I want to share my experience at Squarepoint Capital, hoping it might serve as a cautionary tale for anyone considering a role there. Initially, I thought Squarepoint was a hedge fund offering good career opportunities. Unfortunately, I quickly realized that it was far from the truth. After being laid off from my previous tech role, I got Squarepoint's offer relatively easily(should've been a red flag) and thought it would be a good temporary landing spot, despite the significant pay cut. However, things turned sour much faster than I expected. False Promises: The contract mentioned a generous relocation package, but post-joining, HR insisted on receipts for reimbursement, a detail never mentioned earlier. Micro-management: My manager made it clear that work-from-home was off the table until I 'earned his trust', although the contract promised 1 day a week and my manager is not in the same office. The pressure also started mounting early on. He would boast about completing my week-long tasks in two hours, hinting that I wasn't working hard enough and how bad I am. I was also criticized for not staying after hours. This is happening aross many teams. Compensation & Work Culture: The salary was disappointingly low. It became apparent that some older employees were out of touch with current market rates. Reflecting on it now, a significant portion of the employees at Squarepoint were notably reserved, with most people eating lunch silently at their desks. It seems they intentionally hired quiet and submissive individuals, perhaps to ensure compliance with whatever their superiors demanded. People who do speak up can be fired within a couple of weeks (I've personally seen one in my short tenure). Younger interns and new grads viewed their roles as mere stopgaps. The intern conversion rate was low. Many rejecting return offers if they had any other options. Also, Glassdoor reviews on French-focused and "sometimes racist" reviews are true. Technical and Operational Frustration: On the technical front, the situation was grim. Quantitative analysts were burdened with operational tasks; If you're unlucky, you will be doing lots of small scaled and boring work as an engineer as well; The code quality was the worst I've seen in my career; the technology stack was outdated, serving a limited audience, and plagued with bugs and inefficient pipelines. There was no scope for personal or professional growth. The toxic environment at Squarepoint was unbearable. Barely weeks in, I started interviewing elsewhere and, fortunately, landed a role pretty soon. If you're considering a role at Squarepoint Capital, I urge you to think twice. Despite the negatives, I'm still pretty happy about the experience. It opened my eyes to how damaging a poor company culture can be. This stint, being a brief chapter in my career, didn't waste much of my time. Moreover, it made me truly grateful for my current job. I used to grumble about my roles: the lack of promotions, benefit cuts, falling stock prices, and questionable management. However, the experience at Squarepoint provided me with a crucial perspective on the wide range of workplace environments available to software engineers, making me see the value in what I have now. #squarepointcapital #hedgefund #swe
I'm glad you got out OP!
Thanks for sharing!
> The contract mentioned a generous relocation package, but post-joining, HR insisted on receipts for reimbursement, a detail never mentioned earlier. Related to above point, that's standard. A reimbursement always happens on the basis of a receipt, it goes without saying. Don't you have confirmation emails for various services associated with the relocation, like airplane tickets, train tickets, moving company tickets, etc.? These receipts and the bank account statements usually is sufficient. -- Everything else you said is still relevant, just wanted to point out maybe there's still a way to get something reimbursed.
Reimbursement doesn't always require receipt, at least with my previous experiences. Even when they do, they would make it super clear. When asking my other colleagues at Squarepoint, none of them that I talked to understood this beforehand and had to scramble to find them. I would say this is an intentional move by Squarepoint, just like many other cases.
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Which location was this in?
This is the same for every office. You can have remote managers and the team can be split across offices.
Yeah I had similar experience, engineering practices are so bad And management is horrible, especially that manager with name starting with R and ends with I
Was it a SWE role or quant? Do you mind sharing your TC there? Interviewing with them for quant…
Probably the same as Citibank SWE, if not lower, if you're interviewing for the DQA position. It is basically a position for any manual work that the quants don't want to do. No DQA has converted to QA yet. They are either fired, left on their own, or still doing the manual work. As a DQA/QA, you will also have to be submissive and say yes to everything your boss says, otherwise, you will get fired with only the minimum severance(1-2 weeks). Highly recommended to look elsewhere. I don't have any information for how much QA make, but I know their work can be boring as well, at least comparing to tech. (Please let us know if you do get an offer from QA:) )
Thanks for the info! I thought QR at SquarePoint would be interesting lol!! I’ll do…
that company is a joke
Has anyone experienced in the KDB teams at SP?
+1 to everything you said. I was also a relatively small “hedge fund” from the Chicago area. Worst months of my life and career. Zero software engineering practices followed. Absolutely hated the place. Couldn’t wait to get out. Just like you, I appreciate my current role so very much.