What should I aim for?

[MMFInfoAcct]

I don’t think comparing early career/entry level salaries is very relevant, that’s the point I was emphasizing with the $500k comment, I wasn’t seriously suggesting that as a path people should consider.

Again, a career is very long and most people make multitudes more later in their career than they would in the start. To be honest, I don’t think people should be concerned about if they make $50k or $80k or $120k in their first job. If you are good at your job and work hard you will make far more in the future.

The big money comes from when you stick in a career path and rise the ranks. Yes, anyone should make sure they are into quant finance and math enough to succeed in the industry as you mentioned, but once they know that then who cares if you have to take a salary haircut starting off considering even the most back office quant salary will still be decent. It’s about long term thinking.

I agree with you in the sense that your starting point doesn't necessarily determine your ending point, but a good starting point makes the journey a lot easier. A new grad Citadel/JS/etc. quant has a higher starting salary than most back office quants elsewhere can get in 10+ years. Also for the QT role at my company at least, we don't consider even interviewing anyone that's not a new grad unless they had decent trading experience already at a competitor. Yes once you do get in, your past credentials stop mattering at all (we don't like it when people rest on their laurels, even if they're a nobel prize winner; on the flip side, a low GPA/no name university will not hinder you AFTER you get in) and we care solely about contribution but there's a very high barrier to entry and a very high barrier to surviving. Somewhat unrelated but I find it extremely interesting how I see several comments about "a back office quant job is great too"; nearly everyone I know and work with in a FO quant role job searched with an attitude that they were a failure if they didn't get a FO quant role at the minimum (many weren't even satisfied with FO quant at top banks as they wanted exclusively buyside).

 

[MikeLawrence]

Somewhat unrelated but I find it extremely interesting how I see several comments about "a back office quant job is great too"; nearly everyone I know and work with in a FO quant role job searched with an attitude that they were a failure if they didn't get a FO quant role at the minimum (many weren't even satisfied with FO quant at top banks as they wanted exclusively buyside).

Ages and stages. For graduates like Santiago, risk in the US at a decent firm is a big achievement.

For top graduates, most of the work they'd be doing would feel trivial - which is why they'd consider themselves a failure, they're legitimately qualified for more. Take that YouTuber, Dimitry Bianco; he nearly failed out of both (edit: might have just been the first) his masters degrees and ended up in risk in Dallas doing the best he can.

The risk guy I referenced has jumped from head of Millennium's risk, to HRT's, and now Balaynsly's. I'd bet the work he does is pretty interesting and top notch. But yeah, median risk job to median FO role isn't even comparable in terms of prestige, pay, or intensity/variability.