Put your questions to the coach who can get you a job in electronic trading

However hard it is to get a job at a top investment bank, getting a job at a top electronic trading firm is harder still. Citadel Securities, for example, has an acceptance rate of 0.5% or less. Official figures for rivals like Jane Street aren't available, but are unlikely to be much higher.

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How, then, do you increase your chances of landing one of these jobs, which can pay interns $6k a week? Ash Cross, a coach who specializes in quant careers, has some advice. 

Cross is available until February 19th in the Bubble, our anonymous community, where she will be answering your questions on a daily basis. If you want to put a question to her, you'll need to register first.

We put some questions to Cross ahead of her AMA. This is what she said.

What's your background?

AC: "I have a long background in careers coaching and was the associate director of careers services for the Masters in Computational Finance at Carnegie Mellon University [one of the top courses in the world]. I also began coaching students on how to get into top Masters in Financial Engineering courses earlier this year."

What does a quant careers coach do?

AC: "First I help people to understand exactly what the roles are. People don't know about the different types of opportunities or all the different institutions and they just hop to whatever they think is optimal. For example, there's a big difference between the job of a quant researcher, a quant developer, a trader, and a quant risk manager and people often just try to guess which is best for them.

I help them to make an informed decision and then to use projects to build up the kind of CV that will maximise their chances of success."

What kinds of projects are those? 

AC:  "I might ask someone I'm coaching to go and find a financial data set and to create some novel analysis, or to build a machine learning algorithm that can analyse a transcript. You need projects that show familiarity with the role you're applying to and that demonstrate an understanding of the technical knowledge involved. For example, you'll need to show that you can use Python if you want to work in quant research."

Is it necessary to study an MFE to get a job at these firms now?

AC: "It's not mandatory but I work with a lot of US students with a 4.0 score in their undergraduate degrees who don't have internships close to May. Electronic trading is an incredibly competitive field and if you've studied an MFE you will at least learn the skills and do the projects that will help you get a foot in the door."

Does an MFE pretty guarantee that you'll get a job?

AC: "Weak candidates from MFE courses still won't get hired. When you enter an MFE course you need to be as ready as possible for recruitment. Ideally, you need to complete a minimum of two to three internships. It's a very tough market. A college careers service can only do so much."

What if you simply cannot get into these electronic trading firms?

AC: "There are other options. Walmart and logistics firms hire quant researchers and I've seen an uptick in energy companies hiring quant researchers and traders recently."

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