TO FIND A MATHEMATICAL GENIUS
Our client is a financial firm that does quantitative investment and develops financial strategies and algorithms for the market. The algorithms should take into account a lot of variables that don’t correlate at all when you take a first glance at them. Only a genius can understand this butterfly effect and use it to their own advantage. But how does one look for gifted mathematicians, if their career paths are hard to track, and there are no keywords for the search?
CHILDHOOD, ADOLESCENCE, YOUTH
Outstanding mathematical skills usually manifest themselves in childhood. That means, that if someone had a remarkable maths talent back then must probably have one right now. No school would overlook a person like this. The lists of winners in international and local maths and informatics contests became our main sources of candidates.
Once we got the names, we contacted these people through social media. Many of them were already quite established as developers or scientists. But we had something we could offer.
A challenge to the intelligence, an opportunity to solve incredibly complex tasks and manage the financial flows of the whole world — those were our core arguments in hunting the candidates.
FIRST OUT OF DOZEN AGENCIES WHO NAILED THE POSITION
Out of 172 candidates, the client only declined four. Three candidates went through all five selection stages and got an offer. It took us one year and one month from the moment we started our search quest to the first new person in the office.
Before us, there were more than 10 agencies that tried and failed to find a person. Yet, we managed to do so — luckily what we have enough of is tenacity.