High frequency trading interns aren't getting job offers

For quant and engineering students, an internship at big electronic trading houses like Jane Street and Jump Trading is their number one priority, in the hopes that it will result in being offered one of the lucrative full time gigs those companies provide. However, from what an executive from one trading firm has seen on the talent market, a lot of interns that got those internships are now looking for work elsewhere.

"For summer interships this year, the conversion rate is dramatically lower," he said. "We've spoken to a huge number of recent and upcoming grads that didn't get the call back." This is because "revenues weren't as good this year" as 2022 and 2021 where "a lot of our competitors overhired." Jane Street and Jump are two noticeable examples of this. The latter added 76 employees in its London office alone last year, while the former quietly grew its total headcount from 2k to 2.5k

Click here to sign up to our technology newsletter.

The focus for the firms therefore is to get all these new hires up to speed and justify the massive pay packages they earn. Jump Traders earned $823k on average last year in the UK, while Jane Street traders earned $900k.

Not all the top companies hiring quants have this problem, however. "The competition in the hedge fund talent pool is still just as fierce as the start of the pandemic," the executive says. "There’s no slowdown there."

Click here to create a profile on eFinancialCareers and make yourself visible to recruiters hiring for top jobs in technology and finance. To stay informed, Sign up here to get Morning Coffee in your inbox or sign up to our new Technology Newsletter

Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: +44 7537 182250 (SMS, Whatsapp or voicemail). Telegram: @SarahButcher. Click here to fill in our anonymous form, or email editortips@efinancialcareers.com. Signal also available

Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: all our comments are moderated by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. Eventually it will – unless it’s offensive or libelous (in which case it won’t.)

Photo by Igor Omilaev on Unsplash