Hey everyone. Honestly, just looking for some advice from more experienced quants who might have navigated this exact roadblock.
I have ~6 years of experience and currently hold the AVP level in Model Risk at a Tier-1 global bank. I started my career on the development side but eventually transitioned to 2nd-line validation.
The Crisis: I’ve hit a massive wall of "boreout." While I appreciate the work-life balance and the learning curve I initially had, I miss the feeling of solving real problems and being close to the business. I feel pigeonholed as a "validator" stuck in a cost center.
More importantly, I’m having an existential crisis about my long-term trajectory. I see myself hitting a ceiling soon, losing industry relevance, and letting my core quant/coding skills atrophy by spending too much time in this expert-based, non-trading model space.
My Questions: For anyone who started in dev/validation and hit this exact wall, what did/do you do?
- What are the realistic exit ops from here that are actually intellectually fulfilling?
- Do people typically try to fight their way into 1st-line Strats, try to jump to the Buy-Side, or just go back to pure dev?
- How did you shake the "auditor/checker" stigma when you finally interviewed to get out?
Appreciate any wisdom. Feeling a bit lost on what the next few years should look like.