My 2c on this.

By and large, I agree with what the 2 posters above are saying. Personally my recommendation is for TS to try his luck at boutique algo trading asset management firms instead of wasting time with the banks.

If you look at the current trends in the banking industry, by and large investment banking and trading related activities are scaling down world wide as margins are shrinking. This means lots of retrenchments and hiring freeze even for niche positions like quants. Supply way exceeds demand now, so it is very unfavorable for TS - making the situation worse.

Wealth management is the growth driver for the foreseeable future and most of the hiring is taking place in this area. Unfortunately this is not a business that hires a lot of quants so definitely the total number of quant jobs in the market is shrinking.

Boutique firms pay and prestige is not as good as bulge brackets, but the demand and supply imbalance is not that bad and maybe TS can gain some useful experience and go for the banks in the future when the macro conditions are better.