5 ms·

Dunno why that's surprising to the author. Those tech companies will pay for a good data scientist about 2x what a hedge fund would pay the same person initiall

Dunno why that's surprising to the author. Those tech companies will pay for a good data scientist about 2x what a hedge fund would pay the same person initially. Hedge funds and finance company pay will increase more over time though, once they have a good track record.

argonaut 10y ago
Hedge funds and quant finance pays way way way more than Google/Facebook/etc. To whatever extent they have trouble attracting researchers it's because you will never be able to publish anything or talk about your work in a finance firm. Academia is status/reputation/ego driven (not that there's anything wrong with this).
- Teodolfo 10y ago
  How much do they pay? And how is the pay structured?
  - argonaut 10y ago
    It is heavily bonus centric. In theory it is unlimited, based on how much you make the firm, which is why you could theoretically make millions any given year (rare). My friends in quant finance made more than 200k guaranteed their first years (not including performance bonus), and they did not have graduate degrees. It went up to more than half a million in a few years (including bonus).
    - eanzenberg 10y ago
      Are they in more research oriented roles? A basic good Quant Analyst at Google or Data Scientist, Analytics at Facebook will easily clear 200k but these aren't machine learning research experts.
      - argonaut 10y ago
        Are those masters/PhD's? My data points were people with no graduate degrees. The ramp up and ceiling is much higher in finance. First year salary for someone with a bachelors in a finance company may be comparable to someone with a masters/PhD in a tech company, sure.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
busterarm 10y ago
Most of the tech people I know working in finance are very disillusioned. The common complaint is that regardless of performance, their pay increases and bonuses end up being shit YOY and that the only way to make serious money is to hop from company to company every year. One friend who builds trading infrastructure has increased his pay from $180k to north of $480k just by doing this and is about to go to his 5th or 6th fund (in roughly as many years). He kills it, ends up getting the token bonus they give tech people, waits out his non-compete and leaves. They treat tech talent as commodity just as much as anywhere else. The other downsides being you usually can't trade your own account while employed. Said friend would prefer to start a fund soon rather than keep this up as he'd rather be able to trade.

argonaut 10y ago

Hedge funds and quant finance pays way way way more than Google/Facebook/etc. To whatever extent they have trouble attracting researchers it's because you will never be able to publish anything or talk about your work in a finance firm. Academia is status/reputation/ego driven (not that there's anything wrong with this).

Teodolfo 10y ago
How much do they pay? And how is the pay structured?
- argonaut 10y ago
  It is heavily bonus centric. In theory it is unlimited, based on how much you make the firm, which is why you could theoretically make millions any given year (rare). My friends in quant finance made more than 200k guaranteed their first years (not including performance bonus), and they did not have graduate degrees. It went up to more than half a million in a few years (including bonus).
  - eanzenberg 10y ago
    Are they in more research oriented roles? A basic good Quant Analyst at Google or Data Scientist, Analytics at Facebook will easily clear 200k but these aren't machine learning research experts.
    - argonaut 10y ago
      Are those masters/PhD's? My data points were people with no graduate degrees. The ramp up and ceiling is much higher in finance. First year salary for someone with a bachelors in a finance company may be comparable to someone with a masters/PhD in a tech company, sure.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]

busterarm 10y ago

Most of the tech people I know working in finance are very disillusioned. The common complaint is that regardless of performance, their pay increases and bonuses end up being shit YOY and that the only way to make serious money is to hop from company to company every year. One friend who builds trading infrastructure has increased his pay from $180k to north of $480k just by doing this and is about to go to his 5th or 6th fund (in roughly as many years). He kills it, ends up getting the token bonus they give tech people, waits out his non-compete and leaves. They treat tech talent as commodity just as much as anywhere else. The other downsides being you usually can't trade your own account while employed. Said friend would prefer to start a fund soon rather than keep this up as he'd rather be able to trade.