I have a different perspective. If they hire me, and they put me in cleaning data, to me it is just "wax on, wax off", "take off your jacket, put on your jacket". Besides, data cleaning is probably the single most important part of quantitative trading. GIGO. There is a large body of mathematical theory on the right way to do it.Quote from Rodney King:
That's all true, but I'd add -- is it "fun" if you're a PhD who's in a cubicle doing data-cleaning all day? I know for a fact that's been the fate of some PhD-level hires at name-brand quant shops. Buy, hey! -- they have a great assortment of fruit juices in the kitchen, and cool lectures by scientists every week...
Last time I checked, we aren't born knowing how to trade, or worse, trade quantitatively.
"A good place to start is, at the beginning."
But only in a general case, not in this one