After 10 years working as a quant developer in finance, I find myself forced to pursue a different career in order to feed my family. First of all, "quant" is only my denomination. The firm I worked for (won't call them a company since they don't deserve that) does appear on this site too, apart from the usual glassdoor, with one guy interviewing for them and the common knowledge about it is that it's pretty shitty. I can attest to that For funk's sake, it's not like from my point of view you can describe them as "a $1B fund without a single quant" but even more, they were doing options market making without having a prior guy specialized in that or investing into training an interested guy in that (ME, ME!). The market making desk is long history, not before they attempted a resurrect by hiring some guys (trough internal references of course, if you're not referred and not a billionaire already, you've no chance of making it to this position, and if you're a billionaire you don't need this position anyways). The guys were recently laid off by a big bank (which company lays off it's best employees first?). They enhanced our system to the point where every last half-competent guy resigned, and their enhanced system wasn't able to tell them they're going to go from +5M to -3M in a single day. They weren't laid off since they pulled the argument they only need like $100B to make this work and they're used to those kind of money (yeah, gimme infinite money and I can do anything). Eventually (even) they too left in disgust and I was left alone with the retards. After 10 years I left too. Took me 2 years to get back a little bit of hope and now it's not that bad. I'm payed double as I was while doing stuff that could make or break millions (like tell the traders: "guys, did you notice there's a problem in our system which causes the volatility of commodities XAU, XPT etc not being updated in a year? they didn't, nor did our QA, or our systems, but I'm a systems guy albeit massively overworked and underheard, so I didn't escalate it and to what purpose?). But it's an unrelated domain and having invested 10 years in the prior, I recognize that this is about the amount I'm going to have to invest in this one too (3D graphics for your premium car display) if I'm going to get near to where I'm at now. And don't feel much like it. But what options do I have otherwise? I'd have plenty of options if I had money. But having been born in a wrong geographical place, this means the entire amount of my 18 years of savings equals what I save in a single year while working for my new guys. So it's not like I have many options. For now.
How about using your geographical location to your advantage. Assuming you know other software developers, why not start a software consulting company servicing high cost markets such as the United States. It could start as a small operation and a side job. This venture would require very little risk on your part and could have big upside. Assuming you can deliver, I would consider hiring you for side jobs I get.
Because the company can't hide what they are doing with them around. The rest of your post doesn't fully reconcile, you're a Quant but a Systems Guy. Welcome to the new world where intelligence is punished. Three options, become a minion and keep quiet, go it completely alone knowing everyone will try and stop you, talk to anyone and everyone saying how wonderful your job is in the hope someone will take the bait and hire you to a better environment. There are a million variations, but they will always be a compromise of the three above, keep it simple and pick one, or make it complex and pick something in the margins. The reason, marketing, there are 7.6billion people on the planet, how does one person stand out with minimal capital and no 'celebrity' status or backing, they don't without many years setting the foundation. But, @Aquarians, try Codementor, it's one of the more reliable locations for developers. Have used them ourselves and they are generally higher quality than the others.
>> How about use your geographical location to your advantage. Assuming you know other software developers, why not start a software consulting company servicing high cost markets such as the United States. There are like 1,000 companies all doing that in my area, if by that you mean "textile lohn", sort of like Bangladesh does for your Armani suit. I can't outcompete the race to the bottom in bid price and if you ask me why didn't escalate this thing earlier, it's because the first time I raised the issue I was promptly fired. Thankfully I had a year of savings raised after almost 20 years in the field so I could survive the two months required to find a new job that doubled my peanuts. >> It could start as a small operation and a side job. Assuming you can deliver, I would consider hiring you for side jobs I get. Yeah, me too. I do have money (premium cars business pays pretty well) and I'm considering spending some of them on my "side business". Should not have been a side business in the first place but fuck it, I'm living in a 2nd world country at best (Eastern Europe, Romance language).
Did that for 9.9 years. Didn't work out. You must know me. They fired me the day I let loose. Couldn't even open my computer next day (they were so gentle as not having a security guy block my entrance to it). But I'm *really* working towards a better environment. ME, ME! I'm actually doing that on my own money, sweat and expense.
>> talk to anyone and everyone saying how wonderful your job is in the hope someone will take the bait and hire you to a better environment This desires a deeper discussion. There are no such things a "wonderful jobs". There are "less shitty than the previous" ones, which asymptotically, in 10,000 years converge to "perfect" or "heaven on Earth" or something like that. Only I've already burned trough like 75% of my allowance on this Earth to realize this, and from my time left, 12 hours are hijacked by the new Gulag that pays double than the old Gulag. Yeepee yaay! >> someone will take the bait and hire you to a better environment I've come to realize I've got like 25% left of stamina to do the hard thing and realize there's nobody coming to the rescue. It's going to be all me in building that "a better environment" or ... good luck, I won't be around when, or if that happens. There was a thread here "What is The Purpose Of Life", I must find it and give it a shot.
Before I read in depth much of it, that resembles similarities with my "what would you do if you were teleported back 2000 years?" question. Which, as a rational quant, won't happen anything in the near future (albeit I've got a lovely SciFi story where I inspired myself from). But helps you in realizing two important things which define the "quant" business: 1) You're teleported back or perhaps you're just the same retard sitting here in front of me. You're telling me platitudes about my current domain of expertise (markets), like "markets go down but also go up". 2) My question to you now. And if I can make myself clear, that would be the same question 2000 years ago. And the fact that you "know" the future only excites me further. "How much"? Right now. Who, how much, when? If you can answer them you've got a chance. If not, I don't even have to call the gallows for you, they're coming nevertheless.
You do understand if you don't take the first option it will be made as painful for you as possible, the entire social systems around the world are designed to pull as much capacity out of you with as little pay as possible and absolutely no liability when it goes wrong, that is the purpose of life. Anything but option one and everyone, I mean everyone, will try and make sure your capital and time evaporates, the general way is 'laissez faire'. Gulag, very good, you've experienced some things in life and know how it works. It's all just standard psychology that has been around 1,000s of years, but obscured to such a level that for all intents no one has any idea how it works. You need to decide if you want to work for capital, very few lucrative transactions, or income, daily incremental gains, or both. The deeper discussion is actually very simple, you just have to show you are happy with your life, everyone wants what they can't have, including employers. Can I give you some advice, most people don't have even the faintest idea how life works, I suggest you tone down the narrative a bit, otherwise it normally causes you more issues than it solves. Basically you have the skills but cannot use them, instead of trying to find an environment to be paid to use them, act as a minion of which there are many options (income), and then use your skills separately to enrich your own life (capital). You are trying to find a combined solution in the 'core' of a normal distribution, it didn't work, now go to both of the extremes and try there.
>> @fan27: it could start as a small operation and a side job. This venture would require very little risk on your part and could have big upside. Assuming you can deliver, I would consider hiring you for side jobs I get. Fan, I hope you really have a grip of the environment where you work. The only domain where I can control who and why I hire is on my own money, and on that aspect I'm still destitute, in spite of throwing already 40 years of my life at it. So if you're waving me some corporate option, I'll try to be polite and not say go f** yourself, because I might have been in your situation too. Until I realized the "promotion" upper management gave to me was more responsibility for even less authority. I.e. money to hire competent guys. The last competent guy I recommended to them (couldn't hire it myself) was rejected on charges of "suspected fraud". Like "I told him the questions they'll ask". No I didn't tell him you imbeciles, this was one of the very few guys who I actually consider as being better than me in certain aspects, impression held after spending 4 years with him in high school (pre-college). Best high school (elite) in the county, one of the best guys in my country. I myself was admitted to the best *COLLEGE* in the country, (after admittedly, failing the first time, but nevertheless getting like the 5'th the second time. 1'st if you know where to look at but as I told you, I've had my share of encounters with admitting you're top level stuff so I'm not. I'm the 5'th... at best).