Pros
1. The company provides a great introduction to the quant world for those with minimal exposure. Starting researchers are not required to have much experience, making it a great place to start out of university. 2. Similar to an investment banking role at most places, the initial learning curve is steep. However, this levels off at around one to two years, depending on how fast you learn. This is a good thing for those who want to learn. 3. There are always new projects for researchers to get involved in. This is great for entrepreneurial researchers who want to win big, but be reminded that the risks are also higher. 4. You are somewhat free to choose advisors. This really depends on your personality. Are you more dependent or independent? Do you want to be actively or passively communicating with your advisors? Having this option is great and gives you some freedom. 5. There are opportunities to be promoted to portfolio managers given that you stay long enough. 6. Talent is spread around the world, not just in major cities. The company is aggressively hiring around the world. Having the global presence is good for diversification of ideas. 7. There are periodic outings with the company. Great time to bond, network and have fun.
Cons
1. With more people joining the firm and people not really doing anything new, ideas are crowded and compensation growth prospects are diminished. 2. Since the focus is on quantity of ideas rather than quality, people are not incentivized to perform deeper research. Although there are policies to promote quality, most people are better off just getting by with quantity. 3. There is little feedback on your work other than your ranking against other researchers. By feedback, I don't mean feedback from management but from portfolio managers. This makes it difficult to know if we are on the right track when it comes to making individual strategies. 4. The system does not motivate researchers to bring out their best ideas because they will be fired and their ideas taken from them if they stop producing new ideas even though their old ideas work amazingly. This also assumes that these great strategies are not used for some unknown reasons. Otherwise, you get a small cut of profit. This again makes it much easier to get by with mediocrity. 5. Bonuses are deferred, so you have to make sure not to get fired before then. Given that the turnover is quite high, it is a risk factor. 6. Salaries, just like opportunities, are not equally distributed in the world. It may be harder to negotiate a salary for a position in bigger cities with higher pay just because of that. If you want to earn big, it might be better to work in the US or other big cities. It only makes sense to be in your local country if you want to be close to home. 7. Researchers are insulated from trading, so they do not have a real track record. This makes it much harder to get a trading job after given that most people do not get promoted to trading. 8. Entrepreneurial researchers are not compensated well enough. For some ideas, it is much easier to create a startup outside.