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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   1833 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 8, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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It's silly to think the correlation between hiring competence and profit is 1. Or even over .70.

You're both right to a degree IMO. Some of the metrics used in Quant recruiting are probably dumb but also they've got 100k resumes from top percentile applicants and can't blame them for leaning on the previously applied great sort.

I doubt they get that many apps from the top percentile. Top percentile is probably top 25% or more at a quant firm.

There are a lot of people in the world and quant is super desirable. Napkin maths but even the USA alone has 3M top percentile and quant is inherently very international.

If hiring the right people has little relation to making money, I don't know why you think they'd care about your GPA.

Do you think hiring is the only factor in firm profitability?

No. But if you're hiring the wrong people, I don't think you will become a successful quant firm.

How successful do you think a firm that only hires people between the 98th and 99th percentile would be?

I expect they'd get their lunch eaten by the firm hiring 99th to 99.9th percentile talent.

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