A degree from a top school certainly helps. A masters or PhD in something like math or physics would be even better. I wouldn't say those are prerequisites but

A degree from a top school certainly helps. A masters or PhD in something like math or physics would be even better. I wouldn't say those are prerequisites but they would at least guarantee you an interview. If you don't have that, I would focus some effort on push based networking through any existing contacts you have. Get coffee with friends or friends-of-friends in similar positions and ask them about their job, if they're hiring, etc. For interviewing, my experience in college was similar to @neerkumar's -- math and specifically statistics is going to be the most important. I applied to a Jump Trading internship just to see what the process was like. I was asked to solve 3-5 short puzzles, mostly based on probability and game theory. That was enough for me to know this isn't the field for me. ;) I'm terrible at math so didn't get much further than that! I'm not sure what the coding components would be like, but it definitely depends on what position you're applying for. Some, like DevOps positions, probably don't even rely on the math, but you would get to work with really cool tech in low latency trading systems. Wall St Oasis [0] is the go-to forum for this sort of subject, you might want to check it out. A quick google brought up this forum post [1]. In terms of companies to look at, you should be searching for "prop trading firms". Here's a nice list. [3] [0] https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/ https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/ [1] https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/the-road-to-becoming-a-quant https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/the-road-to-becoming-... [3] http://www.traderslog.com/proprietarytradingfirms http://www.traderslog.com/proprietarytradingfirms