I'm done...

Hey, sublimity, you are something, I’ll tell you that much. A guy starts a thread because he’s laid off and you hijack it with your self-aggrandizing quant phd spew. Got some news for you, my friend. You see, you need some people skills to make it in the world. The Street is swimming in unemployed phd’s with 10yrs trading experience willing to work for peanuts. I would say you will not make it as far as you think you will but I suspect you won’t even get a foot in the door. Your parents may have been poor but they definitely did not teach you any basic values, my friend. But no worries. Life will step in and beat them into you.

FourCastles, since your reading comprehension is low and your assessment of me is inaccurate, let me enumerate how the posts went down. Please refer to the thread with the following three bulleted points. 1) I told dedalus to keep his chin up since my dad got laid off too. 2) Then JOE2010 says something about my parents. 3) Then I write. Here is an additional free lesson, concerning writing, to complement the cliff notes above: “phd’s” is incorrect since the way you used it was in the possessive form. The way you meant to use it was in the plural form, which goes “phds.” Notice that there is no apostrophe. The same goes for “its” vs. “it’s.”

I’m arguing on the internet with a dude who can’t even read nor get elementary English correct, I guess I lose, lol.

right! if dedalus is a car wreck, sublimity is a train wreck. if you had only 1 unit of sympathy left who would you give it to? train wreck. thank you very much.

Hehe, sublimity. Just keep in mind that we may see each other at one of your interviews, buddy.

FourCastles Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Hehe, sublimity. Just keep in mind that we may see > each other at one of your interviews, buddy. I doubt you are working.

sublimity Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > FourCastles, since your reading comprehension is > low and your assessment of me is inaccurate, let > me enumerate how the posts went down. Please > refer to the thread with the following three > bulleted points. > > 1) I told dedalus to keep his chin up since my dad > got laid off too. > 2) Then JOE2010 says something about my parents. > 3) Then I write. > > Here is an additional free lesson, concerning > writing, to complement the cliff notes above: > “phd’s” is incorrect since the way you used it was > in the possessive form. The way you meant to use > it was in the plural form, which goes “phds.” > Notice that there is no apostrophe. The same goes > for “its” vs. “it’s.” I was not being sarcastic - I remembered the story of your mom(by coincidence in another numi thread you hijacked), and when you mentioned your dad also being laid off, that is not good news for anyone.

I do not feel I am entitled to anything, FourCastles. All I was saying was that I was born poor as sh!t, I am poor as sh!t, and my aging parents are screwed - and that this is good motivation and I’m willing to work psychotically and swim through shit for a shot to get out of my current situation and provide a better life for my parents. I don’t give a f.uck about my phd or CFA charter - the only thing I ever want to be judged on are the quality of my thoughts and my ability to work harder than everyone else. If we ever do meet in an interview and you cut me out simply due to a random internet argument, it is your loss.

JOE2010 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I was not being sarcastic - I remembered the story > of your mom(by coincidence in another numi thread > you hijacked), and when you mentioned your dad > also being laid off, that is not good news for > anyone. I’m sure FourCastles is filled with glee at my family’s misfortune and how f.ucked we are.

Ok, here’s my 2 cents: “the only thing I ever want to be judged on are the quality of my thoughts and my ability to work harder than everyone else”. Except that you will not be. Given that you have a phd/cfa, I assume you want to work in a front office trading position for a good company. Do you have any idea how competitive that environment is, especially today? Forget about working harder than everyone else, everyone else is working their …es off. Forget about quality of your thoughts, you will compete against people with 15 years of trading experience and math phd’s from Cambridge. The guys that WROTE the textbooks you are so busy studying from right now. I guess what I am trying to tell you is, why do you undercut the hard work you put into your education by projecting an image of an immature arrogant idiot on Internet boards? It will only hurt you. To get anywhere, you will need to supplement your hard work and quality of your thoughts (this is taken for granted in the spheres you are aiming for) by good people skills, thick skin, being agreeable and helpful to others and perseverance. You sound like a good guy with a good life story. Don’t trip yourself up with your attitude. And good luck in your endeavours.

Thanks for your comments. If you have read any of my other posts, especially in conversations with posters I respect like mo34 {bchadwick, JoeyDVivre, needhelp, …} you will see I’m humble, respectful, and not arrogant at all. The “arrogance” is more for fun and in jest, if you haven’t noticed - especially when it’s directed towards JOE2010. What the hell am I suppose to write? “I want to make it, but I’m unsure of myself? I don’t know if I will make it?” Furthermore, what the he!! does arguing on the internet (mostly for entertainment purposes) with random dudes have any bearing in real life?

I would say the best attitude is along the lines of: “I love the quant finance field and, frankly, I would do it for free, I am having so much fun doing the stuff. I would love an opportunity to show that I can be helpful to you, dear interviewer, for some two-three years, doing all kinds of low level stuff while I am watching how you do stuff and learn the ropes. I also hope to learn enough so that a few years down the road, I can advance to a position where I can be an independent trader/head trader/make a ton of dough. But, in the meantime, what do you take with your coffee, sir?” But, that may not work for everyone and I am sure other people have different approaches. Anyways, I didn’t mean to preach as long as I did but real life *is* different from the academia. And one more hint for you. You made comments about my command of English grammar. Next time you are interviewing for a quant position, take a look around the room and tell me how many interviewers are native English speakers :).

Well, I have learned a lot by this “argument.” I greatly appreciate your insight and advice, of someone working in the field, despite the initial exchange. On the internet, sometimes you have to go through such crap in order to get meaningful communication and quality information. About your grammar, I noticed you spelled “favourite,” which makes me hear all of this in an English “ark-sent” and envision a conversation over cups of Earl Grey tea and pinkies pointed into the air. Anyways, thanks, FourCastles.

It’s just funny people take sublimity serious.

JOE2010 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > It’s just funny people take sublimity serious. Funny, but probably not as funny as your stupid looking face.

Good luck sublimity, hopefully you crush L2

Any other ideas from anyone on Brazil? I’d really like to do things right when I go there. Looks like I have a job if I want it when I get back (the principals at my firm are starting up another firm). So all is not lost. Strangely enough, I was kind of hoping to be a bum for a while. I can’t tell you how burnt out I’ve been.

FourCastles Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I would say the best attitude is along the lines > of: “I love the quant finance field and, frankly, > I would do it for free, I am having so much fun > doing the stuff. I would love an opportunity to > show that I can be helpful to you, dear > interviewer, for some two-three years, doing all > kinds of low level stuff while I am watching how > you do stuff and learn the ropes. I also hope to > learn enough so that a few years down the road, I > can advance to a position where I can be an > independent trader/head trader/make a ton of > dough. But, in the meantime, what do you take with > your coffee, sir?” > > But, that may not work for everyone and I am > sure other people have different approaches. > Anyways, I didn’t mean to preach as long as I did > but real life *is* different from the academia. > And one more hint for you. You made comments about > my command of English grammar. Next time you are > interviewing for a quant position, take a look > around the room and tell me how many interviewers > are native English speakers :). I agree. I actually never interviewed with a native English speaker. The only locals at the HF where I work are in sales/customer relation of some type (Tall, white, nice looking guys with names that rhyme with …mew :slight_smile: From my experience, I don’t think you need any people skills to make it as a Quant. Nobody gives a sh*** about your people skills. They just care about your programming and math/signal processing skills. If your name is Dog Shit and you know math and C++ you’ll get a job. That’s my personal experience at least. Here’s what they look at, in order of importance: 1 - Audited P/L track record if available. If you did well in 2008, you pretty much don’t need anything else in your resume. 2 - Models developed but not traded. Include a short explanation of each model, assume the reader has a Math Ph.D from MIT, so use the right keywords to show that you know your stuff. 3 - Programming skills (10+ years experience programming bla bla …). 4 - Finance skills, that’s where you list stuff like CFA, FRM, … I believe that FourCastle is correct about how this field is very competitive but, it’s not that hard to make it with determination. Not sure why you say Sublimity is arrogant, I never got this impression. As for hijacking the thread, the OP said he didn’t care anyway and was looking forward to his trip to Brazil.

mo34: good points there, the above may land you a job. But, if you are fresh out of the academia, don’t you need to ask lots of questions just to learn how the markets work? Say, you’ve come up with a nice model that indicates this convertible should be trading at about this level but it’s been trading consistently slightly higher and you want to understand why because maybe you missed something in your model. So you want to be able to ask the guy next to you why that might be so. If you have not been a reasonable guy up until that point, all you will get from her/him is a blank stare and a ‘uhm, no clue …’ even if he/she might know. sublimity: sure, no hard feelings, a heated discussion is always the best way to come up with a better view on things, no? :slight_smile: Also, ‘favourite’ is the correct spelling in Canada/Australia and maybe even New Zealand.

dedalus Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Any other ideas from anyone on Brazil? I’d really > like to do things right when I go there. I’m not from Brazil, but when my buddy came back he showed me the pics. OMFG! If you have half the time he did you’ll be limping within a couple of days… (wait, is that good or bad…)