Chapter 11: Paul & Dominic’s Guide to Getting a Quant Job 405
to be defect free, but self knowledge and recovery will
score you vital points.
Sleep regularly, sleep often Probably the most common
error we’ve seen is not getting enough sleep the night
before. As we said earlier, the difference between you
and your competitors is tiny, and losing a small percent-
age of your thinking ability through being tired has an
exponential effect on your probability of getting a job.
Hours in a bank can be quite hard, so it’s really not a
good idea to mention feeling tired. Not only will they not
be impressed, but if you get drawn into a conversation
about how it degrades your performance it won’t end
well. Conversely, a cup of coffee doesn’t do any harm,
but we have seen people who clearly had drunk rather
too much, and it didn’t work well for them.
Make eye contact You need to make sure you look at your
interrogators, they can smell fear. No need to stare at
them, just remind yourself to look at them when they or
you are speaking.
Apply for the right job You may feel you are unique indi-
vidual, and an obvious match for the job. Sadly, that
turns out not to be the case. If you are applying for
a job called ‘‘Henchman to Assistant Quant’s Minion–
PD0701067,’’ then do try to include that in your applica-
tion, prominently. If you don’t include this, then you are
critically dependant upon whoever opens your applica-
tion guessing
Don’t send a blue CV Just don’t, OK?
Barbarians The word barbarian comes from the ancient
Greeks who took anyone who didn’t speak Greek as
making ‘‘bar bub bar’’ noises, like a drunk Homer Simp-
son, not Barbarian as in the icy commanding tones of
