It seems that many people here have questions about PDT Partners, but few-to-none good answers. I'm a current employee (~L6) and would be happy to share anything non-NDA. Ask away :)
I interviewed at PDT a few years back and didn’t get an offer due to culture fit (or so my recruiter told me). No biggie, but it seems like I’m blacklisted from applying to PDT now. Is that normal or did I say something particularly psychopathic in my interview 🤔
I think it's just a very selective process. If they passed on you in prior years, they probably just don't see enough changed to warrant another look. I don't think anyone's blacklisted, unless you're Bernie Madoff lol
Is he blacklisted because he's dead?
Are you willing to refer? Happy to DM if you'd like to discuss.
Refer you to an open job here? Sure, DM me.
DM sent, thank you!
I know it’s in the same league as top hedge funds. But don’t have much information on the comp. Could you let me know if you or how often you beat hedge fund comps? Also, how is the work life balance in general? Sweatshop like citadel or retirement home like 2S?
I can't comment on the firm's performance, but I can say that I'm extremely happy with the comp. I worked at large wall st places prior to this and PDT is now double TC. WLB is great: it's neither a sweatshop, nor a retirement place. You get to do your work but have a life outside of it. So 965 would be a good description.
Is PDT very university reputation focused like DE Shaw?
Not sure about DE Shaw, but PDT are very firm reputation focused.
So PDT mostly prefers interviewing people from well known tech companies and quant firms?
How is the interview process for a quant role? (eg how many interviews in total, etc) I heard you should give a talk at some point. Is that so? What is the purpose of that talk? To asses presentation skills? Or to see if he's done some impressive work? Is do you just want your employees to learn about the new topics? :-) Who makes the final decision on the new hire?
Those are all recruiting questions, I'm in tech. You do need to be PhD and incredibly smart, because people interviewing you will be. Not sure about the talk etc.
I'm curious what your TC and TC structure is @ 13 YOE. I imagine it's >>1MM, but are you paid a base and perf/discretionary bonus? Or does the part bonus end being a paid directly on firm performance?
Afraid I can't disclose since it's too small of a place - you can easily identify me. Sry :)
Would you be able to disclose in a DM?
What's the tech stack that you work with? Is C++ experience required?
I don't think it's required. Plenty of Python to go around
Thanks for doing this AMA. I’m curious how interviews/pay/wlb vary for C++ devs vs Python devs
An external recruiter reached out to me. Can you give me an idea what the tc is and progression is for currently an L5 senior level engineer at Google. Also how flexible are various teams in PDT. Though I am an engineer and thats what I like if in a few years I want to try out doing more quant stuff how would that go. I have a math phd but not in a ml field. This is one of the greatest benefits of google to me the ability to work in so many different teams.
Can't speak to tc since not in that area. There's a rotation across teams, both initially and lateral moves later. Many people shift around to fill new roles, so definitely not pigeon holed.
Process to switch teams is a lot easier than Google. So is collaboration. Average tenure is pretty long because people have worked on different things over the years. If you show that you can add value, they will switch you into any role, no matter where you started.
Thanks man! I'm thinking about applying to a quant/ML role (graduating with a phd). Could you share the interview process?
I'm in a tech role, so not sure about quant process. From what I hear, it's rigorous, but friendly and fair. Having worked on Wall st. for 13 years, I've never met a company full of genuinely nice people, not just some hard-charging A-type assholes. My advice would be to be honest and patient. If it works out, you won't be disappointed. The hardest thing at PDT is to get hired.