depression

[binomial-torrent]

chasing the best jobs in quant finance is hard. is anyone else experiencing this?

 

[Onegin]

Absolutely. I think it’s worse once you get the job. Exercise helps a lot. A lot.

 

[binomial-torrent]

Absolutely. I think it’s worse once you get the job. Exercise helps a lot. A lot.

Worse once you get the coveted buy-side quant resesarch/sell side desk quant jobs? That's literally what you pursued credentials for years and years to finally get, I find this hard to believe.

Physical health and exercise is orthogonal to mental health for the most part in my experience--the real hard part is fixing what goes on inside your head I think.

I just wish I could be less depressed so I can be more intrinsically motivated to just enjoy what drove me to this field in the first place--a love of applied mathematics.

 

[Onegin]

I hope you’re right. For me, the meaning comes from working towards a target. Once in an investing role, I should make money for clients. That’s far from trivial, and much more randomness is involved than following a prescribed course of study. I think it would be devastating to do all this prep and find out I’m really not that useful. Fear of that outcome has been a helpful motivator for me.

 

[binomial-torrent]

I hope you’re right. For me, the meaning comes from working towards a target. Once in an investing role, I should make money for clients. That’s far from trivial, and much more randomness is involved than following a prescribed course of study. I think it would be devastating to do all this prep and find out I’m really not that useful. Fear of that outcome has been a helpful motivator for me.

I actually like the idea of that. You could be a PhD, or a math genius who won putnam and went to an ivy league school and have perfect grades, and still not be useful when it comes time to do stuff (I think those things are correlated to being good, at least weakly, but are no means guarantees). I've heard that good strategies come from all kinds of people once you're inside. But the hard part is getting inside in the first place.

 

[statquant]

I've heard a saying: being too objective-oriented is actually no good, because it will bring tunnel vision. I view quant position as a way to put applied math I've learned into use. I believe those are powerful tools, and I would like to figure out the best way to use them by try-and-error. I don't need to land a quant researcher/desk quant position necessarily even though I'm very interested in quant research position because it involves lots of numerical/statistics methods I'm interested in. Hope I'm not too naive.

 

[binomial-torrent]

my goal in life for the time being is getting a quant researcher position and nothing will change that. sure there are probably interesting things going on in risk but what room for career growth is there? yeah no...

 

[statquant]

Aiming at quant researcher is definitely a good goal. However, why there is no room for risk positions? you can be VP, director, MD etc. You can supervise lots of models, knowing nuts-and-bolts about them. You actually can know lots about strategies about the company if you are in a hedge fund. Maybe the chances moving to revenue regenerating positions are limited though.

my goal in life for the time being is getting a quant researcher position and nothing will change that. sure there are probably interesting things going on in risk but what room for career growth is there? yeah no...

 

[binomial-torrent]

However, why there is no room for risk positions? you can be VP, director, MD etc.

No room. That's just not where my goal lies. Unless it's risk on the buy-side then perhaps.

 

[Michsund]

Have you ever done any quant research? Unless you’ve tried it I wouldn’t say it is your dream. Don’t hold on to names since a lot of the jobs in the industry are changing in roles.

 

[Daniel Duffy]

1. It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.
2. Predictions are hazardous, especially about the future.
3. It is hard to prophecy, particularly about the future.
4. It’s dangerous to prophesy, particularly about the future.
5. Never make forecasts, especially about the future.

 

[binomial-torrent]

Have you ever done any quant research? Unless you’ve tried it I wouldn’t say it is your dream. Don’t hold on to names since a lot of the jobs in the industry are changing in roles.

I did, during a winter internship. It was the one I enjoyed the most so I continue to pursue (they only paid for lunch and train fare and I still worked overtime a sizable number of days). Unrelated, it was not a very good shop so I learned a lot about what NOT to do. But I just landed a quant research analyst role last week, partly thanks to QNet so I am quite satisfied now. Now I gotta try to resist the disease of wanting more all the time that often plagues wall street if I want to get out of depression for good

 

[ZFL]

There is room for development in risk. I have seen a few friends advance quickly (in about 3.5 - 5 years) to Director in Market Risk Models, Market Data Analytics, or Model Validation. They all entered finance after finishing advance degrees. A job in front office as a desk quant surely gets you closer to the markets and business and higher pay. Front office generally has a better promotion structure at least up to Director level. Back office or front office, there is grind. People covet front office roles for higher pay and thus perceived status (plus more interesting work probably). No wonder

 

[Ken Abbott]

There is room for development in risk. I have seen a few friends advance quickly (in about 3.5 - 5 years) to Director in Market Risk Models, Market Data Analytics, or Model Validation. They all entered finance after finishing advance degrees. A job in front office as a desk quant surely gets you closer to the markets and business and higher pay. Front office generally has a better promotion structure at least up to Director level. Back office or front office, there is grind. People covet front office roles for higher pay and thus perceived status (plus more interesting work probably). No wonder

I'm not sure I agree with the promotion statement, but I agree with the rest. There's another wrinkle though: front office jobs have a higher "beta." They are quicker to respond to market conditions, which is great when things are good, but not-so-great in a downturn. As a non-producer, I think you'd be more likely to get cut as a desk quant in a weak market than would a risk quant.

 

[Onegin]

I'm not sure I agree with the promotion statement, but I agree with the rest. There's another wrinkle though: front office jobs have a higher "beta." They are quicker to respond to market conditions, which is great when things are good, but not-so-great in a downturn. As a non-producer, I think you'd be more likely to get cut as a desk quant in a weak market than would a risk quant.

Agree - coming from performance attrib / risk space, my job security seemed negatively correlated with markets.