From Dominic: How to Spot Lies told to Quant Developers 101

[Peik Looi]

How to Spot Lies told to Quant Developers 101

URL: http://www.wilmott.com/blogs/dcfc/index.cfm/2007/6/3/How-to-Spot-Lies-told-to-Quant-Developers--101

There is nothing particularly wrong with a career as a quantitative developer.
But... On the forums, and in conversations it's become clear that programming skills can actually be quite dangerous at entry level, if your objective is a "pure" quant.

Over the next few entries I'm going to look at some tests, both objective and fuzzy, that will help you make a better choice of whether you are being offered a job that you actually want. Several times I've heard of entry level candidates who've been told "actually there are two jobs, one is quant developer and one is quant". I'd be less cyincal about this if 50% of the people who report it get offered the quant variant. It's not even close.

There are no guarantees, and as you've come to know, I'm around at the usual places to be asked.
When you are told "you'll be working a lot for the traders", what does that mean ? The person trying to get you to take the job will know that you will usually want this. The perspective of many traders is that everyone works for them. From quants through IT and including the receptionists and security guards.



A good question is to ask where you will be sitting. That sounds trivial, and is best dropped casually into the conversation, but has a surprisingly high objective data content. It's also harder for them to shade the truth on this issue.

You also need to ask which bonus pool you are in. Quant developers are often in the IT pool which is both smaller and more random. Indeed that's a question you need to ask, whatever area you are going into.
Discussion

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Lies Told to Quantitative Developers 102

I've received more direct feedback on this than any other topic I've blogged on.
So how do you spot jobs whose balance of quant vs development is not what you want, or what they would like you to believe ?
Good objective indicators are who interviews you and what they ask.
As part of any interview, you should try and learn a little of the sort of people you meet, and it's not an impertinent question to ask which area they are in.
If IT area people get to see you first, then this is a reasonable signal that IT is the most important thing. Not always of course, since it may be that they just happened to have the right slot.
The type of questions also provide useful data. Not only is the ratio of IT to maths & finance questions important, but also the relative difficulty. The more they care about your competence in a given direction, the more likely they want you to go in it.
It's good to drill down about what your work will be, and ask the sort of goals you will have over the next year, and see what that means in terms of the work.
But also the structure of the team is often quite revealing, since even in small groups, there may be quite sharp divisions on who does what work. A good general question in any interview, not just for QD is to ask what sort of problems they are having at the moment, since this is a good rough indicator of what they are hiring for. It cuts both ways since it probably offers you the opportunity to plug some skill that will help them.