Friday, October 18, 2013

Interesting interview conversation

So this kid came in today for an interview, having done his post-grad in England, "Computational Finance" with lots of outdated machine learning techniques listed on the resume. So we figured we give him a chance, and here are some excerpts from the interview:

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me: "So, what kind of role do you want to pursue here?" 
him: "I want to get involved with High Frequency Trading." 
me: "What do you know about HFT?"
him: "well... " long pause, " isn't it just crunching historical numbers?" 
me: "OK, let's move on..."

a minute of small talk...

me: "Have you traded anything on your own?" 
him: "No... "
me: "OK... are you familiar with any particular products?" 
him: "Um... futures, and options!"
me: "Great. Can you tell me which Black Scholes Merton assumptions don't apply to the real world?"
him: "ohh... " more awkward silence, "I can't, sigh..."
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Another day in the hedge fund life.

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