Many people here on Blind say trading shops like HRT, JS and Renaissance are really hard to crack? What makes them so hard? Math or low-level CS systems? Folks at these firms, can you please share with the community specifically how your interviews were hard. It feels like this is mentioned often but no one goes into the why/how of it. #tech #renaissance #hft #hrt #janestreet #hudsonriver #hudsonrivertrading #twosigma
The hardest thing is getting the interview tbh. I’ve heard at least for SWE the interviews are about on par with FAANG
the interviews also often require a lot of statistical and financial knowledge. and they are very very specific about optimally efficient code. we aren’t talking algorithmic complexity stuff here. we are talking the difference between std::function and a lambda.
For HRT and JS, I wouldn’t say they’re really hard. The perceived difficulty comes from limited headcount, a lot of people wanting to work in these places, and luck in getting through the interview process. There are plenty of places that have a higher technical bar but less known or desirable to most people.
Could you name a couple of those places with higher technical bar?
Also interested in the higher technical bar places you speak of. I wanna follow technical complexity in my career.
Its a much smaller place, and addition to maybe a "higher" technical bar it's also a lot narrower than most Big Tech companies.
These firms are small, they have job security, you won't get laid off because they overhired or they have pip quotas to fill. You just have to do your job, perform and you're fine. No RSU or stock options shenanigans you get paid a very large cash bonus every year. Depending on the role they require specific set of skills. I think tech is just more accessible for the average individual.
wouldn't say job security is necessarily guaranteed, bad years happen
They hire ppl who can naturally solve leetcode hard with zero preparation. They r biased towards Gifted Naturally talented ppl. No amount of prep will help. If you are that level of gifted, you would know. Many of them hv won Physics and Math Olympiads when young. Some of them hv breakthru Math theorems to their names, and originators of several concepts in Maths. And almost always, they are from Top schools - MIT, Harvard etc.
If you think they don't prep and win math olympiads i have some news for u bub. Math Olympiads, ICPC, etc winners all worked very very very hard even if they say otherwise.