outside of these are out of my expertise.
Some proof:
The TLDR:
Fairly average student became one of the top students at a top MFE program and landed a top buy side Quant role. Have ~1 month before full-time work starts and want to help others as a side-hustle. Privately message me on QuantNet for further inquiries -
The Post:
As I’ve seen several discussions (sometimes misguided) on this forum about MFE programs and quant jobs, I decided to make this post to offer advice to help you land your dream job or program, coming from my personal experience. I recently graduated as one of the top students at a top MFE program (attached proof), and will be joining one of Cit Sec/Optiver/Jane Street as a fulltime QT while having superdayed for many of the top firms for QR as well. There seems to be a strong misconception reoccuring in several QuantNet threads that you have to be a math or programming prodigy from a top school to land these type of jobs. Although these are the 'target' students for these firms, this is merely a sufficient but definitely not necessary condition to land the internship/new grad offer - more average students do have a chance as well as long as they start preparing early and properly. Personally, my background before MFE was fairly ordinary - I was not a math contest wiz (never made it into even USAMO), and came from an undergrad program practically unknown by people in the states. Therefore, I can offer a lot of valuable and unique advice on how to go from a fairly ordinary student to a top performing student at a competitive MFE program to ultimately landing a dream job. I noticed on various forums that there is a general lack of emphasis on one of the most important traits: the appropriate mindset and attitude, which I can provide a fairly unique insight on. For example, many people know the Green book is a great starting resource to prepare for quant interviews. Since basically everyone knows about this book, just doing the questions doesn't really provide any 'edge'. The distinguishing factor in my opinion is how a student responds when they just can't figure out a question and look at the solutions. Students can either: A) try memorizing the solution B) try understanding the solution or C) try identifying what specific part of the question they get stuck on and how the solution addresses it, why they couldn't think of this solution in the first place, can we decompose the question and recognize underlying patterns that may help us solve other similiar problems. On the other hand, I seen too many cases where quantitively strong candidates are ecstatic in passing all the technical rounds just to end up ultimately failing the 'pseudo-behavioral' rounds with the Partner/Team Leads - this is a whole other battle that many candidates neglect preparing for (I learned this the hard way).
These are just a few examples of insight that I can provide that may not be readily available elsewhere. I will be offering coaching services for ~1 month ONLY until February 20th as I have a break before full-time work starts and want to use this time to help others. I am very flexible on what a coaching session would entail, tailored to your specific need, but the information I can provide would be most helpful to high school, undergrad and graduate students; I won't be of much help to experienced hires. To request a coaching session, send me a private message on QuantNet with your LinkedIn profile and a list of questions, requests, or general topics you want me to go over during the session (if you don't have a LinkedIn profile, I would like some proof of your identity as I do not want to disclose my information to anyone anonymous). If I believe I can give valuable insight on your list of questions/requests/general topics I will add you back on LinkedIn, prepare an outline for the session, and set up a Zoom meeting. Each session would last ~45 minutes and we would discuss pricing in private chat - the price may adjust depending on demand but would be far lower than what most career coaches charge while I'm just as qualified, and payments can even be made after the session is over if the client's profile is credible. Here are just a few examples of requests that I would be glad to talk about during a session: providing insight on what the current new grad quant job landscape looks like, when/how you should start preparing, how to do well in school, how to land a top MFE program, how to land a decent internship with a very limited # of interviews, how to maximize your chances to receive a return offer for your internship, how to land a top new grad quant role, give a resume/statement of purpose/profile review, create a detailed plan on how to best spend your limited time to reach your career/school goals, share my personal experiences or anything you're curious in a coffee chat format if you want. However, I will NOT be sharing the questions I got asked during my superdays or share any sensitive information. If interested, I can also provide deeper insight in many of the top MFE programs as I have very close friends who went to Princeton MFin, CMU MSCF, MIT MFin, and Columbia MFE who landed top buyside (IMC, Citadel, DRW, etc.) and sellside (Goldman, Morgan Stanley, etc.) job placements, and so I can ask them anytime if there is a specific program-related question that I'm not too confident about. Throughout my various superdays, I had several conversations with HYPSM undergrad and PhD, Baruch MFE, and NYU Courant students so I also have some (but limited) information on those programs as well. Detailed questions about programs outside of these are out of my expertise.
Some proof:
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