RENAISSANCE TECHNOLOGIES, a quantitatively based financial management firm, has openings for programming positions at its Long Island, NY research center. We are looking for bright, outstanding programmers who are interested in working in a stimulating and academic environment to implement and support software used in systematic trading. You would be joining a group of roughly one hundred fifty people, half of whom have Ph.D.s in scientific disciplines. We have a spectrum of opportunities for individuals with the right skills and aptitude. The ideal candidate will have: * Bachelor's, Master's, or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Mathematics, or Physics * Excellent academic record * Strong analytical and programming skills * Experience with software development in a C++ Unix environment We offer: * Extremely high compensation * On-the-job training in finance and technical trading * Intellectually vibrant work atmosphere * Beautiful offices and facilities on our Long Island campus Total expected first-year compensation will range between $125,000 and $250,000, depending on background and experience. Send a copy of your resume to: careers@rentec.com No telephone inquiries. https://www.renfund.com/vm/data_programming.vm Here is your chance PhD´s to show how clever you are ;=)
That isn't 'extremely high compensation' relative to what's offered by the high-end hedgefund and prop shops with whom they're competing for top talent.
Maybe. But OTOH, what often happens is: by the time a firm is glam enough that everyone wants to work there, all the good jobs with real decision-making authority -- and all the equity stakes in the company -- have long since been spoken for.
Agreed. They did 80% in 2008 when most hedge funds fell apart. http://www.marketfolly.com/2010/06/renaissance-technologies-medallion-fund.html
It is more than about money. One of the best jobs I ever had was when two friends of mine decided they were going to form a small tech firm. I was employee number one. One partner had a degree in Algebraic K-Theory, the other in Computer Science. One of the things we would do is once every couple of weeks or so, we would give a talk to each other on whatever we wanted to during working hours. It didn't have to do with anything related to work. As we grew and more people with diverse degrees joined, these talks would get really interesting. One guy was an evolutionary something or other. Another was a particle physicist, and another was an expert on fiber optics and it's use in holograms and quantum mechanics. You don't get this kind of access to really interesting subjects unless you are at a major university. We were spoiled. The atmosphere was really intellectual and very collegiate. It was like a campus. Table tennis games would spring up and were hugely competitive, speed chess games the same, we would all take a break when Star Trek NG came on and watch it together. I even wrote a screenplay for an STNG episode. The point is that unless you have worked in this sort of environment before you don't know that there is no difference between work and fun. I think RenTec is this sort of company, and hey, last but not least the pay is very good. I wrote some of the most interesting C++ code I have ever written at this place. The people I worked with appreciated the beauty of the code.
Not sure if you read my prior post -- this was exactly my point, the difference between being 'employee number one' in a startup and being employee number 1000 in an established, successful firm. There are +s and -s to each, and it's largely a matter of taste. Some talented people would prefer to be a cog in an established firm, with lots of perks and status; others would prefer to be at an edgy start-up that takes on the established firm. Point is, there's no free lunch. The big, glamorous firms use their reputation as a currency, with which they can buy great people, without having to give them equity or decision-making authority. It's not unheard of for talented PhDs at the very top-tier firms to be wasting their time with data-cleaning & etc. Those firms can and do pile up PhDs and top coders like cord-wood. The same is true at the most glamorous, successful tech firms.
I saw your post, but I think that the pluses outweigh the minuses. While RenTec is probably nowhere near as fun to work for as when there were twenty employees, there is no reason it can't be pretty fun to work there with 250 or whatever small number it is, and make good money. As you get older, you have to give up a little on the fun in order to make money. Some of us don't have to, but most of us do.
That's all true, but I'd add -- is it "fun" if you're a PhD who's in a cubicle doing data-cleaning all day? I know for a fact that's been the fate of some PhD-level hires at name-brand quant shops. Buy, hey! -- they have a great assortment of fruit juices in the kitchen, and cool lectures by scientists every week...