Students are applying for hundreds of quant and tech internships. Some have better luck than others
Getting a quant internship with a major electronic trading firm, or an engineering role at a prestige tech firm is never easy, but some students have had a much more arduous process than others. We've spoken to multiple interns about their summer internship cycles and found that some only made a handful of applications wile others made hundreds.
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One Asia-based intern told us they applied to just three internships, all for quant firms and received offers from all three of them. It wasn't a cake walk though; he stated that Jump Trading's interview was particularly difficult.
By contrast, a London-based intern said he "applied to everything under the sun, and everything not under the sun." This included opportunities in AI and software engineering, which have arduous application processes. He said "the software engineering ecosystem is fundamentally different to that of quant, so you need to build a CV capable of surviving their respective filtering mechanisms." Engineering roles are supposedly more nitpicky when it comes to specific skills and keywords.
Engineering roles that used to be hot are now out of fashion. Amazon was part of the FAANG bracket alongside the likes of Google and Meta (Facebook), but now those firms are competing with AI labs like Anthropic instead. One US-based student we spoke to said that "a lot of people view Amazon as the low barrier entry. It's the bare minimum."
That student applied to over 500 roles and landed interviews with both quant firms and AI labs. He said that "The fundamental skillset depending on the role is usually the same, but the way they test you is different." He said that AI labs focus more on data structures in their interviews and assess how you explain yourself while you're coding. Quant interviews, meanwhile focus more on probability and statistics. The student said that quant strategist roles, commonly found in banks like Goldman Sachs, involve a mix of both.
It's becoming increasingly common for young talent in this space to strike out on their own and found a startup. The massive number of applications without response might play a role, but the Asian intern said he was entering the space too. "I accepted an offer because I knew the people on the program were good, but I've got my own AI startup," he said. "I'm skipping quant firms and AI labs after that."
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