WHERE ASPEN PLACES CANDIDATES
HEADLANDSTWO SIGMACITADELHUDSON RIVER TRADINGVATIC LABSSYNTRIA
Recent candidates hired from
Google
Aspen pulls engineers out of top tech companies and places them into quant. 19 years inside both hiring rooms.
Get offers at Citadel, Two Sigma, and Hudson River Trading without sending a single application.
Your answers stay completely confidential and go straight into this week's review with Aman and the Aspen team.
Aspen is a company that quant trading firms pay to find the people they hire. Citadel, Two Sigma, and funds like them hand Aspen the roles they need filled, Aspen finds the right person, and the firm pays Aspen when that person gets hired. It has worked this way since 2006, and it is run by Ben Herman, who has spent 19 years recruiting for these firms.
For you that means two things. It costs you nothing. And your profile goes to a person these firms already trust, instead of into an application pile.
Google200 cold applications. ATS filters, LinkedIn Easy Apply, silence, and form rejections. The best seats never even get posted.
A recruiter the firm already trusts intros them to the hiring team, preps them for that firm's interview style, and negotiates the offer.
You fill out one 60 second profile. This is everything that happens next.
No cover letter, no essay. Your school, your background, and what you want. That's the whole application.
Aman and the Aspen team read every profile together, every week. No ATS and no keyword filter. A recruiter with 19 years inside these hiring rooms, plus the person whose channel you already trust.
Meet the bar and a recruiter reaches out within 24 hours to set up an intro call. They learn what you actually want, then match you against real open mandates paying $500K to several million in total comp.
Aspen intros you to the right people, preps you for each firm's interview style, and when the offer comes, they negotiate it. The person pitching you only gets paid if you get placed.
Aspen placed Jeff as a junior researcher 14 years ago. Today he runs Headlands, and he still hires through BenBen Herman runs Aspen Search, the recruiting firm quant funds pay to find them talent. He has been placing people at these firms since 2006..
"We have partnered with Aspen Search since its inception; Ben Herman, the founder, actually placed me as a junior researcher over 14 years ago. His firm placed many early employees, including several current partners at the firm… I have the utmost respect for Ben and what he's building at Aspen."
Catherine had never worked in finance. She did the prep, walked into Citadel, and the offer landed the night of her onsite.
"My whole work experience had been in big tech… They were very hands on with prepping me for the interviews, I always felt prepared and confident. They were so on top of things that I found out I was getting an offer the night of my onsite interview."
A Cornell CS/Math grad was earning $350K at Google. Aspen placed him at Headlands at $650K, and by year three he cleared $2M a year.
A quant engineer at HRT was already making $1.2M. Aspen negotiated $2.8M for him to lead a build-out at a world-renowned fund.
"Ben is in a league of his own as a recruiter. An industry veteran with deep connections, he knew exactly which firms were the right fit."
"10/10 experience. I have never had a recruiter work with me the way he did."
"He takes the time to understand what you truly want, and his tenacity is unmatched."
A recruiter the firms already call. The real pipeline behind the quant seats that never hit LinkedIn.
Humans read every profile, weekly. Aman plus the Aspen team, never an ATS or keyword filter.
Contact within 24 hours if you meet the bar. A real intro call, not an automated email.
Interview prep for each firm's style. The same prep that had Catherine feeling "prepared and confident" walking into Citadel.
Offer negotiation included. The recruiter who doubled a $1.2M engineer's comp sits on your side of the table.
$0, ever. The firms pay 100% of the fee. That's how this kind of recruiting has always worked.
You do NOT need quant experience, and you don't need to be a competition-math prodigy. If you meet the baseline, you're qualified. Aspen's entire job is taking people exactly like you and putting them above the pool.
— Strong math, CS, ML/AI/data science, or engineering from a top-50 school with a 3.7+ GPA
— Student, new grad, or an engineer with up to 8 years at a strong company
— Targeting quant research, dev/engineering, or trading roles
— No math or CS foundation. That's the only hard filter.
Everything else is case-by-case. When in doubt, just apply. We're willing to work with you.
Thousands of applicants per posting, nobody inside vouching for you, and the best seats never posted at all. Every month at your current job is a month at a fraction of what these firms pay.
The real quant search firms only take candidates who are already senior or already inside. They will not return your email. That's not an insult, it's their business model.
The same recruiters, except now the door is open. This channel sends them exactly the profile they're paid to find, and they've committed to reviewing every single one.