Stay in a small HF or move to UBS?

[TheNeo]

I'm currently a junior quant researcher at a very small (15 ppl, ~250 AUM) credit hedge fund in London. Work is interesting but there are very few quants around and I feel I could be learning more than I am. Base is 50k.

I might soon get an opportunity to join UBS Front Office Portfolio Quantitative Analytics team with the following description of the role:

"You will be working in the Front Office Portfolio Quantitative Analytics team in London. We provide pricing and exposure models, analytics and tools to traders and risk managers globally. We cover traditional XVAs and Capital e.g. CVA, FVA, IMM model for Credit RWA, together with SIMM."
Salary will likely be a bit higher but not much.

I'm not sure what's best to do. In the Bank I'll work with more quants which is a plus, however from my understanding people usually want to go from sell-side to buy-side rather than other way around.
Advice appreciated.

 

[lolalin]

I'm afraid I cannot provide any advice, but I do have a question. Are Quant salaries in London this low? I thought the average for quant in London is ~75k GBP.

 

[seamusfinnegan]

I'm currently a junior quant researcher at a very small (15 ppl, ~250 AUM) credit hedge fund in London. Work is interesting but there are very few quants around and I feel I could be learning more than I am. Base is 50k.

I might soon get an opportunity to join UBS Front Office Portfolio Quantitative Analytics team with the following description of the role:

"You will be working in the Front Office Portfolio Quantitative Analytics team in London. We provide pricing and exposure models, analytics and tools to traders and risk managers globally. We cover traditional XVAs and Capital e.g. CVA, FVA, IMM model for Credit RWA, together with SIMM."
Salary will likely be a bit higher but not much.

I'm not sure what's best to do. In the Bank I'll work with more quants which is a plus, however from my understanding people usually want to go from sell-side to buy-side rather than other way around.
Advice appreciated.

1) how many years of experience?
2) what type of quantitative research do you do in the fund?
2) how do you find small hedge funds like this?
3) whats your academic background?

 

[TheNeo]

1) how many years of experience?
2) what type of quantitative research do you do in the fund?
2) how do you find small hedge funds like this?
3) whats your academic background?

1) almost 2 years (however previously was a data scientist, have been a quant for 7 months).
2) library quant + researching trading strategies
3) accidentally found via linkedin, unless you're asking how do I find the work in there?
4) BSc + Msc Maths & Stats from a top uni

 

[seamusfinnegan]

1) almost 2 years (however previously was a data scientist, have been a quant for 7 months).
2) library quant + researching trading strategies
3) accidentally found via linkedin, unless you're asking how do I find the work in there?
4) BSc + Msc Maths & Stats from a top uni

whats the difference between a data scientist and a quant? were you a data scientist in the same fund?

3) i just think its hard to find small funds

 

[TheNeo]

I'm afraid I cannot provide any advice, but I do have a question. Are Quant salaries in London this low? I thought the average for quant in London is ~75k GBP.

I'm on the lower end I would say. Not sure what's the average

whats the difference between a data scientist and a quant? were you a data scientist in the same fund?

3) i just think its hard to find small funds

I was a data scientist in another company which provided financial services but wasn't a hedge fund or anything like that.

Definitely, I just stumbled upon by reading some research paper

 

[seamusfinnegan]

How did this go?

 

[Bruce W]

Heard shops like Maven Securities pays 100k for fresh grad and stuff