You are on the right path. Quant is a bit of a catch all term for risk/traders/developers that work with financial instruments. Learn about different financial

You are on the right path. Quant is a bit of a catch all term for risk/traders/developers that work with financial instruments. Learn about different financial products and the different quant positions. Understand that Quants at IBanks and Quants at hedge funds do drastically different things (as an IBank quant myself - you don't want this job). And even those at hedge funds vary based on the instruments they trade in and how the firm operates (quant vs fundamental). Many quants are simply risk analysts. The quant positions that make the most money are typically quant traders or PM's that run a quant/hft book (see Jane Street/Two Sigma etc). Those positions definitely require a PhD or masters in applied math/physics/comp sci. I would recommend talking to recruiters (try contacting GQR) about positions in the field.