Hi all, PhD “almost” grad here, I’m looking into the quant space. How is the compensation (excluding sign-on) that is expected for new PhD grads for quant research/analyst positions at firms like DE Shaw, Two Sigma, Citadel, HRT, PDT, Voleon and the likes? Base and bonus breakdown? Glassdoor says about 380k base + bonus as of 2019 for DE Shaw, 365k as of 2020 for Two Sigma, but I suppose it could be averaged out over different YoEs? Thanks! Current TC: just above poverty line. #finance #hedgefund #compensation #quant
Typical high end offer is 200k base + 200k bonus for first year. Base rarely exceeds 200k
Thanks! Do you know which firms give these numbers? By the way, by high end did you mean 400k is a typical top offer after some negotiation?
Almost all of the firms you mentioned can offer this. The typical offer starts at 325-350 and it can go to 400 or sometimes above.
You should ask for at least 450k for 1st year
This looks interesting. 450k seems far beyond the data from Glassdoor. Is there a basis for that I’m wondering? just to understand this space.
Citadel is paying new hire undergrads 400k. I think HRT should be around the same. DE Shaw too. I think you deserve 50k more, you have 5 more years of research experience
Jesus, is there a specific PhD you need for these roles ?
Most of guys in quant hedge funds are from math, physics, stats, CS and some engineering fields I think. Looking at interview questions on Glassdoor, there doesn’t seem to be a very specific skill being targeted (except for deep learning recently).
First year bonus guarenteed After first year bonus largely depends on the pnl of your models. Could easily hit 7 figs if your models perform.
What is a good target for first year TC?
Unless youre some savant most people just get their (base + guarenteed bonus + a bit more if the firm has a good year) = ~400kish for a post phd Once you have more models you can expect much faster comp growth
how does hedge fund quant TC compare with BB quant TC?
Hedge funds are significantly higher
I’m not a quant at ts, but work pretty close to modeling. The comps I heard from junior modelers are ~400k with big yearly variance. I have been approached by other comparable (maybe lower tier) firms for quant positions, the range I was offered was close to 400
Thanks! Would you be able to suggest some of those firms? It’s hard to know which firms are at what tiers, aside from the big names like DE Shaw, Two Sigma or Citadel
OP PhD, can you share more about what skills you picked during PhD/before and your background (math?), And what got you interested to these kind of jobs? (I am PhD postdoc)
Messaged you :-)
don’t take anything below 350K, otherwise you r wasting your talent.
Thanks! This is an interesting suggestion actually. Suppose that some fresh PhD grads got into big techs, I doubt they could be compensated beyond 300k. This might be especially true for many of those who apply to quant positions, with backgrounds from math/stats and not CS/deep learning. So wouldn’t it be better if they take a quant offer of, say, 325k? Would appreciate any insight :-)
Really depends on what you want to work on, where you wanna live, at this point. Tech will provide more product work, while QR is really only about coming up with strategies. Doesn't really make sense to decide just based on TC if they are almost the same.
Geez, I should leave IB
😳
Yeeeeaaah, I should've done CS in college. Not that I was smart enough anyway though.
CS undergrad isn’t hard anyone could do it