22 · Paper Tricks

Application hacks: you can apply with one email, and if you get rejected, switch it up with ten different emails and ten touched-up résumés that look different — then you can get the offers. It's a statistics and probability game; if you know this, execute on it. Since you're Korean, some résumés can carry the name Sunwoo Baek and some the name Jamie.

When your résumé has two columns, it gets screened out by the ATS because it can't parse it. To get through ATS screening: one column instead of two (autofills properly), basic black-and-white format, just name, school, standard sections. There are application tracking systems — ATS — and you can track all your applications to these top firms. Probably also valid for Imperial.

Target the company you're applying for — know what they are looking for. In terms of referrals, get to know someone on a deeper level. Recruiters are incentivised to a headcount of well-performing people: if you have a good track record, they want you hired — not some guy who got into Harvard through nepotism and is struggling through CS50. Head hunters are recruiters who work across companies; they apply for you and take commission on placing good workforce during mass hiring seasons.

Meta recruiters take references — reach out personally; the worst they can do is ghost you, so there's nothing to lose. Meta, Databricks, Bloomberg — apply to those firms. Phone rounds first, then super days: very long interview projects. Conference rooms are a good place for Leetcode.

The classes matter FAR more than the degrees once you get through screening — so this self-study you're doing pre-university is much more beneficial than anything else. Even during university, audit classes that don't count toward the degree.

Side projects seem to matter a lot. Have a list of things you tried: manage small personal funds, scale that fund using the supercomputer clusters at your university, go to competitions, be more engaging. Quant researcher route: AMC and AIME math competitions — go through the past papers. ICPC.

The fact that there is so little information available about quant interviews shows how much of a golden gem this is — not just for recruiting, but for building my own quant firm eventually.

I think it's far more important to be surgical and act on what actually matters, rather than doing stupendously large volumes of the wrong work. If you're going to do volume — and volume is compulsory — do it in what matters. Yes, exploring anything in maths, CS and physics helps. But if you're going to take courses and practice, do what matters.

EVEN WITH JOBS — when you're trying to break into quant, a track record of certified portfolio management history is what changes the field. A PhD alone caps your entry-level ceiling at £500k to a million.

He built a $5.5B legal AI company by 26 — Legora, Max Junestrand. This happens right in front of you, while you're trying to break into quant. If that's your passion, great — but if your goal were purely money, know the clock is ticking. There's a wild influx of people in their twenties who built technical infrastructure through high school and university, got YC or angel money, and rolled with it.

Every application, every screening, every rejection — it's a probability game plus a skill game. Know the rules, then break the parts of them that were only ever conventions.