Internship choice: trader assistant or quant researcher

[mkhanna]

Hi
So im a junior in a big midwest school doing engineering and I have two internship offers I can't choose between.
1. Quant Research Intern at a 10 Bn+ AUM Fund of Funds.
2. Traders Assistant Intern at DRW

The both pay about the same just wanted to get some feedback on what would be a better long term job. Where would they actually end up hiring me and which gives me more leverage if I end up going to Grad school
im interested in both. Just wanted to get an idea of what kind of job description I will have and what kind of a lifestyle is it.
Thanks

 

[Lovjit]

I reckon you should go for the quant research internship. You would probably learn more in my opinion.

 

[Joy Pathak]

Hi
So im a junior in a big midwest school doing engineering and I have two internship offers I can't choose between.
1. Quant Research Intern at a 10 Bn+ AUM Fund of Funds.
2. Traders Assistant Intern at DRW

The both pay about the same just wanted to get some feedback on what would be a better long term job. Where would they actually end up hiring me and which gives me more leverage if I end up going to Grad school
im interested in both. Just wanted to get an idea of what kind of job description I will have and what kind of a lifestyle is it.
Thanks

DRW is a very strong firm. They are very picky and have a well structured internship program. It is a quant trading firm basically and very well known in the prop trading arena. They do a lot of high frequency trading.

I personally would suggest DRW. FoF can be boring as you don't really do any real trading work. It's more relaxed though. You probably will be doing lots of asset allocation and risk related research at a FoF. If it is a big name FoF like Blackstone or Carlyle or something at that level, that you just pick what you want to do in the future. If you want to be a trader than pick DRW. If you just want to do quant research pick the FoF although even for quant research DRW would be a better option.

If I had to choose I would pick DRW. I am assuming you're going to their Chicago office. You will be among other very smart people at DRW. They hire from the top engineering schools mostly.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Didn't they have some kind of job description when you applied there? Titles mean absolutely nothing. One can be called developer and still can do more relevant stuff than other impressive titles.