The entire tech industry has fewer billionaires than quant finance.
If you are ambitious, tech SWE is a bad deal.
And I would bet that tech SWE has a far higher probability of launching you into $10M+ range than quant finance.
I don’t know that a few more single digit billionaires (if that is even true) puts quant finance ahead of tech SWE in terms of potential rewards for the “ambitious”.
Also, quality of life is far better for tech SWE.
I've rarely met anyone who is a quant and doesn't have a PhD. That already narrows down the field quite a bit.
$1B net worth? Google has more SWEs than the entire quant finance industry globally. Yet Google could only produce what, 4 billionaires?
$10M TC at Google? That’s at most 500 VPs out of 150,000 employees. That’s 0.3%. Not good odds. More than 7 people (0.3% x 2500) at Jane Street are making $10M+…
Same logic applies to $1M TC. Tech has okay chances, but quant is simply multiples better. Only if you got lucky at Tesla or NVIDIA. Otherwise your L5-E5 comp maxes at 600-800k including RSU appreciation.
Then for junior/new grad, quant firms win again. 300-500k quant SWE offers vs 200-300k in tech.
Hell, even for summer internships, quant trading firms pay SWE interns $20-25k/month. Also on levels.fyi
