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Can't choose between QIS vs MO quant

Joined
9/23/21
Messages
2
Points
11
Hi everyone,

Recently I have been brought to take a decision between two offers I received and since I lack experience, I think that someone with hindsight would really help me.
The first offer is from the bank where I'm pursuing my internship, within the same team, I will be working on QIS rates structuring team which is a great thing but with my mathematical finance and programming background I found thins internship to be boring from time to time, since we don't use any advanced modelling or mathematical methods to solve problems, we rather follow a heuristic and financial approach. The second offer I got is from a French bank in their MO where I'll be working on validating equity models, from the interviews I understood that it's much more quantitative, I'll be dealing with a variety of models which is important I think for an early career.
I personally feel like the second job is more adequate with what I'm willing to do, but I think that the first job clearly flashier on a resume, and the gross salary is 25,000 £ greater than for the second, so this makes the decision more complicated.

I was wondering if anyone could enlighten me about either positions requirements, intellectual stimulation and career perspectives later, and also whether it is time for me to consider wage as a criteria, since it is my first job.

Thank you in advance for help.
 
Go for the QIS role and you should be able to move laterally to the FO quants team in 1y or 2 (if you have the right background, most importantly know how to code). Model valiation is not a rewarding job despite it being technical and working on models, most people do it because they have to and getting out of risk to FO while possible is not easy.
 
Surely model validation is close to FO desk quant work? Why is it hard to move out of risk? Are you including MV in risk?
 
Surely model validation is close to FO desk quant work? Why is it hard to move out of risk? Are you including MV in risk?
It's quite different actually. As a front office model quant you develop models, as a mid office model validation quant you check and re-implement models built by the front office. It generally requires similar hard skills but the work itself as well as the value perception are quite different. As a front office quant you are more actively adding value, are close to revenue generation and have generally more pressure. I did see some mobility between model validation and front office but not a lot. It is harder to get hired for front office roles in the first place which makes switching into it a bit harder having started somewhere else. It's also more difficult to stand out in a more passive role like model validation.

To answer OPs question - I would definitely go for the QIS role.
 
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