[QuadmasterXLII]

I mean, usually you just end up trading stonk at Renaissance Technologies or PanAgora. I'm not studying anything finance related and haven't even finished my phd and they've still been actively after me to sell my soul for mid six figures. The worst part was, I did the interviews to get an offer and everyone I talked to was tangibly brilliant- like could really be changing the world instead of this. I almost did it for the money + chance to work with a bunch of actually smart people, but the moral implications barely won out.

[ProjectArcturis]

What moral implications? Quants at RenTech are basically just card counters in the biggest casino in the world.

[QuadmasterXLII]

I came to the conclusion that most likely, taking the job was morally neutral- barely hurting nor helping anyone outside the firm (not specifically RT- don't want to out myself); but that on a larger scale our country is rotting because our most capable thinkers are doing this instead of anything morally positive (solving healthcare, solving the climate crisis, leading the country), and I didn't want to participate in that brain drain.

Looking at my own motivations, one of the big draws of the position was that everyone I talked to at the firm was competent and pleasant, while in domains solving real problems (again for example healthcare and climate) 70% of people I've interacted with are stupid, petty, or both. But stepping back, isn't that state of affairs existentially horrifying? If that status quo persists, will we even survive as a species?

[ProjectArcturis]

Fair. It's really a shame that society incentivizes its smartest to go into finance rather than a positive-sum endeavor. If it's any reassurance, the world has pretty much always been this way.

And I'm pretty surprised everyone you met was pleasant -- that was certainly not my experience at a hedge fund.

[karmakurtisaani]

Knowing what I know now, I would have jumped ship in your shoes in an instant. After 5 years of that work you could be free from working ever again and do whatever you feel like. I've heard that RT for example can pay you up to 1M per year for entry level, and looking at their profit margins I don't really doubt it.

[ourmandave]

Had to look it up.

The starting salary for a research scientist is $170 - $205K.

https://www.rentec.com/Careers.action?researchScientist=true

[karmakurtisaani]

RT has a yearly return averaging around 40%, and the employees only portfolio averages around 70% per year (at least this was the case a few years ago still). I would imagine the major part of the compensation comes from bonuses and the opportunity to invest in the employees only fund.

170k-200k is not that different from ordinary banks, I can't imagine it's all RT would pay.

Edit: had to look up the annual returns and they seem to be a bit different depending on where you look, so take those numbers with a grain of salt. In any case they're consistently the most profitable hedge fund out there.

[vasco]

At those places the real money is made by being allowed to participate in the employee-only investment funds.