Does a Quant have as miserable life as investment bankers do?

There are aspects of both jobs that would make most people miserable, and many entry-level hires drop out as a result. But there are people who like those aspects.

The main downsides of investment banking are:

1. Long hours

2. Travel

3. Lots of petty tasks

4. Dubious value-added or intellectual satisfaction

5. Random outcomes

6. The first five downsides unconnected with rational productivity, they are undertaken to distinguish yourself from your colleagues and your firm from other firms

7. Hang out with other investment bankers

In return you get lots of money and high living and you look like an important and successful person to most people. Once you get through a few years, it’s a low risk field. If your goal in life is to wear a suit, make a million dollars a year, spend your time with other people in suits, not have any responsibility and always be engaged in important-seeming work—it’s a great life.

The main downsides of being a quant are:

1. Long hours

2. Lots of math

3. Hard problems than seldom have elegant or satisfying solutions—and that nearly always create additional work that needs to be done

4. Hang out with other quants

5. No one but other quants will think you are important or successful, and quants don’t care about importance or success

In return you have the potential for large amounts of money—much larger than even the most successful investment bankers—but dependent entirely on your skill. It’s a high-risk profession, even the top practitioners are only as good as their last equation.

It’s a great life if you like hanging out with other quants and doing math, taking your satisfaction from your work rather than the results or what other people think of you.