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quant lifestyle + quant strategist salary question

justlooking

Joined
8/12/08
Messages
8
Points
11
I've read in several places that it's stressful being a quant. However, is there still time during the week to go to the gym or to do exercise generally? In the big investment banks they have gyms, but do people use them very much? Is it acceptable to spend 45 minutes at lunch time working out?

Is the job really so stressful? I can see it probably is for new quants, but after a year or two the learning curve is not so steep and the job is fairly routine?

Finally, an unrelated question -- is the total renumeration for quant strategists the same on average as for quantitative analysts?
 
It can be stressful being a quant and the average hours are higher than in many other occupations.
Stress however is not an objective state, it is more to do with your reaction to things. Different people react differently to the stimuli.
I know people outside banking and many of them seem far more stressed. We just lost a housekeeper whose behaviour seemed more stressed than many of the credit quants I know.

Yes, you can go to the gym, the trick is to grab opportunities to do so. But what you can't guarantee is that you will always make your 7PM TaiChi class.

One counsel I share with newbies is to optimise your choice of residence with respect to sleep.
That means near and quiet. Pretty and impressive can come later.
 
DominiConnor said:
It can be stressful being a quant and the average hours are higher than in many other occupations.
Stress however is not an objective state, it is more to do with your reaction to things. Different people react differently to the stimuli.
I know people outside banking and many of them seem far more stressed. We just lost a housekeeper whose behaviour seemed more stressed than many of the credit quants I know.

Yes, you can go to the gym, the trick is to grab opportunities to do so. But what you can't guarantee is that you will always make your 7PM TaiChi class.

One counsel I share with newbies is to optimise your choice of residence with respect to sleep.
That means near and quiet. Pretty and impressive can come later.
Click to expand...

Near a large investment bank and quiet without costing an arm and leg?

What kind of a location exists like this in New York, Sir Connor?
 
IlyaKEightSix said:
Near a large investment bank and quiet without costing an arm and leg?

What kind of a location exists like this in New York, Sir Connor?
Click to expand...
i know a guy living on wall street for 2500 dollars a month, ok nice, not very big though
 
cstassen said:
i know a guy living on wall street for 2500 dollars a month, ok nice, not very big though
Click to expand...

My current house in the burbs (the one in which my mom and I live in...I'm not outta college yet...one more year starting in a week) is that much. It's 3000 ft^2.

It seems if there's one place that real estate crises will never hit, it's the big cities. (Tokyo, NY, London, Osaka...) Moscow might still bite it since Russia's filthy rich on petrodollars, but that's another topic.

Makes you wonder where entry-level Wall Streeters start out, because if I get lucky with my networking, I might go entry level into GS.
 
IlyaKEightSix said:
It seems if there's one place that real estate crises will never hit, it's the big cities. (Tokyo, NY, London, Osaka...) Moscow might still bite it since Russia's filthy rich on petrodollars, but that's another topic.
Click to expand...

Don't be so sure; that's exactly the kind of thinking that is the making of bubbles. I'm not going to try making an argument to the contrary, but pricing is a complex machine. Just like in stocks, if everyone gets on one side of the trade, it's going to go the other way.

Anyway, for an entry level analyst, 2,500 per month is still a big chunk of your salary.
 
Some of us are single here, cstassen >_<...though if I had the girlfriend I wanted, just about everything in my life would be peachy.

Doug, speaking of "large chunk of your starting salary", if I want to work in Manhattan for a bulge bracket, if I wanted to live in something "near and quiet", what are we talking about in terms of lifestyle?
 
justlooking said:
However, is there still time during the week to go to the gym or to do exercise generally? In the big investment banks they have gyms, but do people use them very much? Is it acceptable to spend 45 minutes at lunch time working out?
Click to expand...
A lot of people at my work de-stress by racing their Porches on the weekends at some private racing tracks in PA. Or go play tennis in some country clubs after lunch.
Most of them are managing director or at least director, however.
 
IlyaKEightSix said:
Some of us are single here, cstassen >_<...though if I had the girlfriend I wanted, just about everything in my life would be peachy.

Doug, speaking of "large chunk of your starting salary", if I want to work in Manhattan for a bulge bracket, if I wanted to live in something "near and quiet", what are we talking about in terms of lifestyle?
Click to expand...

You'd be surprised at the variability in price. Depending on amenities (doorman, elevator, floor if it's a walk-up, laundry in building, light) can make a HUGE difference in price. I would say somewhere between 1800-3000 for a 1br in the financial district. But I've never lived there; just surmising.

Check out craigslist and NY Times real estate listings to get a better idea.

I just read that rents are coming down (in general, not sure about NY) because in hard times people move in with friends and family... we'll see if that makes any difference.
 
Manhattan in has generally been an outlier as far as rent trends are concerned. Although this doesn't mean that prices are not going down.
 
doug reich said:
I just read that rents are coming down (in general, not sure about NY) because in hard times people move in with friends and family... we'll see if that makes any difference.
Click to expand...

The statistics from real estate agents shows relative decrease in rent for 1- and 2-bedroom elite apartments comparing to studios in the neighborhoods, since people are "downgrading". This tendency holds for the last half a year, for obvious reasons.
 
A lot of people at my work go to the gym, so that is definately possible (i do it too). it's all a matter of preferences i guess
 
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