Seeking critical thinkers

We define critical thinking as thinking which must justify all of its assumptions. It is the skill and the art of seeing beyond what lies on the surface. In our field, it means two things. First, it is the ability to examine what appears random and to distinguish structure within it—the ability to identify order out of chaos. Second, it is the ability to find innovative, elegant solutions to problems of seemingly impossible complexity.

Critical thinking is important for candidates, because at WorldQuant, we spend our days finding simple solutions to complex problems. Examining chaotic markets, we develop clear mathematical expressions that describe patterns of predictable market behaviors—alphas—that allow us to exploit their inefficiencies.