I have/had final rounds with Jane Street, Jump, and Citadel Securities this cycle. JS has no noncompete, CitSec has implied that the noncompete will be around 15-18 months, and Jump is in the middle. Also in the loop with Two Sigma, noncompete there is about 6-12 months. Two questions: 1) Did having a noncompete make it difficult to find another job (in finance) for you? 2) I’ve heard that some companies don’t enforce the full noncompete, such as CitSec. How can I ensure that they will enforce the full noncompete duration for me if I choose to leave? All of the offers are for developer or quant developer. I’d love to hear stories about you leaving your finance company and any issues or benefits the noncompete led to. TC: 0 YoE: 0 (new grad)
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I’ve never had anyone enforce, just don’t tell them where you’re leaving too Also unless you’re like a vp, or stealing actual data and algorithms to a competitor you probably don’t know enough to actually make it worth it for them
And what if they find out? They’ll sue the bejesus out of you.
Only a seriously sketchy firm would let you work there knowing you might be violating a non-compete. Your new firm will likely reach out directly to any previous employers to get their explicit consent. Trading firms want to avoid lawsuits and drama.
Is it called garden leave?
Yes.
Sometimes the new job will be willing to make a case with the quant firm that issues your non-compete and try to buy you out of it if you are a competitive enough candidate
Seems like no one cares unless you’re in management or lead in an important project
It's dream for people to get garden leaves. Normally they don't. Unless u work in the area where you are exposed to thier proprietary stuff. N you are joining their competitor. Haven't seen anyone getting though.
Why is it a dream? Isnt just forced to not work, and no pay?
In garden leaves ur forced to stay home or wherever you want. They will pay you full salary. So in short you can travel the world n you will get paid too. No question asked. :)
Any tips for Jane St?
So, here's how it goes: Most shops are fine with non-compete durations of up to one year. Some are fine with 15+ months of NC, some are not. The issue is that, your contract will never state the exact length of NC, but just a [min, max] range, you'll know your actual NC length when you put in your notice. The best thing to do, is always take your max possible NC length and say that you expect to be on NC for that much time. The firms will be upfront with you from the get go, and let you know if they're ok dealing with that. I have seen cases where people were over-optimistic, and they understated their NC length. Come resignation time, and they got slapped with 18-24 months of NC. Then the firm they signed with got pissed off and rescinded their offer since they thought that they'd be able to onboard the fella in like a few months. If you're on a visa then the game changes by a lot. So, if that'll be the case factor in that too. "I have heard that some companies don't enforce full NC": Please never, never assume that. The only time there'll be certainty regarding your NC length, is when you resign. Till then it's all speculation. You cannot ensure that or getting the answer to that, there is no uniform policy applied, NC durations are always on a case-by-case basis. If NC worries you, and you do get the JS offer, then just go there. Unless you're very much into C++, just go there. Takes the worry away from moving easily to some other shop. Also, in the event that you join a firm with NC and you leave to go to a competitor, please do not commit the mistake of not telling them where you're going. If they find out, even if you were not a front office dev or someone senior, they'll take action to make an example out of you. They don't want people leaving to pull these stunts, so that they can go to a competitor. NC's are very common in this world, and most firms understand that.
Yeah, mostly that doesn't happen and a range is given. They have no idea when you might leave, if you do. If you leave say in five more years, you know more proprietary stuff than if you were to leave in two years, the NC will vary based on that. It's a lot easier for them to give a range and just say "We'll decide when you leave and set the duration between these two values".
What about visas? Recruiters told me that the visa sponsorship is still there, while you are unemployed and on non-compete, with 99% confidence.
JS has definitely seen e.g. citadel enforce noncompetes
Why would you want the full NC enforced? The NC money is nowhere near as significant as what you would make by jumping to another firm
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