Whew! One more quarter, then 2020 will be in the rearview mirror. Good riddance! Here is what we are seeing now:
There is an arms race for top engineers. The most competitive firms are giving premium technologists quantum bumps to join
Investment bank hiring is mostly paused while the world sorts itself out
Contracting is a notable exception – there has been an uptick in contract hiring
Rates remain depressed, but there are signs of strengthening
COVID-19 has likely permanently changed firm’s view of Remote work
We are busy! Several Buy-side clients continue to hire aggressively
Diversity
Diversity continues to be a huge priority for investment banks. That is not the case in the hedge fund world, however.
NB: To those of you who are diverse (not Asian/Southeast Asian in our market), bear this in mind: You have leverage at the negotiation table. Make sure your employer is aware that you expect to be paid up this year. There is so much attention on diversity that firms will not risk losing diverse employees for a few bucks.
What Does a Hiring Manager Looking for in Your Code?
HackeRank, CoderPad, Etc. - most firms require coding as part of the interview process. So just what do they look for in your code? One of our hiring managers at a premier hedge fund told us he is looking for the following when reviewing someone’s code.
The things I care about in a timed setting:
Can I read/understand what it was doing?
If it isn't finished, can I see where it's going?
There's definitely going to be some corner cutting in something like this. Which corners weren't cut?
How does the completion rate look like compared to stats we have on the test?
Is there some demonstration of awareness (a comment) around corner cutting/edge cases likely to be missed?
Good to keep in mind.
Commercial Engineer
Commercial has become the buzzword from our clients to describe the types of engineers they are looking for. Here is what they mean:
Interested in and aptitude for the business supported
Proactive about staying informed
Develops solutions w/ the bottom-line in mind
Minimally sufficient solutions with a focus on continual delivery
Consideration of medium and long-term flexibility/robustness given above
Ability to anticipate future requirements and design accordingly
Content using the tools that fit into the firm’s strategy
H-1B Changes
Yet again, the current administration is making changes to the H-1B visa program. I expected the changes to be uniformly awful, but I was surprised to read the particulars (and here), and I agree w/ some of the changes. I have long felt that the structure of the visa program mostly benefits foreign consulting firms, and some of the changes address that.
Return to Offices
There isn’t a lot of definitive information regarding when firms will return to the office. Even though remote work has been very successful, firms ultimately will bring workers back on-premise. How else can you mentor and grow junior employees? However, for technology and operations, I expect a smaller real estate footprint, significantly increased office hoteling, and a shift to many in the office only a day or two a week. Interesting in this context that Goldman is moving to performance reviews three times a year.
Joke
More users use vi than any other editor… they haven’t figured out how to quit.
Current Priorities
FinTech
Post-trade Engineer – Java/Scala, good knowledge of fixed income post trade operations
Lead SRE/Application Support – Linux, trading systems
Data Journalist – Data fluency, BI/Web Dev, scripting
QA Automation Engineer – scripting, QA automation
Back-end Engineer – Go(lang) (not required)
Full-stack Engineer – Go(lang)/node.js/Javascript (React)/Typescript
Buy Side
Most in Demand: C++, Python, Data Engineering, SRE/DevOps
Head of Site Reliability – SRE/DevOps
Support Engineer – SRE/DevOps – Princeton location
Credit platform Dev - C++/Java/Golang/Rust
Equity Data Production Analyst – Data engineering fluency, machine learning, equity markets
Commodities Data Pipeline Engineer – Python, web scraping, databases
Fixed income Portfolio Analytics Quant - Python, portfolio analytics
Macro Econ QuantDev – Python, ML, macro economics
C++ Engineer Fixed Income eTrading – C++
Credit Strat - Python, fixed income/converts/eq vol
Python Engineer Treasury Systems - Python
C++ Performance Engineer – C++, performance engineer OMS/market connectivity
Quant Researcher – Execution team - Python/C++/Researcher
Quant Trader – non-agency RMBS
Quant Trader – agency MBS
Convertibles Statarb QuantDev – C++/Python/Fixed Income or Equity exp
SRE – Linux
Quantitative Research Engineering – C++
Market Data Engineer – C++ (KDB a plus)
Research Engineer – Princeton location – PhD preferred
Research Scientist – Princeton location – PhD only
Sell Side
Most in Demand: Java, DevOps, Data Engineering - Diversity
DevOps (Assoc/VP) – Runtime Platforms – leading IB – Linux/CICD/Containerization/Etc.
SRE Pipeline (Assoc/VP) – Opportunistic - leading IB – Linux/CICD/Containerization/Etc.
KDB Ticker Plant Engineer – Contract
Data Developer - Python or Java, spark, distributed data development
Contracts – we are seeing a fairly regular flow of Java/Python/Javascript contracts paying in the $90-110 range, sometimes higher