• C++ Programming for Financial Engineering
    Highly recommended by thousands of MFE students. Covers essential C++ topics with applications to financial engineering. Learn more Join!
    Python for Finance with Intro to Data Science
    Gain practical understanding of Python to read, understand, and write professional Python code for your first day on the job. Learn more Join!
    An Intuition-Based Options Primer for FE
    Ideal for entry level positions interviews and graduate studies, specializing in options trading arbitrage and options valuation models. Learn more Join!

Desk went under, looking for next gig.

IlyaKEightSix

Joined
6/6/08
Messages
1,194
Points
58
Well, I suppose I should have seen it coming when the senior quant left due to disagreements with management, but the desk more or less went under, and I got my walking papers.

Well, huzzah, I am employable! Now where to next -_-...anyone here in the Chicago area who I can network with?

Especially those who code R would be great!

Keeping spirits up cuz I got savings in my account that I can use to pay the rent!
 
Let's just say that aside from the bags I'd have to initially lug, I'm fully mobile =).

I can go to Silicon Valley, NYC, Chitown, or even up to Toronto or across the pond to London (or the other pond to OZ/Japan) if someone was willing to get me a working visa.

I like the idea of being able to learn how to put together a quantitative strategy though--after all, I'm in this industry to try and kill it, not to be a working stiff! (Mainly because I believe the real fun starts when you get your magic number and then can just see every day as a new day to try and beat the next guy over just because you can!)

Still got my spirits up, and I can go just about anywhere at the moment. No obligations.
 
how long were you there? the whole operation went under?
 
2 and a half months.

The desk went under, and I couldn't really do anything about it. The firm makes money from its prop traders--the quant group was an experiment they had going to see if they could automate something. So yeah...now for the next gig.
 
I do hope that you're not embarrassed about not spotting the demise, one thing I've found in this business is that very few people judge the probability of such events with an useful degree of precision. That's on both the positive and negative side.

What were you doing for these people ?
 
I was essentially building R programs to make sure the data acquisition process didn't just break in the middle of it. Aka I was pure IT using R, and was starting to transition into more financial analysis stuff (was working on investigating some USDX futures stuff).

But the quant desk went south (the quantitative director left two weeks after I started...and he was the man who hired me--problem being that now he's a partner at a firm where he has to build up some profitable trades before he can hire any junior staff, so I can't follow him :( ), and for the past two months or so, it was pure keep-head-down-and-don't-complain-about-anything on my end.

But I simply didn't think that a new guy that got hired two months ago for a pittance (twice a studio's rent in the loop per month post-tax) and was performing a single thankless role in solitary confinement while being thankful for not being unemployed in a nightmare economy would be laid off like that.

Just crap timing. Of course, I still have my master's in statistics background here, and I wasn't born yesterday, so I think I'm still very employable. Plus, I'm getting paid till the end of July, which when coupled with the cash I have saved up, will allow me to more or less hang out in Chitown till the end of 2011, so I plan on hitting the pavement and trying to get an unpaid internship somewhere because hey, why not, free interview, and I get to learn stuff while at it.

But yeesh...first it was Google last summer when I got an in-person interview which got cancelled 2 days later because they missed 2010 2Q earnings, then it was SMBC in which my interview process overran their end-of-year-bonus schedule and they probably got a junior assistant from a new senior hire, and now this.

I hope Lady Luck decides to repay the balance sometime later in my life =X
 
That sucks to hear bro, but good to see you're keeping positive on all this. I hope you find something good.
 
Sorry to hear dude. Keep your head up. I am sure you will find something new.
 
Good luck! Just out of curiosity though, why'd you choose to live in the loop? Could have saved money by living just a bit farther out from the center.
 
Not really actually. APartments 5m north were $950/m for a one bedroom but I'd pay like $75/mo for transportation.

So the time saved was worth it.
 
Sounds like you've got the right attitude and a bad break which is a lot better than the other way round.
 
Mmhmm. I mean my advantage is that I'm located right in the middle of Chicago and can talk to people, and since I'm getting paid for the next month and a half and generally don't spend money (except for food, rent, and internet), I have enough left to last till October/November of this year. It would be a complete disaster if I had to go home back to NJ with my tail between my legs, but if I can even find an unpaid internship to prove myself, odds are, that'll be all I need.

Only problem is that applying to any front door in this day and age for someone who graduated grad school longer than a year ago with only 2 months of experience in the summer from two non-target schools = why even take a chance?
 
IlyaKEightSix said:
Mmhmm. I mean my advantage is that I'm located right in the middle of Chicago and can talk to people, and since I'm getting paid for the next month and a half and generally don't spend money (except for food, rent, and internet), I have enough left to last till October/November of this year. It would be a complete disaster if I had to go home back to NJ with my tail between my legs, but if I can even find an unpaid internship to prove myself, odds are, that'll be all I need.

Only problem is that applying to any front door in this day and age for someone who graduated grad school longer than a year ago with only 2 months of experience in the summer from two non-target schools = why even take a chance?
Click to expand...
Ilyak I understand you graduated with MS in statistics from Rutgers. Was that not good enough to land you a job right out of grad school? Did you try their career services?
 
Anbu said:
Ilyak I understand you graduated with MS in statistics from Rutgers. Was that not good enough to land you a job right out of grad school? Did you try their career services?
Click to expand...
I'm afraid you are really new to this forum. Search for Ilya's posts. You will learn the complete story.
 
Right out? Nope, it wasn't. Basically, unless you're a crack C++ coder with 2+ years of experience, quant firms generally don't care about you. I mean heck, rather than treat me as a blank slate and even give me a chance to trade manually so I could learn something, my former firm just said "nope". Even the entry-level kid they hired has been trading his own money for 3 years already.

I do have other cards to play, of course. There's a reason I got this statistics degree rather than an MFE, and I intend to make use of all of my plan Bs and Cs. After all, my ultimate desire is to be able to forecast the future using statistics, and at some point, so long as I'm doing that, I'm somewhat indifferent to what I'm forecasting, be it financial instruments, effectiveness of certain aspects of technology companies (online advertising, social media, whatever)...I mean at some point you start to go into less than savory stuff like how to squeeze more profits out of medicine or where to send more consumer goods to such as diapers, hence I very rarely did well in marketing interviews, and the only time I did, that was right before I took this first gig and had to cancel the onsite NYC interview.

All in all, it's basically that I had really crappy luck in terms of being inexperienced when the economy was in a crater. But at least I have some experience to show for myself now.
 
IlyaKEightSix said:
All in all, it's basically that I had really crappy luck in terms of being inexperienced when the economy was in a crater. But at least I have some experience to show for myself now.
Click to expand...

Just think of it like you've just finished a 10+ week internship.. From my past experience, newbies are usually given a pass until they've spent at least six months at a firm. Seems like wrong timing for you. Anyway, good luck with finding the next gig. You've got some street cred now..
 
Back
Top