How does Two Sigma, DE Shaw, and other similar places in NYC compare to FAANG SWE roles? In wlb, comp,.and the type of work you do? Anyone here worked at both and can chime in?
I've seen a lot of people putting quant shops under the term "Fintech" recently (along with what I would call fintech e.g. wealthfront, robinhood, affirm, blend, etc.), which is a trend I want to fight because they couldn't be more different. Fintech is emphasis on the "tech", while quant funds are emphasis on the trading. I am not (yet) at a quant HF/prop trading shop, but talk with a lot of friends. It really depends on which place you go to. Small shops and non-collaborative pod shops like Jump or Citadel are high pressure, low job security, potentially very high pay. It's easier at one of these places to crack the FAANG "Senior Engineer" comp ceiling and possibly get into the 7 digits. Some of the really selective places that are more collaborative and laid back will pay above FAANG by a bit while having reasonable WLB. Engineer vs quant is also very firm dependent, some places pay the quants much more, others pay the engineers very well, others pay everyone like crap (banks, some of the not-so-great funds). I think generally speaking finance is a good call if you would prefer a little more pressure and reward, but you need to be careful about which company you go to in order to actually capture that upside. The names you mentioned are all pretty solid comp wise.
Good insights. A subtle point to note is that most of the jobs in Finance are in the “crap” places you mention - banks etc. The ones which match/exceed FANG salaries have much fewer openings , and look for other entry criteria such as good employers in the resume / good schools etc. Same level or tougher interviews
Yep, I'd say if you're a manager, big banks can be very competitive in pay and benefits. If you're more junior, do lots of leetcode and mathcounts (half joking) and try to get into a good prop shop.
In my experience, hedge fund was much lower stress because they took the time to figure out what to build and how to build it right. In comparison, my FB experience has been all about moving as fast as possible even if you're blind to user needs and tech debt.
Which hedge funds are known to pay well and treat SWEs the best?