Transcript
GET TO KNOW US | JANE STREET
Hi, my name is Jason. I manage the ETF Operations team here at Jane Street. I work in the New York office and I started at Jane Street in 2016.
WHAT DOES THE OPERATIONS TEAM DO AT JANE STREET?
The Operations team has a lot of different responsibilities that span across many different groups. But I’d say the main function of Operations is to support our trading and ensure that we have the pipes set up to really expand our business and get into new areas that our firm hasn’t explored yet. There’s many different teams within the operations space. Some of them include settlements, reconciliation, corporate actions, ETF operations, which is my team, as well as project development. While every group kind of has their own specialization that they focus on day-to-day, when you’re working in the Operations area, you can really expect to work very closely with all these different groups, which really just allows you to get to know more people in the team and collaborate on ideas.
WHAT QUALITIES ARE IMPORTANT TO HAVE ON THE OPERATIONS TEAM?
In Operations, you need to be able to solve problems and be a problem solver. This means that sometimes you have to be able to think outside the box as things come up that don’t really fall neatly into your day-to-day. I think the most important quality of somebody working in Operations and I think this is really a quality that the firm as a whole looks for, is owning up to mistakes that happen and showing that you have learned from them. Making mistakes is inevitable. There are many manual processes, there’s a lot of moving parts and a lot of external factors that we can’t really take into account. The important thing that Jane Street really cares about is that when you do make a mistake, everyone who needs to know is informed and that you do not try to keep this to yourself.
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE JANE STREET’S CULTURE?
The culture enables people from every team to feel involved in the process and firm-level decisions. You are encouraged to speak your mind and give your opinion. I think Jane Street does a very good job of giving every employee opportunities to learn things that may even fall outside of their normal day-to-day. We deal a lot with the trading desks and I think a lot of times we don’t know everything that the trading desks are doing and we have a lot of questions for them. I think it is very special that we are able to have this level of collaboration and that everyone’s ideas are used here.
WHAT’S KEPT YOU AT JANE STREET?
There’s a lot of things that have kept me here. You get to work with some of the smartest people in the industry, which I think has really just allowed me to learn a tremendous amount. Another thing that has kept me here is just being able to meet so many people from across all different teams. Jane Street does a very good job of hosting things like dinners and cross-group activities outside of work that really allow you to meet more people than are just on your team. I’ve been able to work in many different areas of Operations before landing in ETF Operations. And I’ve really just found that there’s always new opportunities that you’re able to take on.
WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU SHARE WITH NEW HIRES?
A piece of advice that I would give to somebody starting at Jane Street would be to ask a lot of questions. And specifically learn to ask “why.” As you start at Jane Street, there’s going to be an insane amount of concepts and things that you’re expected to learn right away, and we don’t expect you to be familiar with any of it at the beginning. In Operations, it’s very easy sometimes for you to learn how to do your process that you’re in charge of and not always know why you’re doing what you’re doing. I think asking why shows initiative that you are just interested to learn about why you’re doing everything. But also it really helps when something outside of your day-to-day happens that you need to take care of. If you know why you are doing things, it just means that you understand how it’s connected to everything else and will help you solve problems as they come up.
WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE PARTS ABOUT WORKING AT JANE STREET?
People just enjoy being in the office. People have a good time collaborating with each other and talking amongst the various teams. There’s a lot of opportunities for pretty interesting extracurricular activities. For example, I joined the Chess League for a year or so and I’ve never played chess before. I’ve also joined things like the basketball team and softball team. It’s really been a great way to meet people as well as just learn that I’m interested in things like chess, and it’s actually a lot of fun.
