Hello Quantnet,
You are my trusted forum for career advice. I've been given a rather unique situation and would like some direction.
Currently, I'm in my 3rd year in a 0.5b boutique hedge fund. It is my first job out of college and I knew then I wanted to go to quant trading. In a few words, I'll say things are stable, quite lucrative but quiet, little networking and no formal training. As with most boutique HFs, the PM would task me to create a strat with an overall theme. Then in a month, in isolation, I'll have to read 10 academic papers, download the data, code and backtest. Environment is friendly, fun and of love.
My estimates would say by year end, the following is likely - My salary cracks US$120k, I got 2mil allocation to my strats, my colleagues like me more. BUT ... I probably stay trading spot FX and not be exposed to other assets, which tbh, I want to be. I'm not sure what the PM will say when I go up to him and say, I don't have banking strats experience, but I got this options straddle strategy. Can we change our fund mandate?
Now, I just got an offer for a juniour FX and Commodities structurer offer at a sub top 5 BB. (Not GS, MS or JPM). There'll be less programming, less quant skills but you get to thoroughly know and create the products. I know for sure that my product knowledge will increase, obviously, but salary has less upside. And I'm a step away from the market. Though I sense that the switch from structuring to trading is natural.
I actually would like a period of 2 years just familiarizing myself with options ONLY if it's valuable for running multi-asset portfolio. (Megafunds PMs can chime in?)
Should I go? My end goal is to be a PM running a portfolio of half a billion. BB will give me product knowledge and create the following path - small HF -> Structuring (2y) -> BB strats (3y) -> PM at megafund trading a whole range of products. (Yippie!)
Staying in my HF could pave a track record of increasing AUM, starting with a modest 2mil.
Sincerely Yours,
Phil
You are my trusted forum for career advice. I've been given a rather unique situation and would like some direction.
Currently, I'm in my 3rd year in a 0.5b boutique hedge fund. It is my first job out of college and I knew then I wanted to go to quant trading. In a few words, I'll say things are stable, quite lucrative but quiet, little networking and no formal training. As with most boutique HFs, the PM would task me to create a strat with an overall theme. Then in a month, in isolation, I'll have to read 10 academic papers, download the data, code and backtest. Environment is friendly, fun and of love.
My estimates would say by year end, the following is likely - My salary cracks US$120k, I got 2mil allocation to my strats, my colleagues like me more. BUT ... I probably stay trading spot FX and not be exposed to other assets, which tbh, I want to be. I'm not sure what the PM will say when I go up to him and say, I don't have banking strats experience, but I got this options straddle strategy. Can we change our fund mandate?
Now, I just got an offer for a juniour FX and Commodities structurer offer at a sub top 5 BB. (Not GS, MS or JPM). There'll be less programming, less quant skills but you get to thoroughly know and create the products. I know for sure that my product knowledge will increase, obviously, but salary has less upside. And I'm a step away from the market. Though I sense that the switch from structuring to trading is natural.
I actually would like a period of 2 years just familiarizing myself with options ONLY if it's valuable for running multi-asset portfolio. (Megafunds PMs can chime in?)
Should I go? My end goal is to be a PM running a portfolio of half a billion. BB will give me product knowledge and create the following path - small HF -> Structuring (2y) -> BB strats (3y) -> PM at megafund trading a whole range of products. (Yippie!)
Staying in my HF could pave a track record of increasing AUM, starting with a modest 2mil.
Sincerely Yours,
Phil
