Inside the secretive world of Wall Street quant recruiting

• The market for quant and data-science specialists on Wall Street has perhaps never been hotter.
• But the trading firms that employ them are highly secretive, as are the recruiters they work with.
• Insider spoke with more than two-dozen quant recruiters about their competitive, clandestine field.

“You’re OK that I’ve recorded this call, right?”

So said one veteran recruiter who works with proprietary trading firms, before apologizing for his paranoia at the end of a 30 minute conversation. Other headhunters wanted to ensure up front that Insider wasn’t secretly recording them (we weren’t), and only agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity – that what they said wouldn’t be attributed to them or their company. Some would dish about the industry or their competitors, but discussing clients was verboten.

Welcome to the secretive world of Wall Street quant recruiting.