
Ask HN: Quant researcher vs. ML Engineer - alphagrep12345
I’m currently a Masters student in CS. I have summer internship offers from a top hedge fund for a quant researcher position and an ML engineer internship for a voice assistant team at FAANG.<p>I’m kind of interested in both and not sure which one to pick. The thing I’m mostly worried about is transferability from one industry to another, and prospects 5-10 years down the lane.<p>What factors do I need to consider while picking one over the other? (Apart from compensation)
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sjtindell
Relax and pick the one that is the most interesting. With your background, the
signal these offers sends, and the high demand for ML workers, you’ll be in a
good place either way. It may matter what you want to do long term, they’re
different tracks. To me one of these is more unique with a much higher
compensation ceiling but only directly “transfers” to other financial firms,
whereas the other is more generic and so transfers very well. Every FAANG has
one or a few groups like that.

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Hydraulix989
It's much easier to go from FAANG to financial firms than the other way
around.

