K|Quant.com

Job Search & Interviewing Resources

This category contains information relating to the job search and interviewing process. I've recently updated this section to include a few links to help you prepare for interviews, as well as a couple of salary surveys to give you an idea of what to expect. I'm planning on adding a section on "finance basics for interviews" but you can get most of this information from introductory text books anyway (see here).

In terms of books, the first two texts specifically address the needs of quantitative finance professionals, whereas the other books cover common interview questions and riddles. Needless to say, none of these books should be relied upon as the only source of information to prepare for an interview.

NEW - If you send me your CV and a statement of what you are looking for, I will have a look at our internal job website to see if I can find anything of interest. Obviously I can't guarantee anything but internal referrals are usually given some amount of preference. I also know a few recruiters who may be able to help.

Salary Survey	One question that comes up once a day on Wilmott is some form of "I'm going to this school and I have two cats and a guinea pig for pets, what will I get paid at a bank?". There are no easy answers because it really depends strongly on the institution you are joining, the exact position you are looking for and, most importantly, your skills. Having said that, there are some guidelines of what people get paid after a few years on the job. These are captured in semi-reliable industry surveys like this one.
Job Categories	Want to get an overview of what a quant does, how the front office is organized or get some basic salary information? This is a very nice paper on this topic. It's slightly dated by now but nonetheless valuable.
Interview Prep	Note: to get access to this link you may need to subscribe to Nuclear Phynance (which I recommend anyway). This .pdf tells you exactly what minimum amount of knowledge you need to have before it is even worth applying for quantitative finance jobs. This document was put together by an experienced recruiter in this field.
Brownian Motion	Just one of many websites that provides readers with a very easy introduction to the properties of Brownian motion. This is very basic stuff, so you should definitely make sure that you know all of this before you go to an interview.
Trading Room	This article provides some interesting insights into how a trading room is organized, what traders do and why the layout of the space and the information flow is so important. For people like myself who spend lots of time on the trading floor, there are no great revelations but it is definitely a nice introduction for those of you who may work in the back office or are only just starting your careers. For other accounts of life on the trading floor you should consider reading Reminiscence of a Stock Operator and of course, the books listed here, including Liar's Poker and FIASCO.
QuantFinanceJobs	This is a less known website for job seekers in the quantitative finance arena. It's nice to see that the available resources for those who are new to the field are expanding rapidly. Just a year ago there were only about two sites that were catering to this demographic.
Quantster.com	Another brand new website; organized like a blog and includes new job listings on a frequent basis. Though the volume of postings is still limited in comparison to sites like Wilmott, NumaWeb, or eFinancialCareers (see here), it is always good to know the alternative options.
Death & Taxes	Like it or not, these are the two certainties in life. When I relocted to the London from San Francisco I was eager to learn how much I would save in taxes by moving here. Not surprisingly, it turns out that I really should have stayed in my home country of Switzerland in the first place to escape this tyranny.
	Heard on the Street (Timothy Falcon Crack) -- This book contains several hundred questions and answers, ranging from simple riddles to more involved finance questions. Some questions are quite helpful to gaining a deeper understanding of the subject.
	Vault Guide to Advanced Finance and Quantitative Interviews (Jennifer Voitle) -- This is mostly a review of basic quantitative finance, covering bond math, Black-Scholes, etc. The book is not bad as a review but there are quite a few typos and inaccuracies.
	How Would You Move Mount Fuji? (William Poundstone) -- This is a collection of questions and puzzles inspired in large part by Microsoft job interviews. I'm not too much of a fan of this book -- the riddles are quite stale by now. Nontheless, it may be a good idea to get a copy of this just to make sure you know all of the well-known questions.
	Duelling Idiots and Other Probability Puzzlers (Paul J. Nahin) -- While not technically focused on interview questions, this text should be regarded as a fun review of basic probability. I really like this book because the author goes out of his way to make it entertaining for the reader. In fact, you may need this book to determine the best strategy for surviving a duel with two adversaries. Also included is Matlab code for some of the questions that are difficult to answer analytically.
	Winning Ways for Your Mathematical Plays (Elwyn R. Berlekamp) -- This is the first part of a series of books dedicated to mathematical puzzles. Berlekamp is well-known for his contributions to theoretical computer science.