I've seen the same thing. Until about 3 years ago off market hours were still pretty easy to fill. There's been pretty big consolidation in the trading world and most new firms now are going super high tech and don't typically carry positions or run during off hours. STEM kids have a lot of options now and big data now seems more appealing than trading. Also, lately YES apparently means maybe. It seems like it's become socially acceptable to accept a job offer and then turn it down the day before they were supposed to start. Really weird. I blame recruiters.
I think that's the key. The guys who used to go into quant trading are in demand all over. Plus, it's hard, tricky work and it's less glamorous now, after 2008. My little field is even trickier, since I am not HFT but rather "old school with a new twist" which requires a confluence of multiple skills. Yeah, so true. I used to think that a handshake is good enough - in fact, two of my previous jobs I accepted at the handshake level before even seeing the paper offer. "It's done". Here, two people in a row accepted verbally only to say that "I see better away" a week later.
If you are interviewing Millennials you better do some research on them. You are not going to like them.
Could you elaborate? I am interviewing people right out of school to 2-3 years out of school. It's been pretty random so far, not too many people that struck me as "oh, shit, I want that gal/guy" and a lot of people that I'd go "no bloody way". But I did hand out two offers... To be fair, my previous junior was of the same generation (maybe a few years older) and she was hands down the best person I've ever worked with.
That is a bit harsh, the Millennials bring a unique set of skills...skills that might appear irrelevant and useless at first glance but could possibly provide value down the road. Do you need someone that can play a mean Ukulele while discussing the nuances of Bulbasaur in Pokemon Go???? Millennials can fulfill that need without any ramp up time...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennials The word "entitled" seems to come up a lot when describing them. These are the same kids that in college wanted "safe spaces" where you can't say anything mean to them in that space.
"Twenge attributes Millennials with the traits of confidence and tolerance, but also identifies a sense of entitlement and narcissism based on personality surveys that showed increasing narcissism among Millennials compared to preceding generations when they were teens and in their twenties." Scary. Really scary. I think these two are the worst possible traits for the kind of stuff we are doing.
While the Millennials are an annoying bunch, I do find it a bit telling that literally every older generation says that about the younger generation's. The "silent generation" said it about the "baby boomer's". The "baby boomer's" said that about the Gen X'er's, etc, etc...