Two Sigma Quant Research vs Quant SWE
New grad here. I recently got contacted by a recruiter stating that they would like to interview me for a quant research role. I took a look at the site and, looking more closely, feel like the quant SWE role might be a better fit for me. I have a couple of questions about the two roles: 1. I have a bit of math background, and inasmuch as I like math and ML and am curious about the financial world, my long term passion will always be in tech. Would going for a QR role put me at a disadvantage when returning back to SWE roles in tech? 2. Could someone give more concrete details as to what the differences in work that two roles are supposed to do? 3. I have heard that in many quant shops, quants researchers reign supreme (in terms of pay) while regular SWE's bite the dust. Where do Quant SWE's fall into this picture?
The roles are pretty different. Quant researchers write whatever code/script/spreadsheet gets the job done, where the job is to make as much money for the company as they can. Quant SWE is more broad--you might spend some or most of your time doing research, or you might just build tools or partner up with researchers. If your goal is to end up at a tech company as traditional SWE, quant SWE (or heck even traditional SWE at TS) is probably your best bet. If you're not sure, I'd go for quant researcher first. You'd make more money and trying to become a quant researcher from SWE is probably harder than the reverse.
So QRs are not mostly prototyping? Are QRs expected to work on production code?
QR does have a better payoff chart if you're good and produce results. SWE vs quant SWE are similar at TS: really depends on the team you end up on.
Thanks for the reply. Do you know how easy it is to transition from QR to more traditional SWE roles in big tech?
Not sure, sorry.