Currently in college trying to figure out where I want to work. I'm interested in possibly joining a hedge fund or trading firm, but I know Citadel (regular, not securities) has a reputation of being the revolving door of Chicago because of the high employee turnover. Is Citadel actually as bad as some people say it is? I know experiences vary based on what team / org one is in, but what could make a company so bad that even $400k+ salaries don't make up for it? #citadel #finance #quant
i think so, i mean ive never worked there but i don’t know any of my classmates or friends who liked it 🤷♂️
I know one person ( who left Citadel-Regular after 10 years) was my colleague in previous company, and is an average coder. As per him he was paid > $350K
Citadel NY office has better wlb than Chicago office. And they usually offer the same base salary to both of these offices.
This is wrong. Generalizations can’t be made based on work location. Highly team dependent
I know a couple of my colleagues who left Google to citadel came back within a year and they are no slouch by any means. So if they felt the heat, then I'm pretty sure most of us here will feel it too
Yeah, I know someone who got rockstar intern rating at FB and declined his Citadel new grad offer since his internship there was so bad. Seems to not be an isolated bad experience.
For me it was not even the heat, it was the lack of an engineer driven culture.
Who cares
Youd care if there were no code reviews
First job out of college, you should consider somewhere fun, relax place(I did my 5 years at Google, never regard). I won’t pick citidal even it offers me loads of money. 20s is the gold ago where you need to travel to exotic place, experience life, try many type of food and have a great fun. When you are 30s, married, kids, mortgage, and you have less time and energy to do stuff. Probably you can consider it for the money part and let go wlb. One life, make sure you enjoy it rather than being just a workaholic
Should I really join a rest and vest place as a new grad if my goal is FIRE? Covid has screwed up travel options and I'm more interested in saving/investing money than nightlife, dating, eating out, etc. Also don't plan on marring/having kids.
It is really up to you. I could only speak of my personal opinion where I would value my 20s more in term of having fun than work and saving. I have my first half of 20s waste on work and I realized how much I miss. You can also read this book “the defining decade” to plan your 20s and 30s. It is okay to make mistake but be flexible and ready to change your mind.
Select something that has worthwhile experience potential. Citadel is only for the money. Tech is outdated , a lot of politics . Very bad wlb. Somewhat good money, but not that much more than tech compared to faang.
It’s alright. Like most people say, your experience is super team dependent. WLB is certainly rougher than what I’m used to in tech. Citadel beat out my other FAANG offers by 6 figs so I took it I’m on the AM side working with quant researchers, so idk how things are over on Securities. I’ve heard that the QREs in CitSec get treated like shit.
are you from a top 5 uni?
I’m from an Ivy, don’t think it’s top 5
I’ve worked in FAANG. The biggest difference in tech is work life balance, and certain workflows citadel follows. A lot that are not industry standards. As far as turnover, if you do your job and do it well, it will be a high reward. But any slack where you under perform, you’re on the chopping block. Citadel pays very well, but entry from college appears to be underpaid. YMMV, and dependent on team etc.
No. And you won't get paid more compared to FANG in the long run unless you make it to Director level.
Debatable. My counterparts are making less TC than me in FAANG. Lack of stock offerings make it a bit skewed in comparison. Somewhat hard to compare. Not sure director or manager level comps, but those tech stock refreshes can get VERY huge. But still YMMV.
@KenGriffin - that's flat out wrong. New grads can get 400k offers, and 2-3 yoe can get 500k. You can't get that kind of $$$ at big tech without more years exp or lucky explosive stock growth.
First job out of school don’t you want something that aligns with your interest and pays as well while giving you the learning opportunity? Wlb probably is less important ?