Working in a hedge fund / quant finance

Coffee
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I work in big tech companies doing AI/LLM stuff. I did a PhD in AI and have been working ~5 years now.

But: I am, and have for a while now been, interested in finance. Something like being a quant researcher in a hedge fund. I would only be interested in roles that pay more than staff levels in big tech companies.

I am curious if there are any people in this forum who work in such roles, even better if they share something in common with my background.

Essentially I am curious to know: how does compensation look at these places, and how does the working culture compare to the tech industry (mainly in terms of personal autonomy and work/life balance)?

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Good luck?

No direct personal experience* with quant researcher salaries at hedge funds, but plenty with staff levels in big tech. My guess is you’d make a lot less (assuming you include the options you get at staff+ in big tech).

Some of my colleagues at my current company (asset management) are quant researchers with PhDs in Finance. I don’t know how much they make, but their lifestyle makes me think they make a lot less than I used to make at Hoolie.

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Unless you bring your own proprietary trading strategies, you won’t earn even close to what staffers earn in BigTech as a “simple” quant in finance.

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Jacob from ERE worked as a quant for a while with a science background. Maybe he published compensation.

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There should be some info on the wallstreet oasis forum.

Think comp is much more cyclical, since it depends on the funds performance. The ones getting good comp will be the PMs, but they can also get terminated quickly if they don’t perform…
In Finance (more relevant for sales & trading) I was told that if you want good comp you need your own P&L.

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Indeed. With your own P&L and (of course) trading success, the sky is the limit. Working as a quant in a bank on a model desk - which is what most PhDs end up doing, think supporting/end of day valuations, risk management, etc - you’ll have a very good salary… but a high end top will be at 200k or so, i.e. nowhere near bigtech staffers. Unless you make it to managing director of course, which then also requires political and organizational skills.