What can I do to make a move to Quant Finance after some time (six-seven years)?

[The Spartan Guy]

Here is the background. Finishing Ph.D. in Computer Science, and wished to be a Quant, preferably in pricing derivatives etc. But recently, I got an offer from a tech company that involves data science and compiler optimisation, (most of their coding is done in C++, where I have a decent expertise and of course wish to build further). I liked the employer throughout the interview process (which was very rigorous, but also friendly), and the work culture (whatever impression I got so far). So do not want to let this opportunity pass. (Also, I do not even have a finance internship, and everybody knows it is competitive to break in as an 'inexperienced' quant.)

So from the job profile, does it sound like the 'experience' be helpful? Not that I am using the employer for 'experience', and wish to be maximally productive while I am there, which I hope to be at least six-seven years. But I also wish to know whether there is anything I can do at that time which will enable me to make a move towards quant finance later. I hope it is not impossible. So advice appreciated from my peers, or anyone who has walked the walk.

 

[pingu]

Here is the background. Finishing Ph.D. in Computer Science, and wished to be a Quant, preferably in pricing derivatives etc. ...

Figure out what you want to do. PhD in computer science doesn't translate to pricing derivative. Also, what exactly do you mean by "etc."? That's very broad.

 

[KillingField]

You will have a tough time moving to a derivatives pricing quant after 6 years of doing something completely unrelated. There's a lot of competition between experienced quants as well because the positions are fewer, they are more expensive, and a lot more is expected of them in interviews. You would probably not even want to move as you're not really going to be qualified for anything but a junior position, and after 6 years of experience, you'll probably not want to take a step down.

 

[The Spartan Guy]

You will have a tough time moving to a derivatives pricing quant after 6 years of doing something completely unrelated. There's a lot of competition between experienced quants as well because the positions are fewer, they are more expensive, and a lot more is expected of them in interviews. You would probably not even want to move as you're not really going to be qualified for anything but a junior position, and after 6 years of experience, you'll probably not want to take a step down.

Thanks, maybe then Quants will not be the roles which I should be trying. That being said, I have often seen people of engineering background, moving to Morgan Stanley or Citadel after working with Silicon valley giants. Likely, their work has more to do with 'technology' than with pricing of financial instruments or volatility modeling then?

Those are some of the examples (which I came across in LinkedIn) that motivated this question.

 

[KillingField]

Thanks, maybe then Quants will not be the roles which I should be trying. That being said, I have often seen people of engineering background, moving to Morgan Stanley or Citadel after working with Silicon valley giants. Likely, their work has more to do with 'technology' than with pricing of financial instruments or volatility modeling then?

Those are some of the examples (which I came across in LinkedIn) that motivated this question.

Well I guess you're in a better position than me to say what they are doing at MS/Citadel if you found their LinkedIn profiles. That said, I would indeed imagine them to work in tech roles (as if "quant" wasn't ambiguous enough, there are "quant devs" who usually do the tech bits around pricing stuff), but of course it's not impossible that they work as quants.

On a related note, if you follow say eFinancialCareers, you'll see people moving from tech to data science roles in finance. I guess it's still a bit unclear as to how they are positioned on the tech/quant axis.

Finally, why do you want to work in finance anyway? Google probably pays its tech staff better on average (I guess one could check Glassdoor for comparisons).