Pivot to quant from another field (science)

[NeuroQuant]

Hello.

I'm interested in Junior Quant Trader/Analyst roles.

I have a Neuroscience BS from a top state school (low GPA of around 3.0) and a master's in Biomedical Sciences (GPA of 3.92). I have experience working in a Neuroscience and Artificial intelligence lab and multiple journal publications. I'm currently doing data analysis for a project with one of my past science professors.

I'm beginning an online second bachelor's degree in Computer Science, including upper-division math courses (probability/stochastic process, etc.), a financial engineering course, machine learning, and others. I'm unsure, however, if I should do so.

My questions are:
-With my background, what path do you recommend to becoming a junior quant trader/analyst?
-How can I build a stronger application?

Any additional advice is appreciated. I appreciate any help you can provide.

 

[TheCheshireCat]

As long as you're passing the resume screens and getting the interview invitations, then you should be preparing for the interviews.

For the HR interview, you should be prepared to answer why you're switching from biomed to quant, and why you're doing a second bachelors. And also other typical HR questions, such as "Why trading?".

For technical interview for quant trader, it depends on the firm but questions are typically on: mental math, brain teasers, probability and expected values, fermi/estimation questions, market making, and game theory. Here's a sample: "Consider a circle. You draw two random chords on this circle. What is the probability the chords intersect?".

If however you are not passing the resume screenings, then you would need to beef up your resume. If I were you, I would probably try to highlight as many relevant math modules, taken in undergrad and masters, as possible. And I'd probably also try to do a relevant project showcasing relevant skills and put that on my resume.

 

[NeuroQuant]

As long as you're passing the resume screens and getting the interview invitations, then you should be preparing for the interviews.

For the HR interview, you should be prepared to answer why you're switching from biomed to quant, and why you're doing a second bachelors. And also other typical HR questions, such as "Why trading?".

For technical interview for quant trader, it depends on the firm but questions are typically on: mental math, brain teasers, probability and expected values, fermi/estimation questions, market making, and game theory. Here's a sample: "Consider a circle. You draw two random chords on this circle. What is the probability the chords intersect?".

If however you are not passing the resume screenings, then you would need to beef up your resume. If I were you, I would probably try to highlight as many relevant math modules, taken in undergrad and masters, as possible. And I'd probably also try to do a relevant project showcasing relevant skills and put that on my resume.

Hello, thank you for your response. This information is good to know!

 

[NeuroQuant]

As long as you're passing the resume screens and getting the interview invitations, then you should be preparing for the interviews.

For the HR interview, you should be prepared to answer why you're switching from biomed to quant, and why you're doing a second bachelors. And also other typical HR questions, such as "Why trading?".

For technical interview for quant trader, it depends on the firm but questions are typically on: mental math, brain teasers, probability and expected values, fermi/estimation questions, market making, and game theory. Here's a sample: "Consider a circle. You draw two random chords on this circle. What is the probability the chords intersect?".

If however you are not passing the resume screenings, then you would need to beef up your resume. If I were you, I would probably try to highlight as many relevant math modules, taken in undergrad and masters, as possible. And I'd probably also try to do a relevant project showcasing relevant skills and put that on my resume.

Hello, I have a follow-up question, what do you recommend I do if I don't have many math classes from undergrad or my master's?

 

[TheCheshireCat]

Hello, I have a follow-up question, what do you recommend I do if I don't have many math classes from undergrad or my master's?

For quant trading, I think that's ok, the questions they ask are highschool level mathematics from my experience (as proof of this, I gave the question in my previous post to a highschool student and they were able to solve it).

For quant research (buy side only, I am not familiar with sell side), honestly you can get asked on such a wide range of stuff in undergraduate mathematics. I've been asked questions from real analysis, multivariable calculus, and statistics. I also got asked questions such as proving that correlation is bounded between -1 and 1, and proving the cauchy schwarz inequality. To prepare, I would focus on studying (in order of importance): probability and statistics, linear algebra, and a bit of calculus. I don't really know any good books for learning these since I learnt these in my undergraduate courses, but introductory books for these shouldn't be too hard to find.

 

[NeuroQuant]

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[NeuroQuant]

For quant trading, I think that's ok, the questions they ask are highschool level mathematics from my experience (as proof of this, I gave the question in my previous post to a highschool student and they were able to solve it).

For quant research (buy side only, I am not familiar with sell side), honestly you can get asked on such a wide range of stuff in undergraduate mathematics. I've been asked questions from real analysis, multivariable calculus, and statistics. I also got asked questions such as proving that correlation is bounded between -1 and 1, and proving the cauchy schwarz inequality. To prepare, I would focus on studying (in order of importance): probability and statistics, linear algebra, and a bit of calculus. I don't really know any good books for learning these since I learnt these in my undergraduate courses, but introductory books for these shouldn't be too hard to find.

Oh wow, that is a wide range. Thank you for your thorough responses. It’s been very helpful. Do you happen to know about quant trader internships? If so, would prepping for a Junior quant trader internship and internship be similar? Do the type of questions they ask for an internship differ from a full time interview?