FB or Citadel Quant

Facebook / Eng
edta

Go to company page Facebook Eng

 edta
Sep 20, 2019 87 Comments

Got ML SWE return offer from FB and still interviewing with Citadel quant.

Just wondering if I should just accept the FB offer now since I hate living in Chicago and I heard it would be hard to survive at Citadel. But also heard that comp at Citadel can be way way higher.

Any thoughts on this? Thanks in advance :)

TC: 256k

Meta Citadel Citadel Securities
87

comments

Want to comment? LOG IN or SIGN UP
  1. TOP
  2. RECENT
  3. OLD
 TOP 87 Comments
  • Workday / Project
    Snowshit

    Go to company page Workday Project

    BIO
    Leading Wday deployments..
     Snowshit
    Citadel is a horrible place to work. Stressed out employees, culture of fear and throwing people under the bus. I heard from an employee that they don't allow headphones anywhere on premises because the ceo once couldn't get the attention of someone who was listening to music.
    Sep 20, 2019 7
    • Citadel
      wQER83

      Go to company page Citadel

      wQER83
      Headphones- This is not true anymore.
      Sep 20, 2019
    • New
      RkdX30

      New

      RkdX30
      The Citadel headphones thing happened back in 2007 -- I didn't personally see it, but I heard about it from several people who did. Basically, the CEO looked across the floor and saw a trader (part of whose job was *literally* answering the phone when clients called to do a trade) was at his desk, so he called the guy to come over but the guy had headphones on and didn't hear the phone ring. Ken got angry and yelled at the guy. The next day, we all got an email about not wearing headphones.

      IMHO, Ken was right to get angry -- this was back when many trades were still done over phone or email rather than electronic, so it was inexcusable for that trader to not hear the phone ring since he could have missed some important business.

      But anyway, that happened in 2007. By the time i left Citadel a few years later, the rule was no longer enforced (at least not for non-traders) and I knew some people who wore headphones.
      Feb 6, 2020
  • Volvo / R&D
    ascnrdrkly

    Go to company page Volvo R&D

     ascnrdrkly
    Way way higher only if you're a quant, not SWE
    Sep 20, 2019 14
  • Citadel also has a sweet non-compete that will pay a good chunk of money if you ever want to go back to FB. My friend has one even though he's just a back office engineer. Giant pile of free money...

    I'd ask myself how much I hate Chicago. If you hate it less than you like a few hundred k more money, then I think it's worth going there at least for a year. Yea there's lots of bad things people say about Citadel, but it doesn't sound like you're rolling in enough dough to ignore the extra TC.

    Honestly if I were in school, I would have studied C++ like crazy and tried to get into Jump or Citadel in Chicago. The amount of financial freedom you can get in 1 short year is really really useful. Then I could move to NYC or SF to enjoy life a little more.
    Sep 20, 2019 20
    • Schonfeld / Eng
      9527

      Go to company page Schonfeld Eng

      PRE
      Intel, morganstanley, citadel, etrade
      BIO
      coding monkey
       9527
      @bluetiger Do you know someone who went to tech industry but still got paid by HFT firm during the sit-out period? I believe HFT firms monitor you closely during that time. If you work in a different industry already, why would they still pay you?
      Sep 23, 2019
    • The free non-compete money is discontinued for new hires. Citadel Securities has updated its non-compete agreements since around 2018. Under the new agreement, Citadel will reduce the non-compete payment if someone has another job during the non-compete period, by the amount earned at the other job. AFAIK, all recent new hires signed this new version of non-compete agreements.
      Sep 24, 2019

  • This comment was deleted by original commenter.

  • Should try other HFT firms too! Citadel prob gives the highest base, but if you are confident in your abilities, look for firms with great bonus structure.
    Really good first year quant traders can make >$500K TC in a year where market is volatile.

    Citadel and Virtu prob have the worst culture.. the rest are nowhere near as toxic. A lot of people really love the HFT culture w radically transparent non-personal feedback system

    Quite a lot of ex-FAANG SWEs r in HFT.
    The main reason they cited for leaving FAANG:
    - boredom at work aka no exciting project
    - more politics than actual work

    What they like the most about HFT:
    - the constant intellectual stimulations
    - excitements from risks-reward trade-offs

    What they dislike about their HFT jobs mainly:
    - it doesn’t feel purposeful as in no one’s life besides their own was improved by their work
    Sep 20, 2019 5
    • Facebook / Eng
      edta

      Go to company page Facebook Eng

       edta
      OP
      Thanks!
      Sep 22, 2019
    • New
      RkdX30

      New

      RkdX30
      I question that last point about HFT "doesn't feel purposeful as no one's life besides their own is improved". I work at an HFT and while I do agree we're not really making the world better, we are definitely not making it any worse, either. (Claims in the media about HFT stealing money from investors are false).

      On the other hand -- you're working at a Facebook selling ads and invading user privacy? Not sure you can claim you're making the world better, either...and considering the effect Facebook is having on our national politics and how it's creating opinion "echo chambers" that are destroying moderation and compromise, I'd argue that on balance, Facebook is making the world worse.
      Feb 6, 2020