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I've got an interview coming up for a trade support position at a quant shop. I was wondering if anyone could elaborate on which UNIX commands (grep, !, history, etc.) and types of scripts someone in this role writes/executes on a daily basis? I feel quite comfortable in UNIX but I am quite new to programming. So far I've written a couple basic programs in Python just to demonstrate what little knowledge I possess of the language.

Thank you in advance for any input.

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This kind of questions is offtopic on this site, please see the FAQ quant.stackexchange.com/faq – Alexey Kalmykov Feb 13 '12 at 23:34

closed as off topic by Alexey Kalmykov, Joshua Ulrich, SRKX♦, Tal Fishman Feb 14 '12 at 2:16

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I don't think this is the right approach to you taking this interview. I don't think you should pretend knowing things you clearly do not know. If you do not use Unix on a daily basis why you want to give the impression that you know? If you do not know Python then do not pretend you know. I am not trying to put you down but I try to save you from a potentially very uncomfortable interview because interviewers/programmers/quant traders can smell from a mile away whether someone possesses coding skills and to what degree. Even if you get past those interviews by giving the impression away that you know something which you don't you will make your life incredibly stressful and hard should you be given the job offer, because things will be expected of you that you cannot perform.

I recommend to go into the interview and be yourself, just yourself. If it does not work out then it was most likely not a fit anyway. If you want to improve and strengthen your skills I recommend you do it on a daily basis rather than days before an interview, its just too obvious to figure out.

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I think you misunderstood my question due to my lack of clarification. This is a second round interview. The interviewer knows I have limited knowledge of programming. His task for me was to come up with a list of commands that I think would be deemed 'useful' within the role. I have compiled a list and was asking for input from others who might be working a similar role on what types of commands and functions they execute on a daily basis. I am not trying to BS my way through this interview. I am not a CS major and the interviewer is aware of that. – user1205632 Feb 14 '12 at 0:30
@user1205632: The interviewer asked you to compile a list of commands you think would be useful. If they wanted a list that included thoughts other than yours, they could just ask their current employees. As Matt said, be genuine. – Joshua Ulrich Feb 23 '12 at 20:17

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