How to Get a Job in Quant Finance 2024

Woohoo!! 🎉 Amazing video

Hey Dimitiri, how do you make resume for people who are career switching say mid 30s/40s. Thank you.

Hey Dimitry, I am studying MFE at HEC Montreal, and I will be starting to work with a Canadian pension fund in buy side. Do you think I am able to target US job market? Am I in a disadvantage compared to a US applicant?

I am not too familiar with the quant realm, but for more conventional CS positions skill stacking does indeed work. Especially for larger corporations when the technical team outsources the screening process to HR (!!). They don't really understand whats what, and they don't have the competence to question you further anyways. Every CS major is sending out A LOT of applications in this market and why your application got rejected / accepted is kind of a black box, so you just go with what works. You also get a lot of general advice from older students, and such the winning strategies propagate.

Dimitri, I think this is a great video but I think It would be better if you could show what an optimal resume looks like instead of just saying what could be better.
The first reason I'm asking is that if I were to trim my resume to what I "think" the job wants, my resume would be extremely short especially for a fresh graduate.
The second reason is that most job descriptions are so vague it makes it difficult to know what exactly to put in or take out of my resume.

Love your Vids! Please keep them coming!❤❤❤

Do you think it would be useful to include a second page on my resume that highlights other relevant skills and experiences?

I have a wide range of valuable skills, projects, and certifications that may not directly relate to the specific job I'm applying for. I'm applying for positions such as Machine Learning Engineer, AI Engineer, Data Scientist, and Quantitative Researcher, with a background in data science and econometrics (high in math and statistics but also python heavy). My goal is to find cause and effect relationships and write code that transforms data into business value. However, I don't have the time to tailor my resume for every single job description, especially since they often require different programming languages and project experiences.

I'll be creating multiple general resumes to cover different job types. Great video!

One of the best videos!! Thank you so much for the amazing video.

Your guidance has helped a lot in improving my resume and interviewing skills. Just waiting for an opportunity now. Hoping for the best!

Hello Dimitri,

I am currently getting ready to start a master's in business analytics program (Yes, I know that's not a typical degree for quants to have, its really just a stats program with some R coding, currently buying some mathematical finance textbooks as well as looking into getting that Financial Time Series Analysis textbook that you recommended). Frequently, when looking at advice for data science jobs its recommended that you have a portfolio of relevant projects so that employers can see what level of work you are capable of. I was wondering if a similar approach would be useful for quantitative finance jobs. If so, what kind of projects do you think would be best applicable for a quantitative role, more specifically in the model development or quantitative research areas.

I'm heading to UC Berkeley this fall, and I'm split between pursuing a career when I'm done in quants or IB

Is stevens tech bachelor of quantitative finance a good start for this career path

I love you man, but I have a real problem with your process of overweighting "big name" schools. In actual fact, YOUR story, is likely the best example of why a high quality education comes from the efforts of the student themselves and not the school they hail from. University of Michigan is not a "big name", and yet the person that choose to overlook that fact got an amazing candidate when they hired....YOU.

Why do the comp numbers referenced in your videos seem so low? Are you just speaking for your firm?

How reasonable do you think it is to enter the industry with only a bachelors and personal projects related to quant finance on your resume?

Dear Dimitri, thank you for making such a clear guide on how to make a great resume. I finally understand how to create a great resume, from the perspective of an intelligent employer instead of a career coach that follows the same template advice. Thank you a lot for the info.

which of these is more relevant to become a quant researcher-

1) Economics, Physics, Mathematics & Statistics , and Computer Science independently
or
2) Economics, Physics, Mathematics & Statistics combined with Computer science

What is your take on self taught or dropouts? Does the quant firms don't hire self taught peoples?

I want to know how do we get started? I've spoken to few alumini at Citadel and few prop trading firms and they've referred me to either get familiar with the concepts of the Green book or Heard on the Street. I got these books but the concepts behind them are coupled a lot. Is there any specific set of topics one should go through before trying to attempt these books? I don't want to get stuck in the beginners loop

Great video man.
I'm a data engineer right now. Can someone tell me if I can get into the finance domain within data teams?
Thanks

I wanted to give my feedback for any of you who are thinking about recruiting for prop trading firms. I’m a masters student now but when I was doing my recruitment process last fall, I had some thoughts on this.

Places like optiver, imc trading, jump trading, and many of these prop trading firms have a very intensive interview process that sometimes feels like a waste of time. I get you need to filter massive amounts of candidates, and so brain teasers is the only way to do this, but as a person who constantly seeks to learn a new area of stats, just grinding brain teasers for a whole 3-4 months makes me feel like I don’t actually know anything.

If firms actually asked legitimate questions about statistics, it would make more sense.

For example, I truly believe if you asked every candidate what the OLS assumptions were, you could filter a ton of candidates right there. If they asked questions about the various types of ml algorithms and their drawbacks weaknesses (ex. I have a lasso regression model, random forest model, and a SVM model, how would you go about choosing the best model? Why should I use ridge vs lasso regression? In simple terms how does a random forest work?” These are also huge filters.

Both of the questions above actually are relevant to the job, and if I spent my time reading elements of statistical learning to “prepare” for these types of interviews, I’d at least come away with some knowledge.

Rather than, me, taking a break from my research I’m working on to just practice how to pick colors of socks from different drawers or different ways to arrange poker hands. I don’t know, I just feel like my last recruitment cycle made me a “I can do probability brain teasers” robot, and not someone who actually knows anything. Of course, I didn’t need to study something like OLS or ML cause it’s in my curriculum in undergrad, but I just think these prop trading firms waste peoples time with regards to interview prep material. I truly believe they miss out on a ton of candidates who actually know stuff, in the expense of just picking candidates who can solve brainteasers and do mental math.

These were for quant research interviews btw

I recently went through the job hunting process for model validation jobs. I would say make study sheets for technical interviews because a lot of the questions tend to get repeated.

How would u advise a mechanical engineer to transition to quant/trading positions?(29yrs old)

Stop with the quant stuff, you are not a quant and you are not going to change the mainstream definition of quant to encapsulate what you do.

It's cringe and overused, you have been doing this for years and people can tell your bluff after just a few vids. Again, you are not changing the definition of the terms so stop mentioning them so often.

Dimitri, Quants need mentorship to progress in their career. Most people at this stage try to just proof that they are hungry to learn

I know you already made a video comparing different masters programs, but what do you think about Johns Hopkins financial mathematics program?

Hi Dimitri, I agree with a lot that you mentioned in this video. I think the reason why people slab C++ across their resumes while not including or having projects related to C++ is to just get their resume through the algorithm keyword resume sort without their resume getting lost behind. I could be wrong.

funny you rip masters's programs and swear by phd's but you dont have a phd.

Hello I want a beginner friendly roadmap on quant analyst

Is it helpful for candidates looking for internships or full time employment as a quant to have a CFA, FRM, CQF, PRM or CAIA certification? Which ones are more important? Thanks for the advise.

Hey Dimitri or anyone else. How important are early internships for a quant finance career. Im an undergrad going into my junior year. A double major in Econ and Finance and a minor in math. And a plan to get a quantitative finance masters. What type of internships should I be looking for and when should I take them. ASAP? or between undergrad and grad?

Great video ! Can you recommend any financial engineering online degree for working guys ?

Boss this is how ug college application kids write. They get into unis with these extracurriculars.