Hi, I'm planning to into discretionary trading and/or research at a quant fund, but I've realized that I don't know much about the job in terms of career progression or exit opportunities. Do people just stagnate a couple of years in in terms of salary and responsibility, or are there always bigger things to move into? I know senior roles at in HFs/PE/VC are the goal for a lot of finance, but I don't know how accessible those are from QT/QR roles, and I'm worried quant pigeonholes you somewhat in terms of career opportunities. #quant #finance #janestreet #citadel #citadelsecurities #hrt #hudsonrivertrading #optiver #sig #imc #jumptrading
There is no progression. Either you are in or you are out. You can lose money for one year (and that's only when you are junior) but not two. Ok there are examples of traders making akilling one year and losing some of it the next and still be fine, but you need to be a named superstar in order to survive that. There is no in between and it is brutal.
Is this characteristic of the entire space or just about Citadel?
Entire space. 1 bad year and you’re out, like 75% of the time.
Yeah there's no progression. You're better off working entry level at McDonald's for more growth opportunities.
If you’re a quant/analyst at a HF then you can progress to PM. For HFT/MM firms probably just more scope and responsibility and with that higher pay.
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I work in the quant HF space, and yeah, it seems to be terminal. It makes sense, no? If you are good, you make enough money to stay with it until you retire, otherwise you take a demotion or switch between pods, doing less profit generating work. The ‘Head of X’ jobs are so rare that it’s not worth counting on, though I don’t know your personal experience. In general, yeah, it’s a dead end job with no ceiling.
Potential to make millions now counts as dead end? This is peak Blind!
Dead end isnt about money, its about seniority and career progression. If there is nowhere left to go, despite the money, it is quite literally a dead end.