Hi Michelle! I graduated with a business admin degree (mostly soft skills) and slowly transitioned to math/tech by taking courses and certificates and self-studying. Similarly, I enrolled in Quantnet's C++ certificates which gave me the confidence to attempt software engineering. A few years later, I graduated with my master's in mathematics, with some financial engineering and CS background, and with strong C++ skills. I got my first job at a bank, and after a year, I moved up to a senior role as a trading systems developer for another three years. Recently I switched to my current role.Hey Pavlos, thanks for sharing your story and experience with us.
What is your background and how you get to your current position?
Hi Mike! QN's courses will teach you programming techniques and C++ features, which are essential and that I (and a lot of the quants I work with) encounter at the job daily. As far as C++ is concerned, you will get plenty of value. Many of these concepts come up during interviews as well.You say you Quantnet's C++ courses gave you confidence, and then years later you had strong skills. How long did it take to transition from Quantnet's C++ courses to 'strong C++ skills,' or hire-able skills, and how well do Quantnet's courses alone prepare one for a real job?
*Edit: I just realized you are the same author as the 'how Quantnet C++ courses got me a job on Wall Street' pinned post. Reading through those responses gives me a decent idea of what your repose would be.
I'll leave the original question unedited above, but I'd also like to know how well these courses prepare someone for a non-software dev role. Trading or research. I've read different colleges earnings reports, Baruch's says that most of their graduates spend >50% (with many >70%) of their time coding. But I'm not sure what that looks like in the different roles.
Are these courses plus a decent amount of practice enough for a trader/researcher to get the bones and then be able to poke around to test some stuff, then hand it off to the software side and for them to optimize? (Obviously after additional MFE type training to know what they should be using the skills to do). Also, is that description of passing it along after tinkering for proof of concept accurate?
Thanks.Hi Mike! QN's courses will teach you programming techniques and C++ features, which are essential and that I (and a lot of the quants I work with) encounter at the job daily. As far as C++ is concerned, you will get plenty of value. Many of these concepts come up during interviews as well.
It took me roughly 5-6 months of additional full-time education and software dev training after I finished QN's advanced C++ course and before I got hired -- but that really depends on one's background.
Hi, the cost of living is...BAD. Rent and groceries is much higher, but entertainment is pretty much as it was, maybe a small increase.Hey Pavlos, what are your cost of living in NYC like?
I read some people go from finance to fintech/crypto/AI/big data/etc. What are the trends that you see working there? Is there a big shift in big financial firms towards newer trends?
It really depends on the role, most quants are very strong with C++ and they handle the development themselves. Python is used a lot, for prototyping, also for testing, for components that are not performance-critical, and for task automation.Thanks.
What does the coding look like in non-dev quant roles (i.e. trading, research)? It is said that they code the majority of their time too.
Also, I have heard that those teams typically just get proof of concept in Python or something simpler, then hand it off to developers to get optimized. Is this accurate?
It really depends on the team, a company may decide the need a pure dev team to write code while quants do the math, but it seems more likely to find teams where quants write most of the production code.Thanks.
What does the coding look like in non-dev quant roles (i.e. trading, research)? It is said that they code the majority of their time too.
Also, I have heard that those teams typically just get proof of concept in Python or something simpler, then hand it off to developers to get optimized. Is this accurate?
1. I spend time on algorithms and data structures from both theoretical CS and practice problems perspectives, I installed Linux and and learned about build systems and OS optimization techniques, and did a lot of interview practice (mock interviews, interview questions, etc).Hi Pavlos!
I recall reading your article multiple times on how the QuantNet courses got you a first job on Wall Street. Quite an interesting read.
1) Out of curiosity, what did you do in terms of preparation after completing the advanced C++ course?
2) I recall you mentioning that the 'Advanced' course [was] the most challenging course you ever took. It seems like we completed the first one in about the same time (and with 'Distinction'), but you took 4.5 months (and 5-6ish hours per day) to complete the second one. Would you say that timeline is a fair time to complete the course or was it due to personal research you did on the side?
I try to wake up around 7:30am, do some personal work and catch up with emails, then take the subway to work around 8:20am.Can you please walk us through your typical day at work so we kind of get what it's like?
As a student, at the time I'd say:Pavlos,
which topics in the course were most/least
1. fun
2. useful
3. difficult
I was prepping for software dev jobs, so I focused on leet code and going through the CLRS Introduction to Algorithms book (graphs, trees, data selection, sets, etc.). I tried to implement all main data structures and their algos, I was only using Linux and the terminal, I became fluent with git, and tried to work on projects to talk about during interviews.What were the best interview prep materials you used? Was it the typical stuff like leet code or anything else more targeted towards our particular field?
Did you use any outside textbook resources while taking the advanced course or just spent the extra time re-studying the lectures and leveraging google?