Google Brain SWE vs. Quant Research at hedge fund
Given similar TC (~250k) what would you choose in the early stage of career (new grad, BS)? Hedge fund say one of Two Sigma, Citadel, DEShaw Both involve applied machine learning, in a different context Both problem domains are academically interesting and challenging Am curious to know which direction it would be easier to transition to/from, TC progression, etc. Would love to hear some first-hand experience
Could you please share tc at the hedgefund? Are you PhD for quant researcher role?
Can you share breakdown of Google's new grad offer? This is with masters degree?
It depends on what you want in your life. Being a quant researcher is a highly rewarding job (much more than an engineer at Google on average) but comes with risk. You might be able to add more value to the society by working at Google Brain.
At Brain you will learn a ton and I think you might have more leverage to go back to DE Shaw with after a year or two. Finance is volatile and you need to be ok with that. If you want to maximize earnings short term go finance, learning go to Brain
If it is DE Shaw, then choose google. DE Shaw doesn’t pay that well even to QRs and you make better $ at google or FANG. TS and Citadel can pay you better. Citadel has toxic culture and you will not be working on core ML/algo until at least 4+ years( you will be doing SWE even if your title is QR). TS Is the most decent out of the 3, but even that is not very attractive since it is not as picky as it used to be. They doubled the size in the last few years, hired tons of people and diluted talent. I would choose google Brain because it’s very easy to go to Hedge funds later. The reverse is possible but not as straight forward. Source: Interviewed at all these 3 hedge funds (and a few more), turned down a great QR offer(considerably more than the one in the post) to be in tech that paid slightly less.
This and Citadel fires bottom 10% each year. So you need to be at the top of your game everyday.
Whether you go to finance or tech is a personal decision. Citadel is an awesome place to work as a QR. If you're QR, you'll be doing QR work from day 1. Why would someone hire you to be a QR and make you work as an SWE? Also, there's no stack ranking at Citadel. WhoCares10, dunno which part of Citadel you're in (AM or Securities), I assure you the bottom 10% aren't getting fired. If you're not performing, you'll get fired eventually. But there's no stack ranking. I was a Citadel QR for many years.
OP would you mind sharing your background ? How were you able to land such good offers out of just undergrad?
Probably some IMO medalist, they eat that shit up
Must be nice to land a tier 1 as opposed to crap tier
Congrats op, very good offers!
Finance so you won't be in boring bay area
G Brain, because I have zero interest in working at a hedge fund.