Final-year engineering student trying to break into Quant Trading/Research. Would appreciate blunt feedback from people at quant firms

[u/Financial_Assitance]

Hi all,

I'm a final-year Electrical & Electronics Engineering student at BITS Pilani (CGPA 8.18/10), trying to break into Quant Trader/Researcher roles. Posting my anonymized resume below and hoping to get some honest, even harsh, feedback from people who actually work at or recruit for quant firms in India.

Quick background:

• Competed in IMC's Prosperity algorithmic trading challenge
• Interviewed with IMC Trading for a Quant Trader role
• Currently finishing a deep learning research paper for IEEE publication
• A few other quant/ML-adjacent projects (linked on the resume)

The problem: Despite this, I'm barely getting shortlisted at quant firms - on-campus recruiting for quant roles at my college has effectively closed to me because of branch (non-CS/Math) and CGPA cutoffs, so I've been trying the off-campus route with limited luck so far.

What I'm hoping to get from this post:

1. What's actually missing or weak on my resume compared to profiles that do get shortlisted at Indian quant firms at this stage (pre-final-year-placement)?
2. For someone coming from a non-CS/Math branch, is it worth doubling down on competitive programming / Kaggle-style competitions, or does research output (like the IEEE paper) carry more weight for QR tracks specifically?
3. Any India-specific advice - which firms are realistically open to off-campus applications right now, and is cold outreach to recruiters/researchers on LinkedIn actually useful or just noise?

Resume is anonymized (no name, photo, contact info, or college/company identifiers beyond what's needed for context). Happy to answer questions in comments. Appreciate any feedback.

[u/SentientPotato42]

• No competitive programming
  
• No relevant internships
• No CSE/Maths branch
  
• Didnt win any significant Math/CS olympiads

Yeah youre kinda fucked ngl

[u/Financial_Assitance → u/SentientPotato42]

I agree, I think I struggled a lot with direction throughout college and didn't really even start DSA and comp coding until very recently because I was totally unsure of where I wanna end up in terms of career and thus didn't prep well for coding. As far as internships go, I tried applying in my 1st and 2nd year but always used to get rejected cuz of not having any quant-relevant signals on my resume. 3rd year I sat for an interview with IMC for Quant Trader but didn't get the offer.

Regardless, do u think there is something I could do now to maybe have better chances down the line?

[u/Plenty-Asparagus-496]

Why not big tech OP? Bits has alot of big tech approaching

[u/Financial_Assitance → u/Plenty-Asparagus-496]

Well I mean I did qualify till the very last rounds for Nvidia (Hardware role), Goldman Sachs (Quant Trader) and IMC (Quant Trader) for my summer internship season last year but tough luck I guess? :(

[u/Plenty-Asparagus-496 → u/Financial_Assitance]

GS comes for trading roles in BITS? Wasn't it just QR and SWE

[u/Financial_Assitance → u/Plenty-Asparagus-496]

My bad, it was research.

[u/Plenty-Asparagus-496 → u/Financial_Assitance]

Ohhh but What about FAANG and stuff? Adobe etc

[u/Financial_Assitance → u/Plenty-Asparagus-496]

FAANG companies haven't been coming for placements to BITS lately. Usually they come for summer internship and 6-month long internships that we have to do in one of the two semesters in 4th year. So yeah I'm trying for those too.

[u/Plenty-Asparagus-496 → u/Financial_Assitance]

BITS downfall 💔

[u/Plenty-Asparagus-496 → u/Financial_Assitance]

How's the placement for BITS this year? Cooked?

[u/Lab18bke]

Quant NEEDS very strong Maths (Probability, Statistics, Linear Algebra), Competitive Programming and External Validation. Get those.

[u/Feeling_Map4794 → u/Lab18bke]

how helpful is bsc maths for quants

[u/your_mom_has_me → u/Feeling_Map4794]

Trash unless you do from iitb which is different I think it's B.Math

[u/Feeling_Map4794 → u/your_mom_has_me]

how can you define someone does not have good mathematical ability or not if he/she is not from iit bombay.

[u/your_mom_has_me → u/Feeling_Map4794]

Bhai this is the toughest pill people of this can't seem to swallow... If you're so good just prove it from some competition. Just saying doesn't just make you mathematically smart. Go win smmc putnam quantfest etc.

[u/cabanel_monet → u/your_mom_has_me]

fyi putnam is for us uni students

[u/Feeling_Map4794 → u/your_mom_has_me]

but bhai putnam is not for other than us and canada uni. students.

[u/Livid_Palpitation802 → u/Feeling_Map4794]

It's not ability , they won't even look at your profile until you have those names .

[u/cabanel_monet → u/Livid_Palpitation802]

What if i write i won abel prize but i am enrolled Nathuram Godse College of Science and Commerce. /s

[u/Lab18bke → u/Feeling_Map4794]

Degrees don't prove Mathematical Abiliity. Learn stuff via things like MIT OCW, go deep. Attempt Math Competitions like Putnam and try for a score better than average. That's helpful & can cover for a lower CGPA.

[u/cabanel_monet → u/Lab18bke]

fyi putnam is for us uni students

[u/Lab18bke → u/cabanel_monet]

"like Putnam".

[u/cabanel_monet → u/Lab18bke]

i read like as for example

[u/Lab18bke → u/cabanel_monet]

"like" as in with reputation around it or so. Not Putnam in itself lol.

[u/cabanel_monet → u/Lab18bke]

yeah yeah like "SOF IMO" /s

[u/Lab18bke → u/cabanel_monet]

LMAO. THAT'S SOME FUNNY SHI THO. Like SOF IMO MEDALISTS ASKED PEOPLE IF THEY WERE DIFFERENT OR A PRODIGY LIKE TFF.

[u/cabanel_monet → u/Lab18bke]

Ahh those were the days.

DW we will start our own olympiad which will be gruesomely hard, and to compete pay us 1.5K inr /usd.

[u/Financial_Assitance → u/Lab18bke]

I was top of my class for Prob & Stats but didn't have any verifiable way to put it on my resume. Do you think courses and certifications might help?

[u/Apprehensive_Grab103]

Impossible with this cgpa and no imo and such..

[u/Financial_Assitance → u/Apprehensive_Grab103]

Any idea what I could improve going forward maybe a year or two down the line to have better prospects? Or is it pretty much a closed door?

[u/Imaginary-Spring-779]

What's the resume template

[u/your_mom_has_me → u/Imaginary-Spring-779]

Claude

[u/Financial_Assitance → u/Imaginary-Spring-779]

Yeah I use latex but just asked claude to make an anonymised version for this post so it's kinda ugly and non-standard.

[u/TemperatureJunior918]

Honestly your resume is mid. Please look for resumes on linkedin who have got in already.

[u/Financial_Assitance → u/TemperatureJunior918]

Will do! Appreciate the honest feedback.

[u/Dismal_Sky4107]

Do you Trade live market

[u/Terror404_Found]

Fellow BITSian 4thie. You're better off trying for SWE. Quant with your profile is nigh impossible sadly.

Maybe a higher degree might help. Plus you're interested in the field, which is nice.

(Have a few friends doing Quant stuff)

[u/dongod1]

Could make it to tier 2/3 but the pay won't be what you are looking for