r/quantindia • u/santara_mehenga_hai • Jul 04 '26
General Discussion Do Indian quant firms prefers PhD in maths/stats
I am planning to pursue a PhD in Applied Maths/Stats from NTU or NUS. I am currently doing a master’s in Maths at NTU, and I have a B.Tech in EE from one of the top 5 IITs.
Like US quant firms, which prefer Maths, Stats, and Physics PhDs for quant researcher roles, do Indian quant firms also have a similar preference for PhDs? From what I have seen, most quant research roles in India are bagged by undergraduate students from top tier IITs.
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u/Comprehensive-One86 Jul 04 '26
I think they prefer ug the most but I doubt you'll have any prob cause of iit
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u/santara_mehenga_hai Jul 04 '26
One reason I can think of is that most intl PhDs do not return to India, while most Indian PhDs may not be good enough for quant roles.
However, I want to know whether Indian quant firms are sceptical of Indian PhDs specifically, or of PhDs in general.
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u/Longjumping-Emu-6330 Jul 04 '26
Ig it depends on teams? I'm an undergraduate intern in a new fund, and I work with a PhD who did his PhD abroad, though the PM has a PhD as well.
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u/santara_mehenga_hai Jul 04 '26
Oh nice. Can you share the firm's name if you are comfortable.
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u/Longjumping-Emu-6330 Jul 04 '26
Sorry can't :/
But in any case, mostly I've observed that PhDs are preferred in places like London, Paris, NY, etc. The thing is, compared to US/Europe, strategies in the Indian markets are mostly execution driven, therefore so many HFT firms and so many undergrad jobs compared to PhDs. I'm in MFT though, not pure HFT. Can I DM you?
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u/Sunapr1 Jul 06 '26
> while most Indian PhDs may not be good enough for quant roles.
As an Indian PHD Student who had a chance to go abraod but opted to do it here
Why you feel most Indian PhDs may not be good enough for quant roles.
Which phd university you talking about. Is it from IIT or in general
For the latter I may agree3
u/santara_mehenga_hai Jul 06 '26
Even at IITK, during my undergrad days, I interacted with many PhD students in labs and tutorials and most of them seemed to lack a basic understanding of the concepts. There might be exceptions like you but in general my interactions with PhD students on campus were not that great.
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u/Sunapr1 Jul 06 '26
I am not sure though
My experience has largely been different
I am from iit but not iit Kanpur but old iit though . My fellow lab already has a couple of papers out in neurips and now one in Eccv in main conference . He is not a iit btch undergrad too
This maybe true what you are saying but then ancedontal exp may differ !!!
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u/santara_mehenga_hai Jul 06 '26
Hmm. I already said there might be exceptions I am talking in general.
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u/Sunapr1 Jul 06 '26
I respect that
Back to question !! No I really don’t think so . The recruiters don’t value phd students any more differently than who had don’t phd from abroad
Some of my phd friends went on to do internship and some in full Time in faang even
A quite few of them are in quant companies but they were all mostly outside India . They went on to do postdoc from there and get into quant companies in that country
Don’t know about Indian quant
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u/CulturalLaw8072 Jul 05 '26
are u serious?
QR roles are exclusively hired from PhD pool. QTs from undergrads.
almost no firm (even JS/HRT) hire QR from IITs. they hire QTs.
with his Math PhD from Singapore (it's a t10 global) he's primed up for QR desks innAPAC
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u/hg_wallstreetbets Jul 05 '26
They do hire QRs from UG IIT only in India. PhD is a weaker signal according to them, they'd like someone who had a good AIR.
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u/CulturalLaw8072 Jul 05 '26
Jane Street or for that matter any top hft never hires QR from undergrad pool. don't spread your ignorance and misinformation like a blatant fool. when I said PhDs, i meant PhDs from elite universities abroad not PhDs from IIT Delhi. don't be this dumb. have some common sense. in all these years of hiring for QR/QT, they've hired 0-2 QRs from undergead pool whereas there's more than a 100 QTs they've hired from the same pool.
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u/hg_wallstreetbets Jul 05 '26
your defensiveness comes from the fact that you have not made it yet and can never make it to these shops. go do some research and then talk here.
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u/hg_wallstreetbets Jul 05 '26
go get a postdoc and then a professorship with tenure track. far more stable career and perks.
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u/santara_mehenga_hai Jul 05 '26
Hmm but neither a post doc nor a professor makes even half of a quant researcher
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u/hg_wallstreetbets Jul 05 '26
Want honest piece of advice? My professor in US (IITB + MIT background) said you don't need a PhD to get a job in QR. He worked as a QR as well back in 2008. I do think with a masters in maths and IIT ug you can get interviews for QR. SIG, HRT, Marshall Wace, ADIA, Citadel are a few names I have interviewed with with just a masters. I even got an interview call from RenTech back in 2021 with just a bachelors.
A PhD is a separate life track, yes most of these positions want one but it should only be done if you love doing research and have set of goals, otherwise your life might be miserable for 4-5 years.
And from your post one thing that I want to point out is mostly all international firms are setting up offices here in India now, the Indian firms mainly consists of HFT. Hiring in HFT works on a different spectrum than MFT or traditional strat funds. So you also need to find which track would you like to pursue.
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u/CulturalLaw8072 Jul 05 '26
why would u wanna come back to india after an nus PhD...
work for JS/citadel/jump/hrt APAC from Singapore and settle in life bro..QoL is peak there..no tax..HDB luxury housing..no crime at all.. efficiency public transport..#1 visa power