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Worldquant vs Millennium

Joined
10/30/20
Messages
19
Points
13
Am aiming to apply for MFE or MSc Stats next year or the year after.
I recently received an offer from WQ as Quantitative Research Intern, which is an official fulltime offer based internship. However I am also going on a process for Quant Strats intern for Millennium, and would want to make a decision whether to continue this interview process or just to stop. Might sound like a stupid question because I could just continue this interview, get MLP offer and choose btw them thereafter, but currently I'm in both mental/physical burnout stage and my physician urges me to stop and take rest.
But I was hoping if someone could shed some lights about possible pros and cons of these internships in terms of what will make a better CV, both for appling to Msc/MFE program and job recruiting in USA. If MLP is significantly more plus to my CV, I would have to bear this burnout stage and definitely continue this interview process.

Pro for WQ/Con for MLP
1. Have no intention to apply for IB quants, or any other sellside/buyside quants that do not have direct linkage to PnL. So in terms of that, I think WQ internship would definitely better prepare me for this. Was told by the office head that interns would go through weekly rigorous training from senior quants including weekly lectures and assignment, not to mention the final project at the end of internship. If I get the return offer as full time quant researcher, maybe I could work there for few years, hopefully become successful and I guess it would be much easier to move to other buyside quants in US?(someone could correct me if I'm wrong about this)
1-1. On the other hand, the MLP Quant strategy intern I don't have a good idea about how the internship is structured, and not even sure whether this is designated to certain PM participating in actual alpha research, or just non-linked quant strategiest possibly doing risk research, backtesting and etc. Definitely not undermining these roles, it's just that my former experiences convinced me to only pursue a risk taking career.

Pro for MLP/Con for WQ
1. I heard that WQ once outsourced quite a lot of part-time researchers called "quant research consultant", and I am quite worried whether WQ internship, although it is different, would not have a good name-value for its rareness? I admit this is an immature question, but I really want to construct my professional experience well because my GPA is only bit-below mediocre level so that I have to make up with my related experience having good name value; please bear with this since I am quite desperate.....
1-1. On the other hand, MLP did not hire any part time jobs before, and the name value is quite more universal in this Hedge fund space. So in terms of application for MFE programs maybe MLP internship would be bit better in terms of prestige. Of course I know WQ has been one of the most successful Pods in MLP, but I have seen many people who knows MLP, but never heard of WQ, which questions me of WQ's brand name.

TLDR: would appreciate any insights on any of these points.
PS: If u think this is a shit-post, feel free to comment:)
 
I don't know anything about WorldQuant, but Millenium is a solid operation with a good industry reputation. I think you will be heavily disappointed with yourself if you don't at least put forth the effort. Internships are important because they can come with return offers. Return offers are the easiest way to break into a full time position. I would spend some time thinking about which employer you might see a future with (IMO there is an obvious answer to this one).
 
I don't know anything about WorldQuant, but Millenium is a solid operation with a good industry reputation. I think you will be heavily disappointed with yourself if you don't at least put forth the effort. Internships are important because they can come with return offers. Return offers are the easiest way to break into a full time position. I would spend some time thinking about which employer you might see a future with (IMO there is an obvious answer to this one).
Actually WQ started as one of PM at MLP, only that it became successful it started to use its own name, only applying systematic strategies.
But I understand your opinion though that I will quite regret that if I don't at least put the effort. And reading ur first line quite tells me the brand recognition is quite different lol. Yeah I guess I should still continue the process wth MLP. THanks for your input
 
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