Prestige trap and the SF secondaries playbook

Most people have never heard of him. But he's built something that trades 24/7, got backed by YC and PG Angel, and walked away from one of the most secretive industries on earth to do it.

Annanay pulls back the curtain on quant trading, the firms nobody talks about, why the golden era is ending, and exactly where the smartest people are moving next.

If you're building a career in tech — this is required listening.

Computer science students, new grads, and software engineers…want to land your dream software engineering job or internship? Click here 👉 https://www.amanmanazir.com/coaching/?utm_source=transistor&utm_medium=podcasts_description&utm_campaign=Annanay_Quant&video=Yasib76zRjE

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I’m Aman Manazir, a career coach and software engineer. I interned at companies like Amazon, Shopify, and HP in college, and the day I graduated I landed a $168,000/year* full-time software engineering job. I help you make it as a computer science student & software engineer and get your dream job offer.

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⏱️ Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction
01:35 UK vs US Ambition Culture
03:20 Why Americans Embrace Risk
09:30 Pulling Back the Quant Curtain
13:25 HFT, Market Making, Quant Defined
16:31 Software Engineering Accelerator
17:23 History of Trading Explained
22:50 Firms That Shaped the Industry
27:35 Why Quant Upside Has Faded
33:00 Signs an Industry Is Peaking
40:08 Robotics Is the Next Wave
44:04 Quantum Tech and Crypto's Future
47:51 Free Resource to Kickstart Engineering Journey
48:23 Advice for Young CS Grads
52:11 Losing Half a Million in 50ms
52:38 Lessons From a Costly Bug
1:00:24The Prestige Trap in Tech
1:03:26 The SF Secondary Playbook
1:06:30 Will the VC Bubble Last
1:07:49 How to Actually Get Into YC
1:11:24 What Would I Tell My Younger Self
1:16:11 Outro