I'm a Junior Quant Researcher Working in a Buy side Hedge Fund. AMA!!

Hi everyone!

I’m currently a Junior Quantitative Researcher at a multi-manager hedge fund in New York. I’m part of a central team - though interestingly we trade our own strategies rather than supporting other pods, so it feels a bit like running our own mini-pod within the firm.

Before starting this role, I completed my MFE at Baruch College. I’ve had internship experience on both mid-frequency statistical arbitrage and high-frequency trading strategies. This is my first job after graduation.

As an international student from China, I went through the long and often stressful process of dealing with visa challenges and job hunting, so I completely understand how tough that journey can be. I’m really grateful things worked out — and I’d love to help anyone going through similar experiences.

Feel free to reach out if you’d like to chat about quant roles, HFT/stat-arb research, or navigating the job search as an international student!

 

[attabeezy]

Hello anonymous_chicken, I'm currently an undergrad student who will enter my final year of college in January. I'm working really hard to reach exactly where you are today.

Between juggling studying Machine Learning, research with a research fellowship, another research with a mentor in a T20 University in UK, and high impact volunteer opportunities in 2 top student organizations to support scholarship application if need be, I'm wondering if I'm doing it all wrong.

For now, I'm focusing on my research and technical skills in Machine Learning and Scientific Computing and plan to make Quant Finance mainstream after graduating. Any advice would be helpful, especially ones on the lines of what I would have done differently if I'd gone back.

Note: I plan to get a PhD in Computer Science then apply for QR roles

 

[anonymous_chicken]

Hello anonymous_chicken, I'm currently an undergrad student who will enter my final year of college in January. I'm working really hard to reach exactly where you are today.

Between juggling studying Machine Learning, research with a research fellowship, another research with a mentor in a T20 University in UK, and high impact volunteer opportunities in 2 top student organizations to support scholarship application if need be, I'm wondering if I'm doing it all wrong.

For now, I'm focusing on my research and technical skills in Machine Learning and Scientific Computing and plan to make Quant Finance mainstream after graduating. Any advice would be helpful, especially ones on the lines of what I would have done differently if I'd gone back.

Note: I plan to get a PhD in Computer Science then apply for QR roles

Hi Attabeezy! Congrats on graduating soon! It seems that you're on a very good path. I'd like to honestly point out that having a volunteer / any leadership position is less likely to help you on getting a quant finance role compared to internship / research, because when teams recruit people, they focus more on past experience, interview performance, and also educational background. But they might remember you more if you have a impressive hobby (in this case, volunteering). I'd say keep going at it! Just remember that pursuing your PhD or getting an internship would be more impactful in terms of careers.

I think getting a PhD is a good choice. I personally can't do PhD so I really admire people who can...that's some hardcode academia stuff going on there. My company sometime invites people from academia for presentation. They are really, really good research people

Regarding advice - I mostly come from a Master's student background, and did my undergrad in China. I have less knowledge for how to help incoming PhD students. Looking back I'd say do more internships and gain experience. You're already doing better than I did!

 

[attabeezy]

Hi Attabeezy! Congrats on graduating soon! It seems that you're on a very good path. I'd like to honestly point out that having a volunteer / any leadership position is less likely to help you on getting a quant finance role compared to internship / research, because when teams recruit people, they focus more on past experience, interview performance, and also educational background. But they might remember you more if you have a impressive hobby (in this case, volunteering). I'd say keep going at it! Just remember that pursuing your PhD or getting an internship would be more impactful in terms of careers.

I think getting a PhD is a good choice. I personally can't do PhD so I really admire people who can...that's some hardcode academia stuff going on there. My company sometime invites people from academia for presentation. They are really, really good research people

Regarding advice - I mostly come from a Master's student background, and did my undergrad in China. I have less knowledge for how to help incoming PhD students. Looking back I'd say do more internships and gain experience. You're already doing better than I did!

thank you so much

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Great to have you here — thanks for doing this AMA @anonymous_chicken!
Here is my questions to get the discussion going, I'm sure there are plenty more to come.

• What’s a typical day like for you as a junior quant researcher at a multi-manager fund? Lots of C++/Python coding?
• How did your Baruch MFE prepare you for the work you’re doing now?
• Any advice for international students dealing with visa/job challenges?
• If you were doing your MFE again today, what would you focus more on (or less on)?
• How did you first break into quant research — internships, networking, or cold applications?

Feel free to jump in with your own questions too — whether it’s about technical research, interviews, or life inside a fund. Let’s make this a great discussion for aspiring and current quants alike.

 

[anonymous_chicken]

Great to have you here — thanks for doing this AMA @anonymous_chicken!
Here is my questions to get the discussion going, I'm sure there are plenty more to come.

• What’s a typical day like for you as a junior quant researcher at a multi-manager fund? Lots of C++/Python coding?
• How did your Baruch MFE prepare you for the work you’re doing now?
• Any advice for international students dealing with visa/job challenges?
• If you were doing your MFE again today, what would you focus more on (or less on)?
• How did you first break into quant research — internships, networking, or cold applications?

Feel free to jump in with your own questions too — whether it’s about technical research, interviews, or life inside a fund. Let’s make this a great discussion for aspiring and current quants alike.

Hi Andy - Thank you for the invite!

1. My typical day involves the below: I come in at 9am, look at the trades start at 09:30am, freaks out about the number changing back and forth, realizes that there's nothing I can do about it, and then forcefully close that page to focus on research. My entire day is then a fight over 1.I have to code and do research (vibe coding is also coding!) and 2.the numbers are really scary! Until the day ends Sometimes my manager assigns me things to do on the fly and we also talk things out

We have CPP and Python in the team. Luckily I only have to write Python after these seniors find out that I suck at CPP. Having textbook CPP knowledge is no way near being able to code their large industry level CPP repo...

2. Baruch MFE gave me a lot of entrance tickets - I promise you that Dan makes sure you at least get that OA! (But afterwards you have to go through the rounds yourself). He also pushes the HR for progress and spread resumes. The 2 offers I get are all through Baruch MFE, one directly from Dan, and another from an alumni's referral. I would say that MFE is less about coursework but more about the career - that entrance ticket is important!

3. Keep pursuing. I've came to realize that whether or not one can stay in US is all about persistence. I've spent 8 months trying to land a full-time job and delayed graduation for 1 semester. I'm glad Baruch College gave me that flexibility and just lucky that things went well.

4. I think I've done my best in MFE The most help I get from Baruch is from alumni - as long as you ask, you'll always get an answer!

5. I got my internship because I had relevant experience in that area & speaks pretty good English. I got my full-time job by persistence - spending 8 month trying to land a full-time job and delayed graduation for 1 semester. What a tough time. I've heard that market is getting better and hope the best of luck for my friends ( hopefully no one have to go through that again ).

 

[fabiantum]

Hi @anonymous_chicken,
Thanks for doing this!
I’m a final year undergrad in maths, I have done some research on statistical tests and will co-author a paper on it, participate regularly in algorithmic trading competitions and read a lot of books about HFT in my free time. I’m quite passionate about building my own algorithms and signals for those trading competitions. Sadly, I didn’t have any quant research internship yet, only a research internship.

My main question would be: Which maths courses do you find most useful in your daily work and why?

And also which advice would you give someone to improve his odds of even getting invited to an interview?

 

[flamestrike]

Hi @anonymous_chicken,

Thanks for doing this! As a current MFE student myself, could you thoroughly share some of the routines and resources (for coding, technical math tests, etc.) that you use to be better prepared for interviews?

Also, did you have a portfolio of personal quant projects to talk about when interviewing? If yes, could you share about the projects that you did.

Lastly, what advices would you give to a new MFE student like me be it in school / job hunt process ?

 

[indexquanty]

Hi @anonymous_chicken

Really appreciate the time you've taken to do this

Could you give some insight into the differences in preparation and approach (if any) to interviewing for QT and HFT roles (JS, IMC et al.) vs interviewing for buyside systematic investing/asset management/hf roles (Citadel, Brevan, BAM).

I feel alot of the insight online is tailored towards the former (HFT) and less to the latter. Can you talk on differences in interview prep and how you would position yourself for roles in systematic investing especially for me with an econ & data science background and not pure STEM. With interview prep what topics do these investing firms focus on?

Could you also talk on your approaches to networking? Did you focus on recruiters or anything in particularly that gave you an edge? For context i already work at a buyside firm within ETF trading as a data scientist. Big ETF name not really QF name. I am hoping to lean on that to at least get interviews before taking the MFE plunge.

Thanks

 

[anonymous_chicken]

Hi @anonymous_chicken,
Thanks for doing this!
I’m a final year undergrad in maths, I have done some research on statistical tests and will co-author a paper on it, participate regularly in algorithmic trading competitions and read a lot of books about HFT in my free time. I’m quite passionate about building my own algorithms and signals for those trading competitions. Sadly, I didn’t have any quant research internship yet, only a research internship.

My main question would be: Which maths courses do you find most useful in your daily work and why?

And also which advice would you give someone to improve his odds of even getting invited to an interview?

Dear Fabiantum:

The most important math course is Statistics. Even to this day the pod teams still uses a lot of OLS in their work (and asks a lot of OLS in their interviews). I would argue that unless you want to pursue Machine Learning as your future research area, the most important part would be the linear models - and Element of Statistical Learning would be enough to handle it.

Deep knowledge of complicated maths models is one of the most overrated skills in the QR industry. The most underrated skill is the ability to utilize the resources you have to put together a profitable strategy - note that being a good QR is very far from being a PM!

My honest advice is to get as much internship as possible IF you would like to pursue a career in the industry and not in academia. My second advice is that if you need more experience - I would put school project that are programming related in my resume - and fill my resume first with ONLY project that has to do with coding. It doesn't have to be in Python or CPP (any language is fine) but it should be filled with coding-only projects, and when you have asked several people to review it, apply to every job opportunity that you can find and hope that something will struck?

 

[Michelle]

Thank you for sharing the knowledge!
A few questions that I think relevant to many current MFE students or prospective MFE students.

• How did your MFE at Baruch help prepare you for your role? Were there particular courses or projects that made a big difference?
• If you were doing your MFE again today, what would you focus more on (or less on)?
• How did you first break into quant research — internships, networking, or cold applications?
• What advice would you give to current MFE students hoping to get into a multi-manager fund?
• Looking back, what do you think helped your resume stand out to recruiters?

 

[anonymous_chicken]

Hi @anonymous_chicken,

Thanks for doing this! As a current MFE student myself, could you thoroughly share some of the routines and resources (for coding, technical math tests, etc.) that you use to be better prepared for interviews?

Also, did you have a portfolio of personal quant projects to talk about when interviewing? If yes, could you share about the projects that you did.

Lastly, what advices would you give to a new MFE student like me be it in school / job hunt process ?

Hi Flamestrike:

Sure, some resources are below:
1. Zhihu link to OLS: https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/443658898 I'm well aware that this link is in Chinese but I can't believe how many times these companies are going to ask the same OLS questions over and over again. Just recite this link's contents and expect the same questions to appear in interviews.
2. Neetcode 150 question list: NeetCode Per my experience & talking to friends, 80%+ of Leetcode questions that are in live codings are inside this 150 question list. Just recite this link's contents and expect the same questions to appear in interviews.
3. Greenbook https://academyflex.com/wp-content/...-guide-to-quantitative-finance-interviews.pdf Ultimate source of interview questions - reread the classic! Expect companies to ask you the basics, and then have a followup to give it a twist and see how smart you are.
4. Squarepoint 1point3acres page: 公司:Squarepoint You should know that companies share questions. I'd also like to point out that companies like to steal questions that are asked by Squarepoint and claim it as their own.

Regarding quant projects - most of the projects I have are internships. I used to put coursework projects on my resume in my undergrad, but now every interview just ask me about past internship, and never about anything else.

Advice: It's going to be HARD! Be mentally prepared - and ask people for mock interviews. I got the most help out of asking for alumni interviews - there are a lot of questions that are never in textbooks, but are by word-of-mouth.

 

[anonymous_chicken]

Hi @anonymous_chicken

Really appreciate the time you've taken to do this

Could you give some insight into the differences in preparation and approach (if any) to interviewing for QT and HFT roles (JS, IMC et al.) vs interviewing for buyside systematic investing/asset management/hf roles (Citadel, Brevan, BAM).

I feel alot of the insight online is tailored towards the former (HFT) and less to the latter. Can you talk on differences in interview prep and how you would position yourself for roles in systematic investing especially for me with an econ & data science background and not pure STEM. With interview prep what topics do these investing firms focus on?

Could you also talk on your approaches to networking? Did you focus on recruiters or anything in particularly that gave you an edge? For context i already work at a buyside firm within ETF trading as a data scientist. Big ETF name not really QF name. I am hoping to lean on that to at least get interviews before taking the MFE plunge.

Thanks

I’ve never gotten interviews from firms like IMC or Jane Street — all my interviews have been with banks or hedge funds. So I can’t say for sure, but my impression is that firms like IMC/JS tend to prefer undergrads or PhDs, while hedge funds are more open to hiring from master’s programs. Hedge funds seem to care less about your academic background as long as you can get the job done.

Regarding Networking: Dan handles everything for us, and honestly, I’ve found him far more effective than recruiters. Recruiters usually take longer to act, while Dan gets our resumes directly to hiring managers before recruiters even move. Plus, he stays in touch for months helping us with job placements (I took 8 month to find a job!) , whereas most recruiters lose interest after a month or two. This guy claims to send out over 2,000 emails to distribute our resume book. It was really impressive!

I also stay in touch with alumni from Baruch and my undergrad. I genuinely believe that if you approach people kindly, they’re usually happy to help — not just because they can, but because it gives them a sense of purpose and connection too. I try to give back whenever I can, whether by helping them in return or by paying it forward to younger students.

I hope I can give more advice but this is all I have - I'm really a junior person with minimal work experience - hope you can find this helpful!

 

[anonymous_chicken]

Thank you for sharing the knowledge!
A few questions that I think relevant to many current MFE students or prospective MFE students.

• How did your MFE at Baruch help prepare you for your role? Were there particular courses or projects that made a big difference?
• If you were doing your MFE again today, what would you focus more on (or less on)?
• How did you first break into quant research — internships, networking, or cold applications?
• What advice would you give to current MFE students hoping to get into a multi-manager fund?
• Looking back, what do you think helped your resume stand out to recruiters?

Dear Michelle:

Thanks for the questions!

1. Baruch MFE helped me get all the entrance tickets from different companies. I promise you Dan will get you that Online Assessment - but whether or not you can pass that & later rounds is really up to you. I personally did not find any course / project useful. I personally think that paying for a MFE is equal to paying for a work visa so that you can work in the US, and that's all to it. I got what I wanted so I'm happy with that

2. I think I did my best so nothing I should improve on. Looking back I'd tell myself to be more chill and be happy! :D

3. Internships! I suggest any undergrad who wanted to be inside quant industry to learn Python pandas really well, fill your resumes with coding projects, and then start sending your resumes everywhere.

4. I’d say that getting into a particular type of company isn’t really something you can plan for — it’s more about timing and opportunity than choice. Even if you do have the option, I’d personally recommend aiming for a more centralized firm (like Squarepoint, Arrowstreet, or Two Sigma) rather than a pod-based one (like Millennium, Point72, or Balyasny). You tend to learn more in a centralized environment where knowledge is shared more broadly.

My biggest advice to all MFE students is to really understand how tough it is to land an internship or full-time role, even with a strong resume. Then, start doing mock interviews! So many knowledge are not in textbooks but are by word-of-mouth. Also ask for referrals - the 2 full-time job offers I got all come from some kind of referral. I do get interviews for jobs I've applied myself but they just don't really lead to offers.

5. That the internship experience that I've had in the past, are the same topic, as the job that I'm applying to. Career has very strong momentum even for juniors! But I guess that I stood out because during interviews I can speak very native English & blend in the culture and that was rare in Chinese students on F1 visas. I don't get why quant need good English but I'm glad I was preferred because of this.