Information on Quantitative Researchers (or other quant jobs)

[ansabs]

Hello, I posted recently asking for information on a physics PhD. I am a second-year Data Science and Physics major at Northeastern University (My school has combined majors that are like double majors but cut a few classes out of each major). As I meant to indicate in the previous post, I am still unsure about what career I would like to pursue after graduation. I wanted to follow up by asking if anyone has insights on becoming a quant.
1. What path did you take/ would you recommend taking to become a quant?
2. What is it like being a quant?
3. What steps could I potentially take now to work towards this goal?
4. How does a physics background apply to being a quant?

As people who have seen the other post may think, I have some work to do to figure out what career I would like to pursue in the future, so that is why I am posting here. Also as I said in the other post, I enjoy the mathematical and computational side of physics much more than the experimental and hands-on side.

Thank you for your time!

 

[Vanadium 50]

A "quant" is not the same a quantum researcher.

 

[ergospherical]

I'm currently in quant research, as of a few months, albeit in the opposite situation to you (looking to go back for a PhD!). The big difference from quant trading is that you don't take on risk yourself, so it's better if you prefer to think things out more slowly. I'm working on automating up some strategies that we know work OK and trying to make them run more efficiently. Novel alpha is elusive and there are smarter people than me who work on that...

No point in re-hashing what you can find on the internet r.e. interviews, etc., but for QR you'll have a lot more programming assessments. Build a good Kaggle/GitHub portfolio and do lots of Leetcode.

 

[ansabs]

A "quant" is not the same a quantum researcher.

Yes I know.

 

[ansabs]

I'm currently in quant research, as of a few months, albeit in the opposite situation to you (looking to go back for a PhD!). The big difference from quant trading is that you don't take on risk yourself, so it's better if you prefer to think things out more slowly. I'm working on automating up some strategies that we know work OK and trying to make them run more efficiently. Novel alpha is elusive and there are smarter people than me who work on that...

No point in re-hashing what you can find on the internet r.e. interviews, etc., but for QR you'll have a lot more programming assessments. Build a good Kaggle/GitHub portfolio and do lots of Leetcode.

Thank you for your response. If you don't mind me asking, what did you study as an undergrad/grad? Also, what would you recommend learning or self-studying to gain some knowledge on the field and what projects are useful to make?

 

[ergospherical]

I was physics and then maths (applied) masters. Pick a project that you find interesting - hiring teams appreciate initiative. Depends where you apply, but sometimes it makes a good conversation if you've tried to implement a trading strategy and bet your own money on it (how much did you bet, what was your p&l, etc.), but other places don't care about whether you've done any trading. There is a popular book ("the green book") for interview questions but the most common ones you will get asked don't need much knowledge, i.e. they're not going to ask you about stochastic calculus or obscure theory