D.E. Shaw Connect 2024

So I was going through the summer Leetcode grind when I went to check my emails during a break, and guess what I found?

I guess D.E. Shaw loved me so much last year that they flew me out to NYC again (jk lol). I really didn’t expect them to fly me out two years in a row, but I’ll take the wins where I can.

This year’s event was much earlier than last year’s event, and it actually conflicted with the CMU career fair. But I don’t see any of those companies literally dropping $2k for me to go to NYC, so my mind was set from the start. I didn’t even have to wait that long, since I left for NYC on the second week of school.

So since I went last year, I had a gameplan this year to connect with as many people as possible. I mean, the event is called Connect after all, right? This year, there were quite a few people going from CMU that I recognized, as well as some of my high school friends who went to other schools. Just like before, the venue was impressive (this time they booked the entire American Museum of Modern Art) and the food was top-notch. Seeing as how I’m getting into cooking, I tried asking the chefs how they made such bomb food, but they wouldn’t tell me, and the waiters and waitresses had no clue either. Highly unfortunate. Just like last year, D.E. Shaw dropped at least $1k on each student there, but this time, there were 1000 students (vs 500 last year), so the total cost was definitely in the millions. It’s just mind blowing how these D.E. Shaw can host such grandiose events like Connect yearly. But in retrospect, compared to a future trader making millions a year for them in the future, this is a pretty effective way of getting into the minds of top talent early in their careers.

Anyway, I met plently of people, talked for a while with literally every person I met, etc. Even though the whole point of the event was to connect with others, everyone was just super kind and down to chat and connect, it was a nice change of pace from how students are at CMU. I was checking out the different floors when I met up with a good friend of mine from IMSA, Dean Barrow. It was crazy seeing him there, since the last time we met he told me he’d rather do startups than quant, but we got to catch up after a while.

After the event, I joined Dean with a bunch of other kids at a resteraunt in K-town (Shanghai Mong) where I had the classic soju party experience (also something suprisingly rare in CMU, despite the large Asian population). I got to know a lot of Stanford kids (like suprisingly, at least half the table was from Stanford) on a deeper basis than the main event, and I got to relax a bit and just talk about random stuff. A lot more happened there but I’ll keep that stuff private, since this is my professional blog page after all. Either way, stuff happened and suddenly it was 3:30am in Times Square and Dean had to walk me back to my hotel, then I fell asleep.

The next day I woke up feeling fine, but I quickly realized my brain wasn’t gonna function (makes since, since I had a hangover and like 4 hours of sleep). I tried touring NYC like last year but only got to wander around Manhattan, since the World Trade Center was closed for the memorial and there wasn’t much else to see on Wall Street. So instead, I tagged along with Dean in meeting up with Jason (from last year), except this time I didn’t tell him I was coming (for extra suprise). I just arrived at the meeting place and walked by Jason, who recognized me like immediately. And then he proceeded to wonder why I was there instead of Dean, and why I was in NYC again. Good times.

I flew back to CMU later (still dealing with the hangover), and it took me like a week to fix my sleep schedule. But I’d still give the experience a 10/10. It really can’t get much better than a free two day NYC trip where you get pompered by a quant firm and get to meet cracked peers. If D.E. Shaw somehow decides to invite me back for a third year, I’m down to go again.