Hi, appreciate any comment on my situation. Thank you. I’m a machine learning engineer in ML/AI org in Apple, I have a good statistics background and I would like to try quantitative research positions in companies such as DE Shaw, 2sigma, SIG, jump, jane street, and… My current TC now is 400k (YoE: 4years now at apple) and I have a 10/10 wlb. I’m wondering upon good interviews, how much can I expect for my TC from these hedge funds? is it 600k or like 900k? I want to know if it is worth money-wise to study hardcore for 7 months and interview for hedge funds. Thanks Edit: GPA PhD:4/4 from okay university, bachelor: 3.6/4.0 from very top university. I also have a Postdoc in CS from very top university. 5 years ago before joining apple I did five “final “ round interviews with Hedge funds and didn’t get any offer!
There will be a lot of variables: it can be between 0.5m to 1.2m. The base salary will be around $200-250k.
Please mention what are the variables?
For quant funds, the only variable in TC is the year end bonus. The other variables are related to firms, teams, pods, roles and profits.
(If they want you) you can expect a min of 600k given where you are right now and will have the potential to grow to 8 figures if the stars align for you. I'm sure you've seen periodic news articles that reveal certain quants' TCs.
How common is reaching 8 figures as quant?
Extremely, if you express it in binary
Comp for tech lateral hires is generally not that good since they know they can lowball you. It'll be higher than tech but not massively higher. You're going to need competing offers from top firms to make it worth it
Yesss, that’s exactly what I fear. I don’t know what is the best strategy though (besides studying hardcore and being ready for the technical interviews). Anything else I should do? Thanks for the feedback.
Besides interview prep, just get as many interviews as possible and do them around the same time. Do this by either mass applying to every firm or by finding a headhunter. The latter approach can have very mixed reeults depending on how good the headhunter is. Given your background I don't think you'll have issues getting quant dev interviews, but QR might be a little harder Edit: oops, meant to reply to OP in the recent thread
I see, thanks, actually I’m better at math than programming, so I guess I’ll only target Quant research positions. “Going for headhunter or applying individually, which one is better” is also my question. I searched a bit, but I couldn’t find out, any advice on that?
agree with this thread. Also doing ML at tech, have a math phd and 5 YOE after graduation. Many headhunters reaching out to me for both quant researchers and quant dev positions. Only quant dev jobs are actually making progress in the current market. Used to get a lot of QR interviews as new grad but those days are gone
Yes and no, Phd 4.0/4.0, bachelor probably 3.6 or so, and I have a postdoc in CS from top university YoE: 4 years only at apple, before that I was a postdoc
Correct, I guess the best strategy is to talk to a recruiter as well, thanks