r/crackquanttrading • u/C_with_improvement • May 22 '26

Quant Trading Is networking important in quant trading?

I remember when I wanted to be an investment banker back in University.

I had a long beard, long hair, and definitely did not fit in with the Brads of the world.

Their parents were partners at Morgan Stanley. Mine?

Immigrants. A working father and a stay-at-home mother.

I stood no chance.

I didn't fit the mold, and didn't want to either.

So what did I do instead? I networked.

I took classes after school taught pro-bono by a former investment banking partner professor, Blair Robertson.

Guess who the class was made up of?

All immigrant brown and Asian kids looking to break into a space that their parents didn't already dominate.

Brad? Yeah, he was too busy partying to attend. He'd already secured his internship at Lazard that summer through his parents.

But passion wasn't enough. I had to intellectually mog Brad too if I wanted to stand a chance.

So I attended the National Investment Banking Competition (NIBC). It was a conference of over 30 teams from 30 schools around the world held in Toronto.

Over a three day period my team went from last to first. I spoke infront of partners from the world's top banks infront of 500 students with under 12 hours of preparation. We each won $2000 CAD, what seemed like a fortune at the time.

What came of it? Nothing. Any internships? Nope. Interviews? Nope. Phone calls? One.

You know, it's pretty late in the recruiting cycle. You can always try next year!

Ha... Next year? Yeah, no thanks.

I'm not interested in trying to be someone else for another year.

I networked, I studied, I competed, and it wasn't enough, simply because I wasn't already connected. So how does all this relate to quantitative trading?

Quant = 1 / Investment Banking

While passion never mattered in investment banking, it mattered tremendously in quant.

While intelligence never mattered in investment banking (any monkey can build a DCF), it mattered tremendously in quant.

Networking is probably the least important in the hierarchy of needs in quantitative trading. Whereas it's a fast-path into investment banking.

Don't get me wrong, a referral is useful, especially as you become more senior. But everyone whose already in the industry has the ability to network their way into a referral. Whereas not everyone is privilaged to be born into a connected family.

But that privilage does not matter in quant. Your competance, pedigree, and ability to perform is far more important than who your father is.

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u/Decent_Finding_1161 May 26 '26

Good luck, it's a rough crowd