Transcript
GET TO KNOW US | JANE STREET
Hi, I’m Brittany. I’m a software engineer working on the equities desk. I am currently working in Hong Kong and I have been here since 2020.
DO I NEED A BACKGROUND IN FINANCE TO APPLY TO JANE STREET?
You definitely don’t need any experience in finance to apply at Jane Street. I didn’t have any experience and when I joined as an intern, there are a bunch of classes which introduced us to trading and finance. I’d say it’s more about being willing to learn new things and being curious about unfamiliar concepts.
WHAT CAN I EXPECT FROM THE INTERNSHIP PROGRAM?
The projects that interns work on are challenging and meaningful projects that if we didn’t have interns, full timers would otherwise work on. So it’s pretty common for these projects to be of ongoing value to the firm. There have been a couple of times where I’ve been talking to somebody about some system and they actually mentioned that it was their intern project. The internship is a pretty good reflection of a full-time role here at Jane Street. I would say that the main difference is that as a full-timer here, you’ll be working on projects at a larger scope.
DID YOU USE OCAML BEFORE WORKING AT JANE STREET?
I had never written any OCaml before joining Jane Street, but I had done some courses in functional programming. There’s an OCaml bootcamp, which all interns and full-timers go through when they first join, which brings you up to speed with OCaml and starts introducing you to some of our internal libraries. As you work on a wider range of projects, you’ll interact more with our internal libraries. Digging into how something really works is a great way to get familiar with some of our internal systems.
WHAT CLASSES HELPED PREPARE YOU FOR YOUR ROLE AT JANE STREET?
As a software engineer, obviously the work you’ll be doing is quite technical in nature, so having a background in data structures and algorithms is going to be pretty useful. I’d say that intellectual curiosity and being willing to think about problems from different perspectives is much more valuable than anything you can learn in one specific course.
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE CULTURE AT JANE STREET?
Collaboration is a big part of the culture here at Jane Street. As desk dev, I work pretty closely with traders and researchers, and this is something I really enjoy because the feedback loop is really tight and you can very easily see how your work affects other people’s work and adds value to the firm.
IS THERE REALLY NO HIERARCHY ON JANE STREET’S TEAMS?
There really does feel like there’s no hierarchy here. It’s very easy to go up to anyone in the firm and ask them a question or share an idea you had with them, whether they’ve been here for one year or ten years.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE THING ABOUT WORKING AT JANE STREET?
One of my favorite things about working here is definitely all the amazing people I get to work with on a day-to-day basis. People here are very smart, but they are also very humble and kind and they care a lot about other people working here, but also about the firm as a whole.
