I'm trying to decide whether to continue the interview process with Voleon (for the research staff), and am wondering about their comp. Not the numbers yet (though of course that would be nice to know), but if I'm missing anything with the structure. I know that with Renaissance (RenTec), the salary is almost incidental, and the way they get rich is that they can put money in the Medalion Fund (which gains about 80% each year, meaning you get to append 3 zeros every 12 years or so). As one person there put it, the turnover is so low because the pay is exponential. Is there anything similar at Voleon, or is the salary the main source of comp? Thanks. TC: 515K (before the stock collapse) #Voleon #QA #Quant #compensation
Avoid. Voleon lures you in with big numbers your first year but then gives you opaque hand waving about how bonuses can’t be paid. There is no incentive to stay. The truly good people are leaving or have left. They fire ppl mid-December to avoid bonuses; this is the worst kind of culture. Managers don’t want you to succeed because it takes away from their own success.
Mind a dm?
I’m a finance person sitting out a noncompete at FAANG currently. I know some ex SWEs and quants at Voleon. From what I’ve heard, comp is below FAANG but they’ll spew you with some flowery words about how your comp is going to grow substantially. They had really bad returns in 2020 and a lot of people ended up leaving. I’m not sure how well they did in 2021. A lot of your comp is deferred to later years. They’re started by 2 ex DE Shaw guys and I think they try to copycat a lot of Shaw’s interview process and culture. You’ll get some snobby vibes from the quants there, like Shaw, but they’re no where near as good of a shop as Shaw. Also they’ll ask for your standardized test scores and 3 References. My friend said they asked him to use his current manager as a reference. Lol just fucking lol Pretty sure they don’t give you garden leave either
edit:dont like people guessing at who i am. goodbye
Your TC is not above max FAANG offers for the same corresponding YOE unless you want to account for stock drops. If you want to compare growth, compare voleon to other finance shops, not to tech. The investment returns by voleon has never been as good as other tier 1 shops, and I’m not just referring to 2020 where your ML models underperformed even the average stock market returns which is flat out embarsssjng I know 3 SWEs and 2 quants that left in 2020. None of them had any garden leave. It’s clearly stated in the contract that there is no partial earning of bonuses and you have to return everything to the company if you are terminated/leave before the year’s over
greedy, u are welcome to your opinion, but u dont really understand our business.
> meaning you get to append 3 zeros every 12 years or so) It is mega dumb or mega naive.
1.8 ^ 12 = 1157
The aum of the fund is about 30B. Do you think it can grow bigger than US stock market by adding three zeros? Trading at Warren Buffet’s level is not easy to even beat the market. Your trading activity moves the market, not like day traders who trade few millions bucks