I've heard that finance is more flat in terms of hierarchy than big tech, does that pose any problems in terms of incresing your TC after working there for a while? Also do SWEs in finance get bonuses based on the pnl of their team, like quants do? For reference, I'm talking about top tier quant firms like Citadel, JaneStreet, etc
Core devs at jump get heavy bonuses based upon individual contribution and performance, not PnL (which doesn't make sense for most core devs). Devs on trading teams have bonuses that are also influenced by PnL. These bonuses get pretty large, so I would say there aren't any problems getting a high TC at jump after some time. Also, the more senior you are, the more your bonus can be tied to firm PnL
Sure, but then you work at Jump.
What's wrong with that :P
P99: SWE in tech will do better than at top quant firms. Big banks don’t even come close anymore. The top 1% can make significantly higher at quant firms - and they’re definitely at the intersection of core difficult tech and domain expertise. If you’re not the kind who excels at everything they do - stick with big tech, that’s where the money is, for most people
This. Here's a very realistic perspective of quant firms: https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/quant-hedge-fund-career-progression
In our case, the rate at which we're hiring (>20%/yr) and the fact that those hires are mostly new grads means that there has been a ton of room to move up quickly, which probably overwhelms any contribution, positive or negative, of the flat hierarchy. So it's hard to say. Our bonuses aren't driven by team pnl (in a lot of dev teams that doesn't even make sense), but our quants bonuses mostly aren't either.
Interesting. Strats (quant equivalent) at Goldman Sachs get their bonuses based on PNL. I've heard of people from Two Sig getting this as well. Shouldn't it be common amoung finance quants?
It differs based on company. You can get paid based on pnl of your own strategies, your teams overall performance, or performance of the firm overall.