Sunday, July 19, 2020
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Two weeks ago I was approached by a headhunter (“Steve”) over email. This last week I got the green-light to speak about the company and the opening. This is a position at Citadel that has a starting salary of $400,000, not including bonus. I was so taken back by this I replied to Steve telling him this sounded like a scam, but “best of luck.” Luckily Steve had a good sense of humor about all of it and persisted. He pointed out that my application of neural networks in my computational cosmology research was exactly what these guys were looking for, and I didn’t need a Ph.D.
My step-brother is on Wall-Street doing finance, and has been trying for the last year to convince me that I would be a great quantitative analyst. My family is divorced, and I grew up lower-middle class on both sides, it’s why my two brothers and I all went to community college. Almost half a million dollars, before taxes, straight out of university had simply not been in my plans. I talked with Steve over the phone and asked him, if he was willing to invest this much time into me, how would he make sure his investment paid off? Specifically, this was going to be a very competitive opportunity and I wanted to know what his angle was. He told me that if I didn’t get this job, we would run the gamut of six to ten more companies. I was so impressed by this answer, that I was sold.
My NIST/AMO supervisor Robert actually did a stint on Wall Street and then a PhD. in physics at Stanford. He spent time after our bi-weekly meeting talking to me and was so helpful in giving me advice on what to expect and think about. In light of this, I realize that my econometrics paper is more important than ever. These jobs require model building and just all-around data science. A paper using synthetic control would be an incredible chance to show my ability to perform analysis with advanced methods. The stress and pressure has been palpable for me, but has fueled my drive to work harder. The light at the end of the tunnel seems brighter than ever. Look, I don’t expect to get the job, but I will use it as a learning experience and practice for all other applications Steve asks me to apply to.
Serendipitously, AIP had a resume workshop on the 15th. I learned a lot from Dr. Crystal Bailey. For example, she warned that we should always use a cover-letter and to be safe rather than sorry. Also, rather than beginning with education, her resume grouped skills and gave header-titles that were each relevant skill-group she could identify on the offer letter. Basically, her point was that chronological order did not effectively communicate our qualifications immediately. I really liked her linear-algebra analogies, like when she said that a resume is a function of a job description. I don’t think I could call them homomorphisms much less isomorphisms, but the idea of “the set of words they think are important” mapped to “the set of skills you think are going to showcase” is a very powerful tool. Last, that job descriptions are a unicorn and to just apply even if you’re missing some criteria.
John Mather also met with us interns, which was amazing. He geared his talk for a science audience that did not know astrophysics, which was good because many people were at that level. I decided to stay at that level as well, and asked him about UC Berkeley renaming LeConte Hall (the physics building). He was for it, and gave a great speech about how science needs to be self-aware and willing to change. I thought he was great. I asked to get his personal email, and I am so very grateful and lucky to have the opportunity to now ask him for graduate school advice and guidance. This internship has been life changing.
Max Dornfest