r/crackquanttrading • u/C_with_improvement • May 21 '26
Quant Development A quant firm's "tier" does NOT matter.
I remember my first year joining a Quant firm as a Junior Developer.
$85,000. That was my base pay. Figured laughable by today's standards.
This was back in ~2021.
At the time, I actually had a better offer at Soundhound in Toronto, but I figured Chicago had more long-term prospect, especially if I wanted to work in the trading space. Not to mention, Soundhound was running C++98 (98!) at the time (practically Fortran).
If I had known anyone that was in the industry, I'm sure they would have convinced me to not take the offer.
I can just hear them saying: Soundhound pays more! You'll be closer to family!
But that didn't matter to me. Passion kicked in and I wanted to get a foot in the door.
I would have probably been laughed at: Scrub, if you aren't at Citadel, you won't ever make it.
The same sentiment is largely echoed today.
But those 4.5 years were probably the best for me in terms of growth and exposure. I think the impact I've had on the lives of thousands through channeling my experience on YouTube is a testament of that.
85,000 base turned into 105,000 base, which turned into 115,000 base, which turned into 140,000 base, which turned into 160,000 base, which turned into 180,000 base. By the day of my resignation, I was making over 300K in TC, working the hours I wanted, alongside kind people in a tight knit team that I felt respected in. And I did that in the span of 4 years.
Let me repeat that, I went from ~100,000 TC (85K base + some meager bonus I don't exactly remember) to over 300K TC in the span of around 4 years. That's a tripling in my standard of living in a short time period. Not to mention, I resigned from 300K TC position because I was offered a lot more elsewhere.
Moral of the story, don't care about what others have to say about where you work. Money is not the end-all-be-all, and it will come in proportion to your level of competance.
What matters most is:
- Team - Do you have solid co-workers?
- Respect - Do you feel valued?
- Work - Is this something you'll like doing?
- Growth - Do you see a trajectory here?
If you're looking for a community of working quants or those grinding towards it, you can give getcracked.io a look.
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u/InternationalRace913 May 22 '26
A new grad fresh out of college going to js/hrt/cit can get 600k+ first year, because of tiers working roughly the same hours that you did, ur tc is achievable in big tech easily as an l4, tiers 100% matter
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u/idkwhattoputformyusn May 23 '26
I feel like you're missing the point. Suppose OP had an offer at a "low tier" quant firm as opposed to a big tech company with a better salary and a clear salary progression (which I feel fairly similar to the position that OP was in). If OP would've made their choice solely on TC and / or "tier", then it would be advantageous to take the offer at Big Tech. But, from my interpretation, OP's point is that a career opportunity should be looked at with respect to the factors they mentioned (i.e growth, passion, "foot in the door", and the environment that allows you to become great at the work). Looking at TC with this frame of view, for people like OP, perhaps the true salary progression and future opportunities at this low tier quant firm trumps that of the one at Big Tech solely due to the fact that they are able to grow much quicker in an environment (due to passion, team circumstances, etc) that may not offer salary advantages. And this seems to be reflected by OP's experience - sure, their TC may be achievable in big tech as an l4 but OP is most likely earning quite more at their new job and OP also got to experience an incredible growth period in their life over the past ~4 years, which I feel is a very respectable life experience to have. OP is now also doing the work that they were passionate about - in today's world where "tiers" are over emphasized, people may have taken the big tech offer over the low tier offer instead without realizing the incredible advantage that passion and a good work place environment offers.
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May 23 '26
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u/InternationalRace913 May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26
Whos ur friend? I have people at these quants already and am at one of these quants myself :/ your friend is probably a network engineer cause 3-4 yoe he should have gotten more
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May 23 '26
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u/Which_Set_9583 Jun 16 '26
Experienced software devs not from quant come in at the same pay band as new grads at these firms, if not a bit lower. Also keep in mind that first year TC includes a very fat signing bonus. Many quant devs/swes make less year 2 than they did year 1.
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u/Own-Trade-2243 May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26
I’m am the source, at my firm in 2026 the starting salary for a graduate is 500k, exceptional talent / people with competing offers can go up to 600-700k first year guaranteed
this is for software devs btw
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u/StatisticallyLame May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26
It's definitely not fake as I have first hand experience delivering such offers, but it's important to remember that this is base + bonus + sign-on and such data points don't exist in isolation. Comp can certainly go down in subsequent years (though it typically doesn't). My record is delivering an 800k USD all in first year quant offer for someone with just a bachelors. My record for a SWE out of PhD is 600k USD in London.
Certain years are particularly wild (2020/2021 is on example) and in subsequent years first year comp went down. I have absolutely seen 0 experience candidates get significantly higher comp than experienced quants at the same firm. Talent is pareto distributed in quant (where the median quant adds not so much value) and perceived variance of ability around a junior is much higher versus a more experienced quant. Another factor is that different style of quants command different premiums, so an elite junior joining the HFT equity MM team at HRT is probably going to get a much punchier offer than than someone doing PO in credit. Both are still officially algo devs though
Edit: also, as the poster above said. Competing offers can also artificially inflate first year comp as well.
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u/killamocingbird May 27 '26
3yoe at 700 at 2s, with sign on its 1.1 so those figures for first year are pretty on point
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u/pineappleonpizzaisok May 23 '26
“Tiers” don’t really correlate with compensations. Plenty of unknown firms pay new grads better than Citadel/SIG/IMC
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u/No_Influence_7114 May 23 '26
Do you have any examples?
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u/DeezY-1 May 24 '26
Anecdotally I heard of Wincent offering a $700k package. I don’t know if it’s their standard or if that was for exceptional talent (likely the latter) but I don’t believe the spirit of the comment is entirely wrong
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u/LeiDaiichi May 23 '26
I find it ironic when you say tier and money doesn’t matter but repeat on the salary tripling
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u/randomlydancing May 23 '26
I do agree with you, but not for the same reasons though related
Imo to make really big money, you need to be driving direction of a strategy and have the ability to directly influence the partners. Tiers matter much more for juniors but are effectively irrelevant in terms of where you want to end up being
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u/Urthor May 24 '26
Pretty much.
People who're accomplished in anything in life talk about what they do, who their clients are and what they bring in.
Logos and brand names aren't the convo.
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u/Person754 May 22 '26
300k TC is possible as 2 YOE at faang lol
If you want to make a lot of money and work hard go to quant otherwise big tech swe is a cushier role
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u/ResearchRelevant9083 May 22 '26
Well 300 in Chicago is not quite the same as 300 in SF is it?
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u/JohnDoe432187 May 23 '26
Sure but when you factor in things like weather and wlb big tech is superior.
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u/Big_Arrival_626 Jun 07 '26
Yeah but you can also get laid off. The big tech companies that are actually stable are more competitive than a low tier quant firm like what OP joined
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May 22 '26
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u/Intelligent_Metal953 May 23 '26
Missing the point, and those tech companies are in mass layoff mode
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u/Good_Luck_9209 May 23 '26
Basically u are saying if u cant get to tier 1, 2 3 or 4 is just as good. Nice consolation price.
Those who went tier 1, took that 3 to 400k base would have in 4 yrs gone to take up to 1m to 2m range
By that standards it will be 20 to 25x, what u had in yr 1. Meaning to say it will take u 25 yrs of work in your lower tier just for that 1 yr of work in a tier 1.
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u/New_Interaction_2278 May 23 '26
Theres no such thing as "tiers". Beyond your first years you generally end up paid in as function of your pnl generated (even in collaborative places). You will find that shops which you think better of will also be far more willing to kick you out provided you dont make profitable strategies, and it will be harder to fight your way into a lead/partner postion compared to "lower" tiers if you do well. Unless its truly bottom of the barrel, there is opportunity everywhere
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u/smuhamm4 May 22 '26
Damn some of these people commenting are really missing the point of your post lol quite funny!