Out of these 3, where is the best to start my career as a SWE? I really don't care about WLB. I don't mind grinding for the first few years of my career. I haven't negotiated yet, but I'm sure Citadel and 2S will increase initial offers due to competing offers in the same industry. These offers are estimates as to remain private. First Year TC (all for SWE): Citadel: ~300k Two Sigma: ~250k FB: ~250k All for NYC
In b4 FB wins the poll because most people here have no experience with quant firms. Would pay more attention to comments from people who have worked in both types of places
Worked in both industries. Tech industry is for slackers with the goal of doing the absolute minimum possible in order to be paid the absolute maximum possible. Quant firms actually have intellectually challenging problems. That's why SWE IC TC is capped at 600-700K. Quant firms are easily 1M+ for SWE IC mid career. Then there's the tail end. Director at FB is maybe 1-2M but at quant firms it's 5M+
I’ve generally heard this in about finance roles from the perspective of tech: “SWE roles in finance are generally too specialized to transfer anywhere else and the salary is about the same at big tech. Most of the SWE work is pretty legacy and not actually cutting edge.” Also, in general, I’ve seen a quite a feW engs rise up to IC7+ in FANG pulling in 1M+ with < 10 total YOE (backgrounds at pr standard, non “leet” tech companies), so it feels a lot more attainable than doing the same at a quant firm which is going to be a lot more cut throat and aggro. To sweeten the deal at FB, I’ve seen a lot of people around me pull in 500k+ a few years out of new grad in FB (IC5 in a 2 years, then IC6 in a few halves after) while I have little to no visibility in the caliber of performance expected/probability of progression in a quant firm required to do the same, so I’m gonna need more datapoints on the finance side of things.
Citadel or two sigma for the first few years since you don't care about WLB. If you hate it switch to FAANG later!
I’m worried about citadel since the interviewer referred to SWEs as ‘IT folk’. Although they will probably pay more than anyone else
I honestly don't know how it is in the hedge fund world so you should talk to folks from citadel and two sigma and see how it is. As per Blind rating I see two sigma has a very good rating for some reason. But as far as FB is concerned, reject it unless they give you a crazy offer you can't turn away from. Something like 400K for a new grad would be sickkk.
I think two sigma might be the best.. Facebook is good too but a big company means less thing to do.
No context on 2sig, Citadel but at FB you can def hit E6 and 500k TC within 4 years if you’re a high flying new grad from some top school who knows what they’re doing.
Most people on blind are tech and on the west coast. It's not a surprise they are choosing FB over the other two. Don't go by the polls.
Are you CS graduate? If yes, I would go to FB. That will add a lot more weight to your resume for your next move. You will also learn a lot more at FB as they have top SWEs (no offense to 2S and Citadel).
Is FB on resume > Citadel, 2Sig on resume? I thought Citadel is known to be much harder to get in than 2sig, and 2sig is known to be harder to get in than F.
Yeah, quant companies more prestigious for sure.
I've an interview with Citadel late December, can I dm for interview process?
Wow late December 😂 How did you end up scheduling it so far out ?
For new grad?
Avoid citadel (worked there, the tech is laughable compared to fb). See the recent blind posts too, only join if you want a dead end career and money
Curious, why did you not like it there? What kind of stuff do SWE do there, are you really just treated as IT
cannot agree more... imo you should optimize for engineering experience and structured learning in your early career (FB the best option here). once you make E5+, you can jump to citadel or other quant firms for 500k+
Do not join citadel
That's undergrad or phd?
Undergrad. Numbers are higher cuz I’m using first year TC with signing bonus, not averaging over 4 years. Sorry for the confusion
Lol