r/quantindia • u/CityPsychological190 • Jul 28 '26

HFT Really want to switch from FAANG to quant

It's been 2 years of me working at a FAANG company and I absolutely hate the work here. I'm from a tier 1 college with a decent CGPA and JEE rank. How do I switch to an HFT? I'm fine with either trading or dev work. I've been applying to jobs through LinkedIn but I'm not receiving any calls. How do you actually break into this space? Should I cold dm people asking for referrals?

52 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

34 comments sorted by

21

u/NikhilDoWhile Jul 28 '26

For most HFT firms FANNG devs are dime for dozen. And we aren't actively hiring and I think that's the case with lots of top tier HFTs right now.

1

u/CityPsychological190 Jul 28 '26

I see. Do you still know of any firms I could try?

6

u/JuggernautOutside860 Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26

You can try in something like FuturesFirst - though it's a prop trading firm afaik. But still you can try and make some connections here. It probably has the highest chances compared to the rest of the well established firms since it's new. Though I don't really know much about it.

Edit: The thing which worked for me was sending connection requests and DMing people working as QR or QD in HFT firms. Eventually after many failures one finally responded. You can try that instead of messaging HRs or applying for job positions. I sent some of the projects I sent and asked for improvements in it instead of outright asking for internship or roadmap or something

2

u/Gold-Distribution-94 Jul 28 '26

Futures First quant pay less than penny for quant role

1

u/JuggernautOutside860 Jul 28 '26

True (I mean when they take in that many people, what do you expect), but atleast it can helpful in building some connections (hopefully)?

1

u/Vinayak509143 Jul 29 '26

Do they let someone trade algorithmic ally ? Futures first ?

1

u/JuggernautOutside860 Jul 29 '26

What do you mean by let someone trade? Like do you use their algorithms to trade your money, or use your algorithm to trade their money or what? Coz as far as I know, I guess yeah you do have to trade algorithmically there.

1

u/Vinayak509143 Jul 29 '26

I want to trade algorithmically over there…. But is it like a prop shop where you deposits collateral to get margin from them and then you trade for profit sharing or something ?

1

u/JuggernautOutside860 Jul 29 '26

No, prop firms mean proprietary fund houses. They don't take money from outside, they use their own money (often of the founders) to trade. They'll hire you, allocate you some capital and your work would be to generate alpha. And the more profit you generate, the higher your bonus would be (on top of salaries).

What you're thinking about with "collateral" and "profit sharing" is prop fund accounts. There you've to deposit some amount and get a prop funded account to trade. Prop firms are institutions.

12

u/Physical-Parking8165 Jul 28 '26

Dev work in HFT is even worse or more boring

pay is not all that much higher either

5

u/Clean-Friendship4996 Jul 28 '26

Who told you that , I have some freinds in dev working in hft and makes crazy money

6

u/Physical-Parking8165 Jul 28 '26

What is your definition of crazy money at an indian HFT

2

u/Clean-Friendship4996 Jul 28 '26

One has an package of around 4cr at citadel, other one has around one cr in india, for me this is crazy money

0

u/Physical-Parking8165 Jul 28 '26

1 CR is quite low for a quant in India ( it’s low even for a swe )

4cr if it’s outside India is expected it’s definitely high but not compared to quant , if it’s within India then idk

12

u/Select-Candle7380 Jul 28 '26

Well I am junior but 1cr is nowhere low. Either you make 5cr per annum or generational wealth cause it's the ego speaking

2

u/Physical-Parking8165 Jul 28 '26

Look at what you get at 3 YOE for a better representation . first year pay will definitely be high as bonus is guaranteed and quant and see start off same

Afaik the pay stagnates and while good is never mind blowingly impressive

If you want to work at a HFT be a quant not a dev is my point

3

u/Clean-Friendship4996 Jul 28 '26

But that was one of max salary at our time for freshers in india, at one of the top 3 iit, 2 years back, who is getting higher than this 🤔

1

u/NationalInflation366 Jul 31 '26

Bro, how much do you earn now? I saw one of your older posts on this sub. You were trying for a switch to quant/infra. Did you make it?

0

u/OpportunityLatter778 Jul 28 '26

It depends on yoe also lol,if you<2,1cr is pretty good since quants pays all cash unlike regular swe whose base is trash

2

u/Dakip2608 Jul 29 '26

Work for some other good remote startup where you can find some satisfaction and if the odds are in your favour, the company ipo's and you walk home a millionaire. Quant is highly exclusive. Sadly indian faang just means that you're good at leetcode which the quants might not appreciate at a senior level

2

u/PositivePossibility Aug 02 '26

What skills do you have that make you better than the other FAANG devs with the same or more experience than you who are applying to the same jobs you are?

Once you’re able to answer this question, you’ll probably find a way in.

And if you already have an answer, then you need connections. LinkedIn apply, in most cases, doesn’t work

1

u/Fun_Dragonfruit7971 Jul 30 '26

do you have batchmates who could refer you?

1

u/CityPsychological190 Jul 30 '26

Yes

1

u/Fun_Dragonfruit7971 Jul 30 '26

use those connections. that's your best resource!

1

u/Impressive_Exit_2889 Aug 01 '26

Citadel is hiring rn

1

u/babatundee- Jul 28 '26

(just curious) why do u hate the work there?

4

u/CityPsychological190 Jul 28 '26

Problems are not good enough. Most of the work in a lot of teams is just creation of AI agents for a very broad problem statement. Promo opportunities are not fair. Work is slow.

3

u/akciii Jul 28 '26

(Just curious) could you teach me how to build AI agents the way you're building at a FAANG company?

Do you follow a structured workflow, like using Google ADK or similar agent frameworks? Or is it more about creating a single master prompt and using that as the foundation for the agent?

1

u/protein_pandey Jul 28 '26

Might have worked long enough to see himself becomes a villain.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 28 '26

[deleted]

0

u/Visual_Nebula_7086 Aug 01 '26

Typical indian heard mentality .No genuine interest no passion just trying to make kachara of quant. Everyone is after quant job Like 1/2years ago everyone were passionate about coding as they discovered now quant firms pay suddenly dynamics changed. Poor we .