So you’ve decided to actively search for a new career opportunity in Quant Finance. 

Maybe you’ve capped out at your current firm, or don’t like your boss, or want more ownership, want a better P&L split, or you’ve already left and are busy gardening on your non-compete.  

What’s the biggest mistake talented Quants/PMs make when deciding on their next career move? 

They don’t talk to the right companies. 

Most people fall into the trap of: 

1. Only talking to their friends and ex-colleagues  

2. Only talking to mainstream companies everyone knows; i.e Citadel, Millennium, Jane Street, Brevan Howard, Balyasny, Two Sigma, D.E. Shaw, etc. 

The problem? 

These firms aren’t always best suited for your style of work, research, and trading. 

Let me give you an example of a PM we recently placed. 

Overview: 3-year track record doing Sharpe 3.5 MFT Vol/Commodity Options strategy at $5M-$15M/year pnl. Low setup/infrastructure costs. Short non-compete. Extremely professional and easy to like to trust.  

On paper this sounds excellent.  

What happened to this PM before we met? 

12 interviews, 1 offer.  

What happened to this PM after we met?

1 interview, 1 offer. 

Why is this significant? What did we do that was so special? 

Nothing. We just knew the right company to introduce him to. 

The irony is, this candidate, who is extremely talented and who had a very attractive and replicable track record, was simply interviewing with the wrong companies.  

Had we been involved in his interview process sooner, we would have likely aligned him with 3-4 companies, and gotten him 2-3 offers.  

Because the magic is knowing which companies are best suited for you. 

So, if you’re interested in streamlining your career exploration, and aligning with the best suited companies on the planet, feel free to drop us a note, and we’ll see how we can help. 

Talk soon.