"Electronic trading is adult day care for 19-year-olds on $300k"
I've worked at a top electronic trading firm. I joined a fair bit older than most people, who join as undergraduates through internship schemes. What I saw with those interns was creepy.
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The environment wasn't toxic, and the people seemed lovely and well intentioned, but it felt like the company was trying to sell an image of itself as a very elite club that undergraduates would find hard to see through. You'd very often hear from employees that "the smartest people will choose to work for x," which put a lot of pressure on these 19 and 20-year-olds.
It's hard not to see why they get attached. You pay a 19-year-old a $300k+ salary, keep telling him that's he's part of a club of the smartest people, and build a bubble of insider lingo and references and of course they're going to become loyal.
It also sold itself on being a fun place to work, constantly holding internal games and competitions. Half of an entire floor there was dedicated to board games, and other floors are covered in posters of math puzzles.
These interns also get pretty much their entire social life planned out for them with the firm taking a motherly role. It's as if it were an adult daycare, which I think is damaging to the most impressionable interns.
I don't think that management is doing anything wrong. You get the sense that they find it all fun, but I wish they were a bit more aware that a lot of their interns are super young... and not always the most mature.
Lee Swanson is a pseudonym
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