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Basically title in terms of TC. I've been interning at a few of these think (HRT/Cit/JS/Optiver/DRW/IMC) as a SWE, but I've seen posts about TC leveling out around 400-500k and that the new-grad comps are just inflated by sign-ons. Is there strong potential to break into the upper six-figures or low-seven figures as a SWE? Or is that restricted to QT/QRs? I've seen high comps on levels at firms like HRT but haven't seen it as much with the others. Asking to decide to pursue tech now, although it's looking pretty bad there(Doordash mid lvl SWEs being offered low 200s). Edit: Thanks for the responses! Seems consensus is that TC still gaps tech, firm/team dependent, can hit high six-figures/1M. #hft #quant #swe #citadel #hrt #optiver #drw
If you've been interning at HRT you would know the answers no?
I said one of the 3 and many of the people 2-4 years in were making around 500k, I have no insight into TC progression after 5 years.
They don’t end up making THAT much more. TC even late in their career is around 1M, never really over for quant devs. Quant traders and researchers can make multimillions but not devs. Still that’s way more than FAANG seniors or even leads, but it’s way harder to break into.
I would say HRT, JS, Jump, CS, Optiver are worth it. All of them like to hire new grads and people stay for a long time
What about others like IMC, Citadel, DRW?
They’re also better than FAANG, but Citadel is notoriously difficult to work for but has a lower interview bar. It would definitely be easier to get to a better quant from after working at Citadel a few years
Unless you negotiate a killer offer at the start, most of these roles cap out at 5-600k barring rare circumstances like top performer, exceptional desk + fund performance. You usually have to negotiate internally to get big bumps because they have no real incentive to give you them otherwise as SWE
It’s high risk, high reward. They pay well, but have brutal WLB and are pretty demanding performance wise, especially considering that it’s finance. Not to mention that you have to be the crème de la crème to even get an interview with them, even from FAANG. A scrub like me could never make it in, so take that with a grain of salt. TC: 105K
Who said it was brutal?
That’s finance in general, and when you’re playing with millions of dollars in money, you don’t have the luxury of messing up or reverting changes. Not to mention that many HFTs have high performance standards and will instantly fire you as opposed to just being put in PIP, similar to Snowflake.
Which companies have a skewed image because of lucky 2020-2022 years? Seriously curious
I'm always wondering about this. I see lots of 600k new grad offers on levels.fyi, but then see experienced roles advertised for (relative) peanuts. I've worked on pretty specialized financial software but never saw comp that was competitive with top tech firms, which makes me think it's a very very narrow set of lucrative roles or that the singaling about the comp is misleading. Citadel once interviewed me, and seemed to want to make me an offer, but after a brief discussion of comp they ghosted.