[HN Gopher] Ask HN: How to get a job at Jane St., Two Sigma, etc.?
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Ask HN: How to get a job at Jane St., Two Sigma, etc.?
I'm a full stack software developer with about 10 years of
experience building things like APIs, mobile apps, various backend
services, SDKs, etc. I've long been interested in finance and am
always mistaken for working in finance (guess I just look the
part). I'm wondering if anyone here has gone from the world of
software for the stereotypical Bay Area startup or large tech
company to world of NYC quants and hedge funds. I don't have a PhD
in mathematics or some other extreme traditional qualification, but
I do have lots experience building stuff. I recently moved to NYC
and would love to join one of these companies, especially
considering the earning potential versus other companies. Has
anyone here made that move?
Author : imnotreallynew
Score : 20 points
Date : 2022-10-14 20:45 UTC (2 hours ago)
| antiterra wrote:
| Info might be a bit dated, but, when it was a possible path for
| me, Jane Street was an OCaml house and did a fair bit of picking
| from Columbia grads who took the OCaml version of Programming
| Languages & Translators. Legend also says they would ask
| candidates to do math problems in their head while the
| interviewers crinkled newspaper and talked loudly. Fair to say
| they are looking for _exceptionally_ skilled and sharp
| candidates.
| JamesBarney wrote:
| Fair to say they have shitty hiring practices.
|
| If you want to give someone an IQ test give them an IQ test,
| don't crumple fucking papers while you talk loudly and ask them
| math questions. Sounds like a power trip.
| opportune wrote:
| It's a legal minefield to directly administer IQ tests in
| hiring because of all the legal precedent around them
| imnotreallynew wrote:
| Yea, OCaml is still referenced on their job posts.
| [deleted]
| armitron wrote:
| I worked for a few years in fintech (NYC) after I left SF (more
| than a decade working at FAANGs).
|
| I'd say your experience as a full stack software developer is
| basically irrelevant. At the end of the day, for a typical non-
| leadership engineering role, the hiring decision is not going to
| be based on your previous work experience. They are looking for
| strong algorithmic fundamentals and the ability to think outside
| the box (I've interviewed for both in the past).
| scarface74 wrote:
| > I'd say your experience as a full stack software developer is
| basically irrelevant
|
| This seems to basically be true for any well paying ( > $200K)
| job at any of the better paying tech companies in the US. It's
| all about the passing the algorithm coding interviews.
| imnotreallynew wrote:
| I don't believe that's true.
|
| There a number of large, well funded "startups" that don't do
| the traditional algorithm based interviews but still pay at
| or above that range.
| imnotreallynew wrote:
| Are you talking for a quant role, or a SWE role in those
| companies?
|
| I can't imagine how 10 years of experience as an SWE would be
| irrelevant for another SWE position, even if the industry is
| different.
| MisterSandman wrote:
| How were you able to get an interview at that company? Was it
| through networking or did your FAANG experience show some kind
| of algorithmic prowess?
|
| I'm a university student who's found out a little too late that
| I might be interested in Quant. I have great marks and
| algorithmic foundations but my past experience has been in Full
| Stack/Web Dev, and I've struggled to get an interview from any
| of these firms (and I don't entirely blame them).
| metadat wrote:
| Maybe they're not looking for current students? That alone
| leads me to pass over a candidate unless I'm trying to fill
| spots for a summer intern program.
| boberoni wrote:
| _> How to get a job at Jane St., Two Sigma, etc.?_
|
| Which "job"?
|
| If you are going for a role as a quantitative trader, then your
| job will involve building mathematical models for predicting the
| price of assets. You would need to study up on probability
| theory, statistics, and risk management.
|
| If you are going for a role as a software engineer, then your job
| will involve building internal tools and infrastructure for
| productionizing the models that quant traders build. You would
| need to study up on data structures, algorithms, and systems
| design.
| imnotreallynew wrote:
| The latter.
| boberoni wrote:
| Thanks for clarifying. Depending on your job search strategy,
| you could apply as a generic software engineer or you could
| try to apply under a specialization. Specialists are valuable
| if the company needs you, but useless if they don't.
|
| Here are some examples of specializations in quantitative
| trading:
|
| Networking. For high-frequency trading firms, low network
| latency is extremely valuable. Some firms will need to build
| their own proprietary network protocols for their internal
| services because TCP is too slow.
|
| Compilers. Again, for high-frequency trading firms, the
| latency from garbage collection, memory allocation, and
| system calls must be managed very carefully. Jane St is
| famous for being an OCaml shop, and OCaml is commonly used
| for building compilers and domain-specific languages (DSLs).
| When it comes to optimization, _predictable_ latency
| (variance) can be just as valuable as _low_ latency (99th
| percentile).
|
| ML Engineering. While the quant traders build models, it is
| up to the software engineers to productionize and maintain
| the models. This can involve data engineering, feature
| engineering, model deployment, and monitoring the model for
| performance, predictive accuracy, and feature drift.
| izyda wrote:
| I ran a data science group at a major discretionary NYC based
| hedge fund. We were not a traditional quant fund, but hired many
| software engineers.
|
| Here is my take on what it takes:
| https://magis.substack.com/p/what-makes-alternative-data-sci...
| ng12 wrote:
| I have. The hedge fund world isn't really as enigmatic as they
| would have you think. It's the same as anywhere else: work at a
| reputable company, get an interview, do well. I don't think it's
| much different than working at a FAANG. Lots of ex-Google
| employees at Two Sigma, for example.
|
| Things are a little different if you want a job as a quant than a
| software developer, though.
| imnotreallynew wrote:
| Definitely want to keep a SWE role. I am effectively trying to
| find how I can best maximize my earning potential as a SWE.
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