Spring Into Quant Finance Review

Each day, a senior member of the company gave a talk about the company and its various aspects. We also participated in three workshops on finance, statistical programming, and machine learning. In between the sessions, during mealtime, and after the programme for the day finished, we had a chance to speak to the quants and ask them what it actually is like doing QF and working for G-Research, as well as what is necessary to be successful in the job. We also socialised with other participants and had a lot of fun!

My perception of quant finance was improved and now I understand that doing quant research is quite similar to conducting research in an academic environment. We got to know the different tools quants use in various departments (NLP, ML models, all kinds of data), however, they didn't really tell us what precisely they do on the job which is understandable considering how much money is at stake. We had a choice to choose between three levels of proficiency in the ML session. The finance workshop was quite fun and it taught us how stock market works in a playful way.

We got a chance to speak to the quants, the Head of Research, recruiters, and heard from the CEO, which overall gave us a clear picture of what it is like working for the company. The role the week was concerned with is a quant researcher, however, there are various departments or aspects of QF a quant can specialise in.

I really like that the atmosphere feels similar to working in academia and that most of the quants have a PhD. It seems that the company is quite laid back and the people working there are nerdy (in a good way!). What was quite surprising to learn is the fact that there is only a single-digit percentage of female quants in G-Research, however, they have an outreach programme to bring more women/non-binary people into the company.

It was a pleasure to participate in this programme as I got to learn a lot about QF in general, about G-Research and what it's like to work there, and I met a lot of like-minded people from all around the world with similar interests. The insight week took place in a 5-star hotel used solely by us for the week, and both the location and the services were absolutely amazing!

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My advice is to prepare well for the test as it is essentially your ticket to the insights week - you should practice simple probability exercises, brain teasers, finance basics and some light ML maths background.