I am Aadish Jain, a 4th-year student in the CSE department, and I completed my internship at Quadeye under the profile of a quantitative trader.
Before the internship season, I had no idea what a quant trader does or what exactly is an HFT firm. So I just applied for this profile by looking at the stipend they offered. Besides, I had done an internship in the ML profile before, so I wanted to explore a different profile this time, and since I could not secure a software profile, I landed here.
In general, for all quant profiles, I was told that they focus on quick math, mathematical puzzles, and strategy games, so I prepared for that on websites like brainstellar and rankyourbrain. I had two rounds of interviews that included similar kinds of problems, and that helped me ace the interview process. They were also looking closely at our JEE rank and CPI for selection. They may even ask you aggressive questions that can make you uncomfortable during the interview.
The internship started two weeks after our last exam, so we had enough time to relax. It was an offline internship in Gurgaon. When the IAF was released, accommodation was not included, but they decided to provide it later. Compared to the firm size, they had hired a large number of interns, which meant that we were divided among different projects, and the work experience and load was highly project dependant. My project was intensive for the first few weeks as it had a fairly steep learning curve, but as the internship progressed it became easier. Our average working hours were 9-10 hours a day, but the weekends were free, so we had time to relax. The work was also very interesting and intellectually stimulating as we had to constantly think about different market scenarios where our predictions might not work. This experience also broke many myths I had about this profile. I previously thought that it might be closely related to finance, can be a target-driven job, etc. which turned out to be far from the truth. Overall, I got to learn a lot during these two months.
I also felt that regular tests, discouraging discussion among us, and the absence of collaboration made the environment unnecessarily competitive among the interns. It may have been because it was the first time they hosted such a large batch of interns and were only trying to judge us on different scales.
Finally, my advice would be to not take too much stress about the internship and think of it as an exploration opportunity to decide whether you are suited for this profile or not. If you reach that decision by the end of your internship, you have made the most of the opportunity. It will also help you select a good intern because the metric for a good intern should be the clarity of your future. Feel free to contact me at any time and I wish you all the best for your future!
