Is it possible to move from quant firm/HFT back to tech?

Microsoft / Eng
cubes3

Go to company page Microsoft Eng

cubes3
Aug 20, 2021 36 Comments

About to accept an offer with a NY based quant firm (think JS/HRT/TS, etc).

I think having Microsoft on my resume has certainly helped open a lot of doors.

Will it be possible to jump back to big tech if I have one of JS/HRT/TS on my resume and am working there? Do tech recruiters recognize these firms?

Just want to ensure I’m not getting into a resume graveyard by accepting this.

TC/YOE: 200/3

#jobs #faang

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TOP 36 Comments
  • Used to have an easy time getting interviews at FAANG. They all went silent now. There's definitely a bias against finance folks.
    Aug 20, 2021 8
  • Intuit
    $$&@

    Go to company page Intuit

    $$&@
    You will have a tough time. HFT does not produce skills useful to technology companies. The culture is also very different and will be difficult to hide. You will need to explain why you choose to go into area solely for making money and enriching the already rich instead of building products that people use. It’s not a good look, basically.

    Finance has a generally poor reputation in SV and using your skills to play the markets instead of be a part of a team building technology product is just kinda side eye situation.

    Recruiters and hiring managers will not understand your work and you will have trouble selling your projects.
    Aug 20, 2021 4
  • Bloomberg / Eng
    EPiO17

    Go to company page Bloomberg Eng

    EPiO17
    No one is gonna touch you after HFT.
    Aug 20, 2021 6
  • It probably depends. But I can give you my example. I'm a hiring manager for my team and I work with recruiting by looking into every single CV to double check their decisions. If I see Jane Street on your CV, you are being called to interview pretty much regardless of the experience.
    Aug 21, 2021 5
    • I am 100% sure you are right. The problem is that most people there are in fact not building relevant experience for tech industry (at least from data science perspective, which I forgot to mention is my discipline :)). So, I hire you for your smartness and believe that I would be able to shape you into a usable tech professional within a year and that my investment will pay off in the long term by your exponential growth. This kind of investment pays off only for the best of the best, not for any company with harder interview process than MS. So, I would much rather hire an experienced ML engineer from some startup than a quant from Citadel. But with JS or HRT on CV, show your potential on an interview. It's not a perfect system, I'm sure there are people in Citadel smarter than average JS employee, but interview process is always a game of probability, we have limited resources for interviewing and invite people with max probability of success
      Aug 21, 2021
    • How would Two Sigma rank on your list?
      Aug 21, 2021
  • No I was BANISHED FOR LYFE
    Aug 20, 2021 0