A Review of How Wall Street Quants Helps Candidates Break into Quant - Is the Hype Worth It?

HFTs and hedge funds are some of the most desired roles today – more sought after than even FAANG - and acceptance rates can be as low as 2% or less.

Given all the recent hype around this quant bootcamp, here’s a closer look into it.

Recap:

While the bootcamp is not as pricey as an MS, it’s not cheap either. It also requires a significant effort and commitment (12 weeks). If you have the time and money, however, the mentorship & structure is very helpful for landing a quant job according to several verified students.

If you’re already able to get to multiple final rounds, however, it’s debatable how much more this bootcamp would help. Also, if you're trying to prepare for interviews lined up for next week, you probably don’t have the time for this.

If you’re able to commit to an intensive 12 week program, however, the program could be well worth the investment. Entry-level quant roles pay $150-300k, so the “ROI” could indeed be fairly significant over your career.

Bootcamp Specifics:

The bootcamp is designed to be a “one-stop-shop”, an “all-in-one” course for quant roles. It not only teaches quant research & trading as done on Wall Street, but also provides preparation for interviews & recruiting.

The quant curriculum looks to provide the experience you would get as an intern or quant analyst at one of these funds. As they say, it’s designed to “give you the experience before you get the experience” and short-circuit the recruiting process.

The capstone quant project they walk you through helps showcase all of your learnings in the best possible way. Some employers are starting to request certification from Wall Street Quants, which they are willing to provide if your capstone project meets strict requirements.

One potential weakness with the curriculum some have found is that they teach coding fairly quickly. They do teach it assuming you know nothing, but they move fast and quickly teach advanced topics. So if you have zero coding skills, you may want to consider that.

The interview prep portion of the program is taught very well according to several verified students. Many have found it very helpful to have a real quant walk you through how to solve some of these hard problems step by step, rather than just reading solutions in a book or pdf by yourself. Also, they don’t just go through solutions, they teach you the foundational concepts in probability, statistics and math as well. While there are not any lessons for fermi problems, this is something they allow you to prepare for in live mock interviews.

A final component of the program is live access to real quants. Throughout the program, you have live access to quants for mock interviews, resume reviews and more. This provides a unique opportunity to learn from people who’ve been through the process successfully.

Overall, the “all-in-one” nature of the Wall Street Quants bootcamp makes it very unique and many students have found it incredibly valuable for breaking into the industry. Obviously, however, consider your own unique situation before enrolling. You can learn more at their website: thewallstreetquants.com