The quant recruiting calendar
Quant recruiting is the one genuinely seasonal thing about this industry, and the season is earlier than most people assume.
The three windows
August to November: applications open and first rounds run. Positions fill on a rolling basis, so applying in November to a process that opened in August is applying to fewer seats. December and January: offers land. February to July: nothing is open, which makes it the only window in which you can build the things that take weeks.
The asymmetry matters: arithmetic speed and the habit of thinking out loud are behaviour, and behaviour needs repetition. Neither arrives the week before a superday.
Is it too late to apply this cycle?
Rarely a flat no before the end of the year, but the number of open seats falls every week from August. Apply now and prepare in parallel rather than the other way round.