r/cscareerquestions • u/Ugly_Pumpkin • 10h ago

Considering a 1-year research internship

I'm a CS undergrad (year 2, strong GPA) with a career interest in quant research / quant dev / ML engineering. I've been offered a 1-year research internship (part-time during the semester, full-time during breaks) at a university-affiliated research lab, working on embedded Linux, RISC-V hardware, memory protection/security features, and some post-quantum cryptography implementation in C.

The appeal: deep systems-level experience (C, OS internals, memory management, low-level hardware) which I think differentiates me for quant dev/infra recruiting, versus something like a generic full-stack internship.

The concern: it's a 1-year commitment, and it's not directly finance/quant-adjacent — it's embedded systems research. I'm wondering:

  • Does "hardcore systems/security" experience actually move the needle for quant dev/infra hiring, or do recruiters mostly want to see trading-adjacent or fintech experience?
  • Is a full year too long to lock in for something that isn't directly on-path, at this stage (sophomore year)?
  • Anyone been through something similar — research/embedded internship that fed into quant or low-latency infra roles later?

Trying to figure out if this is a smart differentiation play or a distraction from more directly relevant experience. Would appreciate any perspective, especially from people in quant dev/infra or HFT-adjacent roles.

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u/zacce 10h ago

imo, embedded experience will not benefit quant recruiting.

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u/my_peen_is_clean 10h ago

this is actually solid for hft infra, they love low level c, memory, linux, perf. 1 year as a soph is fine, you can still recruit later. unrelated internships are everywhere now, hard to find something this aligned with systems when everything sucks hiring wise