Hey folks, I received an offer from Jump Trading for the core development team recently. It has not been overly good from my perspective compared to what I have at SAP or other options that might materialize quite soon. Base 95k GBP, 10k first year guaranteed bonus for Bristol, not London. It has three more disadvantages: 1. There is no other trading firm in Bristol. 2. There is no quant/trading related work in Bristol, which is one of my key motivations in the mid-term. 3. There is an up to two years non-compete. I've been told (mainly by the recruiter) that the salary increase is significant, so 120k base after three years being fully realistic and a bonus of 30% and more per year being more or less the norm, even for UK and core dev. Can someone knowing the company resp. the industry comment on what is to be expected and whether it is worth taking this offer to get in to the industry? Thx.
YOE?
This is too low. My friend got 150k+ 30k sign on for London tho. How was your interview experience?
Bristol is a fantastic city and just a 1.5hr train ride to London. > 95K in Bristol goes a LONG way.
Sure, the city seems nice. What about the concrete questions I asked? Did you work in the industry?
I have worked in the financial/ insurance sector in Bristol. It’s a great place to live. It’s absolutely not London, but your career won’t take a hit from working there, and you can also relo to London sometime in the future if you wish. It depends what you want — London is exciting and a great place to be single with no dependents, but it’s crazy-expensive. Perhaps you could enumerate your priorities? You’re welcome to dm me if you prefer.
Would be great to a few more opinions from the industry or the company.
Jump is pretty legit but heard WLB is bad in the states. Idk about Bristol but at least in London US quant firms pay equivalent to US comp.
Thanks for the comment. For all I know the bonus expectation is one of the strata 10, 20 or 30+% on the base. 10 being essentially equivalent to pip, 20 if you're doing fine and 30% or more for exceeding expectations. Not sure how much more is realistic consistently. With just 30% it is less than what some small companies offer here in Germany.
I have two alternatives now I think: 1. Go back to the Jump offer and accept it. 2. Accept an offer of a small company in Germany (no relocation required) running a sort-of price comparison website being an architect there and try to get into the industry from there while making more than what Jump put on the table. In 2-3 years the latest I want to have joined finance/prop trading/hedge funds.
Go to Jump the name and experience is worth it
Thanks. I guess I feel the same if I'm honest.
How can Jump pay that low? What core dev does?
cpp
Did you end up at Jump?
Those numbers look really low for a US based position at Jump.
Yeah, I guess, but please note that it is for Bristol in the UK.
If you ever applied to a main tech firm in the future, I think Jump Trading on resume would help a lot more than SAP.