Career goal is Quant Developer. Which job should I choose

[Four]

I am a master's in computer science student who just started the job hunt. My goal is to work as a quantitative developer at a hedge fund and I have gotten interviews for the following positions:

1. Bloomberg, Structured Products Developer (in the Structured Products Group)
2. Bank of America, Jr. Software Developer (in Global Markets Technology)
3. (A financial tech startup building cross-asset trading systems), Jr. C++/Python Developer

Assuming I get an offer from all three places, which is better for finding a quantitative developer job a couple of years from now? I am taking financial math courses as electives at a top 5 school.

 

[mhy]

All three would be doable, but what technology group at BAML? In a big investment bank there are developers who work closely with trading (usually called 'front office technology' or something like that - these roles can be pretty quantitative and depending on the team might actually have people with quant backgrounds) and developers who could not be farther away from it (back office, audit, HR systems all need developers too. You do not want to be here). I would be careful to clarify which group you will be working in.

 

[pingu]

BBG or the startup

 

[Four]

All three would be doable, but what technology group at BAML? In a big investment bank there are developers who work closely with trading (usually called 'front office technology' or something like that - these roles can be pretty quantitative and depending on the team might actually have people with quant backgrounds) and developers who could not be farther away from it (back office, audit, HR systems all need developers too. You do not want to be here). I would be careful to clarify which group you will be working in.

I am not sure which group at BAML but recruiter said it's not the "hectic" part of the company. Definitely not on any trading systems.

 

[mhy]

I am not sure which group at BAML but recruiter said it's not the "hectic" part of the company. Definitely not on any trading systems.

In that case, do not go to BAML. You will not be well-positioned for a quant developer role unless you work closely with the desk, or at least with the quant teams.

 

[Four]

BBG or the startup

How about a Python Dev job with front-end web skills at Guggenheim Partners?

 

[Four]

In that case, do not go to BAML. You will not be well-positioned for a quant developer role unless you work closely with the desk, or at least with the quant teams.

I see, thank you!

 

[Four]

Is it easy to move internally from a back-office/infrastructure group at BAML to a front-office one?

 

[mhy]

Is it easy to move internally from a back-office/infrastructure group at BAML to a front-office one?

No. Even front-office facing technology roles are hard to get. You are not even working yet, don't pigeonhole yourself into back-office while you still have the choice not to go there!

 

[Four]

No. Even front-office facing technology roles are hard to get. You are not even working yet, don't pigeonhole yourself into back-office while you still have the choice not to go there!

What if I get an offer from BAML only but not from anywhere else except internet companies like Salesforce or Yahoo, is BAML a good choice then or is back office even worse than a job outside finance?

 

[mhy]

What if I get an offer from BAML only but not from anywhere else except internet companies like Salesforce or Yahoo, is BAML a good choice then or is back office even worse than a job outside finance?

I would choose Yahoo over back office IT any day. It is very dreary, sometimes mind-numbing work and you will be surrounded by people who don't have much motivation except to keep their steady paychecks coming. There is a chance you may not even work on actual projects, but rather have to manage people in India who do the coding.

 

[Four]

I would choose Yahoo over back office IT any day. It is very dreary, sometimes mind-numbing work and you will be surrounded by people who don't have much motivation except to keep their steady paychecks coming. There is a chance you may not even work on actual projects, but rather have to manage people in India who do the coding.

Wow, that sounds pretty bad. I definitely want to do coding and work on interesting projects. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[mhy]

Wow, that sounds pretty bad. I definitely want to do coding and work on interesting projects. Thanks for the heads up!

Np, PM me if you have any questions

 

[Four]

I got a call for a face-to-face interview for the role below and was wondering if this will provide good experience to qualify for a quant role in the future:

"Application Developer
Pricing and Intraday Risk Management Technology
Support a few real time pricing, market making, trade capture and Risk and PNL Management applications for the Interest Rate Derivatives trading desks under CIB. The team works with these businesses, interface directly with the traders, marketers, middle office, market risk and QR groups to gather requirements and build robust solutions."

This is with a global fixed income desk focusing on gov't bonds/treasuries at a big bank.

 

[IntoDarkness]

Sounds like a quant dev role to me

 

[Four]

Thanks for your post. If so, I'd better start cramming now.

 

[lantp]

Hey i currently work for BAML and i got this offer through my internship, i work for the trading desk and we do work on a lot of stuff related to quant things, development and data things (but mostly still development). I like this team and really love what i am doing here , however, i need to tell you that at the begining of the internship, we do not have the choice to choose team and i was told that everybody was assigned to different team based on their background, i saw ppl working in the FO and some of the interns in BO as well. So if you get the offer, make sure to ask which team you will work for and if this is a front office.

 

[Four]

Hey i currently work for BAML and i got this offer through my internship, i work for the trading desk and we do work on a lot of stuff related to quant things, development and data things (but mostly still development). I like this team and really love what i am doing here , however, i need to tell you that at the begining of the internship, we do not have the choice to choose team and i was told that everybody was assigned to different team based on their background, i saw ppl working in the FO and some of the interns in BO as well. So if you get the offer, make sure to ask which team you will work for and if this is a front office.

Hi Iantp, thanks for the heads up! Could I ask what your interview was like? I was tested on Python (my best language) for the phone interview and they said they will ask data structures, algorithms, and brainteasers at the face-to-face.

Do you know how complicated the algorithm questions will be? I don't know if I should bother studying things like dynamic programming or Dijkstra's algorithm.

 

[lantp]

Hi Iantp, thanks for the heads up! Could I ask what your interview was like? I was tested on Python (my best language) for the phone interview and they said they will ask data structures, algorithms, and brainteasers at the face-to-face.

Do you know how complicated the algorithm questions will be? I don't know if I should bother studying things like dynamic programming or Dijkstra's algorithm.

hi, from my experience, the interview was pretty easy and all based on python, but they will also take a look at your background, so make sure to be familiar with everything you list on your resum
Hope for the best, and if you decide to join, let me know

 

[mhy]

Hi Iantp, thanks for the heads up! Could I ask what your interview was like? I was tested on Python (my best language) for the phone interview and they said they will ask data structures, algorithms, and brainteasers at the face-to-face.

Do you know how complicated the algorithm questions will be? I don't know if I should bother studying things like dynamic programming or Dijkstra's algorithm.

I was asked brainteasers and math puzzles and programming/algorithm questions. Don't let your guard down.