How You Can Break Into Quant

I've been a quant researcher at a hedge fund in London for three years. Since I started @heidioftheeast about a year ago, the question I get most is "how do I get into quant?". This post is for students and anyone still working out their path.

First, a reality check. A lot of the people you'll be competing with were doing olympiad maths at 15. That's not an exaggeration - it's the norm at the top firms. But it's not the only way in. Plenty of us got here by grinding for years working through problems from beginner level upwards, learning to code properly, applying, getting rejected, applying again.

There's also luck. You'll get auto-rejected by firms whose interviews you would've passed. You'll go into an interview feeling prepared and realise twenty minutes in that you weren't. You can't control that. You can control how prepared you are.

One more thing before we start. "Quant" covers different jobs. Quant researchers, quant traders, and quant developers. The interviews are different. Know which one you're going for.

Part 1: the foundation

Math first

Probability, statistics, linear algebra, calculus, then stochastic calculus (important if you want to work on derivatives). Every model and every backtest sits on top of these, and if your maths is weak, you won't be able to tell a real effect from noise.

Many top quants did maths competitions in school, like IMO and national olympiads, then Putnam at university. That's who you're up against. The good news is that all of this can be learned. If you don't have a maths degree, give yourself at least 12 months of consistent work. An hour or two a day adds up faster than you think.

Code and programming

You'll write more Python than you'll do maths. Most of the day is cleaning data, joining datasets, running backtests and finding out why a number changed. Learn by building. Download free price data, write your own backtest in pandas and numpy, then look for bugs in it. You'll learn more from your own bugs than from any reading or course.

C++ is required for trading and low-latency roles. For research roles, strong Python is enough. For interviews, start with LeetCode. Move to Codeforces when medium LeetCode problems are easy for you. Interviews test standard algorithms and data structures. Do a few problems every day for a year.

Poker and chess (only if you're actually good)

Jane Street, SIG, Optiver, IMC are scouting top players for one reasons - they're screening for talent who can make high stakes decision under uncertainty without falling apart. They already think in probabilities, expected value, and risk. That's most of the job. Learn how to play poker and chess. Get a high rating, a competitive or titled record, and put it on your resume. That's one proof that you can perform under pressure.

Part 2: Get past the filter

School brand

Yes, school brand is still pretty much in quant hiring blueprint. Multistartegy hedge fund like Citadel, Point72, Two Sigma and Balyasny still care a lot about where you studied - especially in the US, UK and India.

Firms like Jane Street, Optiver, IMC and Squarepoints are more open to candidate from non-target school, as long as you have other stellar background on your profile. That said, "more open" doesn't mean easy. You still need to be obviously better than the target-school kids in the same pile.

Near perfect GPA

So if you are not in target school, then you need a near perfect GPA to increase your chance to pass CV filter. Many firms filter CVs on grades before a human recruiter ever reads them. Target-school students get some slack because the university name does part of the work.

Your majors

If you are picking a major or planning a pivot into quant, this is where the marginal hire is going. According to BLS Occupational outlook and industry surveys, the most hired major in quant roles in 2025 are:

• Computer science
• Mathematics
• Statistics
• Masters in Financial Engineering (MFE)
• Physics
• Data Science/Machine Learning
• Engineering
• Economics
• Operational Research
• Quantitative Finance/Mathematical Finance

Will other major outside those 10 will make cut in quant? It depends. It depends on your achievement, internship, experience or other project you did outside your classroom (see part 3 and part 4)

If you are in high school right now, you still have time to you make your way to studies in either of those majors for your undergraduate, preferably in target school and do some math competitions. But if you finished your undergraduate and your major isn't one of them, you can pair it with a master's degree to reset your profile.

A PhD isn't the sole requirement to break into quant, I don't have a PhD either and most of us didn't hold a PhD. If you enjoy the research part, do the PhD, but if you think doing a PhD will get you a quant seat, don't. You are just wasting your time.

Networking, referral, and headhunter

I've been in the buyside for 7 years now. Hedge funds and most other buyside firms have referral scheme. I can tell you that referral does help a lot to get you an interview - not just in quant role but also analyst or equity research roles.

For career transition, you’re probably better off finding an excellent headhunter that will put you in touch with specific hiring managers. This will save you a lot of work and increase your chances. A good headhunter is a valuable asset because they can help you with material to prepare for an interview. Additionally, they tend to aggregate knowledge about what matters in which interviews. So, ask people about recommendations for headhunters and not for referrals. Also, try to find out which headhunters people have had positive experiences with.

For students, start message alumni, join any business/investment/finance club where you can meet up with people in the industry. You could try to reach out working quants on LinkedIn. Ask something specific and keep it short. Never straight to "can you refer me?" - if you're lucky, they will reply.

Bottom line: a referral gets you the interview and it doesn't get you the offer.

Part 3: Stand out and get notice

Trading competitions

I keep mentioning this on weekly AMA that sponsored firms competition like Citadel Datathon, IMC Prosperity, Jane Street's Estimathon is A direct pipeline to a hiring pool. Every year they organize this usually in collaboration with university. Participating to the competition is the fastest way to get your resume notice - no matter where's you study.

I’ve listed several quant events and competitions for Q4 2026 at this link.

Publish papers at tier 1 venue

This is the most underrated ones. NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR. Quant firms show up and sponsored at these conferences because that's where they scouting and recruit researchers. A workshop paper is fine as long as the research is focus towards mathematics and quant related topic. We read and review papers from NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR for our research, if it's great we usually tracked down the authors and encouraged them to apply.

Read here for papers that quant reads

Build projects

Backtest a strategy with transaction costs and no lookahead bias - most student backtests are wrong, and interviewers know it. Write an options pricer. Run models on public market data. Contribute to an open-source quant library. Put it on GitHub with a README someone can actually follow. One project you understand inside out.

Part 4: Close the deal

Practise interviews

There's no standard number of rounds. It depends on the firm, the role and your background. I had six or seven because I was switching careers. Most processes are built from these stages, in roughly this order:

• Online assessment - timed, usually on HackerRank or CodeSignal.
• HR call - short and nontechnical.
• Technical phone or video interviews - probability, statistics, linear algebra and brainteasers, solved live with a researcher. Often more than one.
• Coding interview - live, usually Python. Either algorithms and data structures or data manipulation.
• Take home or data case study - not every firm does this. You get a dataset and a few days to find something in it, then you defend your approach.
• Final round - several interviews back to back with researchers/trader/engineers and PMs.

I've heard people much fail in the interviews because they panicked. Staying calm while someone watches you get things wrong is a skill. Do mock interviews out loud with friends who are also applying, and push each other with follow-ups.

Insight days and first-year programmes

Most quant firms run short programmes for first- and second-year students. Jane Street calls theirs INSIGHT or FTTP. Others call them insight days or discovery days. They run from one day to a week, with trading games, puzzles, talks from researchers and traders, and time with the people who hire interns.

Apply to every one you're eligible for. Some firms use them to fast-track people into the next year's internship interviews. Even when they don't, you go through a real application process early, and you have something relevant on your CV before your penultimate year.

Get internships early

Most full-time quant hires come through intern conversion. In the UK that's usually your penultimate-year summer. Many US firms recruit as early as sophomore year.

At most funds, a quant internship means a real research problem, ten to twelve weeks to work on it, and a presentation at the end. Your return offer depends mostly on that project. They want to see how you set up the problem, how you checked your results, and whether you were honest about what didn't work.

Internship applications open early, often from July to September and October to November for the following summer, and many firms hire on a rolling basis. Apply as soon as roles open.

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