I interned at GS London last summer and joined this organisation named Squarepoint Capital in January at a glorified operational position, they call "Desk Quant Analyst" (DQA). Firstly, the firm is pathetic with no culture. It's either you bootlick their asses and if you don't, you'll keep getting shitty work. Let me tell you about their shitty Desk Quant role. First, the role isn't a Quant role as they put it in the title. It is operational work meant to support a trading desk with no statistical work. People joining this program will become happy in the beginning seeing the pay but later you realise what shithole you got yourself into. It's neither proper software engineering role nor a proper Quant role. Second, the role is like a 3 year gig to make you a Junior Quant if you perform well. This makes no sense as these assholes give you no Quant work but only shitty work that the real Quants don't want to do and in a tech stack you've hardly seen anywhere in industry. You'll learn nothing in these 3 years, I'd gladly spend a time doing a Master's degree or running my own trading strategies!! Third, the firing culture is really bad if you don't obey your masters here. When I was being given shitty work, I rebelled and they fired me within 2 months of joining (I graduated in 2023). It's like a master slave configuration where you're their dead end slave for 3 years. They do send people to NYC, London and Paris for fancy business trips but when you're at their helm, they'll leave no second to fire you!!!! Anyone who's working in this shitty role, please look elsewhere if you don't want your 3 years to be wasted!! Anyone who's planning to apply for this role, please don't it's a waste of time. I'd gladly go back to a Quant role at a BB or a hedge fund than this shitty place and role. Seriously fuck them.
Squarepoint Capital are one of the few interviews I pulled out of because I had such a bad impression during a phone screen. QRT are hiring a lot at the moment if you need something
Glorified ops role lol
I'm so sorry to hear that, screw them and thanks for warning us! I'm sure someone here can refer you to a better place. QQ: Is there pay like rest of HF/HFT? What was your TC there?
Like 80k GBP for DQA (the role in the post) and double that for JQR. 250k USD for JQR in the US. Money isn’t the problem here imo as it is decent for the city that the role is based in but rather the shitty culture and ops work
Yeah exactly. IDfk31, are you a DQA as well? Is your work shitty too? Do you think they make people JQR after the 3 year gig?