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Old 10-16-2011, 11:48 AM
 
Location: Cornelius, NC
1,045 posts, read 2,657,362 times
Reputation: 679

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I don't believe the salary info on Glassdoor.com. It looks too low. I've seen salary numbers that blow my mind but can't tell if they are legit. Right now I'm making $70K with good benefits and a bonus. I know there has to be people around my age and experience level (26 and 5 years but only 1 at the prop trading firm) that are making six figures if not more. I definitely low-balled on the salary and was doing it because I really wanted to move here and came from a lower COL city. It's still decent though but I want to make more. I know my employer thinks I'm good and that I will get a raise and good bonus. The problem is that my immediate boss isn't able to give me a raise right away and those decisions are only made by the higher ups. There's nothing wrong with wanting to make more money especially if I know other people in my field are making six figures or more. I want to get rich. Anyone here know the trading field? Where should I network?
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Old 10-16-2011, 04:53 PM
 
4,152 posts, read 7,935,874 times
Reputation: 2727
I don't blame you but if you are 26 years old you are making quite a bit of money. You are lucky to have the job you have. Also its not always good to be one of the highest paid people at a firm or in a job area. After some time, they may decide you are not worth it and will hire someone five years younger and with less experience and pay them less to do you job. I've seen it happen many times over.
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Old 10-16-2011, 05:20 PM
 
Location: Cornelius, NC
1,045 posts, read 2,657,362 times
Reputation: 679
Quote:
Originally Posted by ToriaT View Post
I don't blame you but if you are 26 years old you are making quite a bit of money. You are lucky to have the job you have. Also its not always good to be one of the highest paid people at a firm or in a job area. After some time, they may decide you are not worth it and will hire someone five years younger and with less experience and pay them less to do you job. I've seen it happen many times over.
Yeah but if you're really, really good at the job, loyal, and a team player then why would they ever get rid of you? I know there are people in these places that are making 2 times more money than me and they are probably the same age as me. I don't if it's legit ... but this job ad made my jaw drop so hard:

New York/Chicago - "Extremely well Funded" High Frequency trading Fund - Software Engineers/Researchers/Strategists - $400k+ recruitment - Hedge Funds careers in the USA (http://jobs.efinancialcareers.com/job-4000000000891095.htm - broken link)

If it's legit, then I could easily be able to get a sizable bump in salary if I can really show them I am worth that much.
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Old 10-16-2011, 05:49 PM
 
Location: Chicago - Logan Square
3,396 posts, read 7,208,945 times
Reputation: 3731
Quote:
Originally Posted by Caldus View Post
Yeah but if you're really, really good at the job, loyal, and a team player then why would they ever get rid of you?
Oh man - you are so young. Wait until you get to director level at some company and then go back and read this. Priceless.
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Old 10-16-2011, 07:14 PM
 
Location: River North, Chicago, Illinois
4,619 posts, read 8,166,512 times
Reputation: 6321
Quote:
Originally Posted by Caldus View Post
...
If it's legit, then I could easily be able to get a sizable bump in salary if I can really show them I am worth that much.
That's a substantial "if." If it was easy to do, every software engineer would do it and earn that much. As it is, only a tiny fraction of engineers are able to do it and it's nothing to be ashamed of to not be part of that tiny fraction.

It takes not just technical software expertise, but also technical financial expertise, and requires particular personality characteristics that are somewhat rare among the general population. The combination of those three traits is why it's rare and why the few who can combine them can make so much.

If you want to earn $400k/year, you'd honestly have a better shot at it by enrolling in medical school.
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Old 10-16-2011, 07:19 PM
 
1,302 posts, read 1,949,764 times
Reputation: 1001
Quote:
Originally Posted by Caldus View Post
Yeah but if you're really, really good at the job, loyal, and a team player then why would they ever get rid of you? I know there are people in these places that are making 2 times more money than me and they are probably the same age as me. I don't if it's legit ... but this job ad made my jaw drop so hard:

New York/Chicago - "Extremely well Funded" High Frequency trading Fund - Software Engineers/Researchers/Strategists - $400k+ recruitment - Hedge Funds careers in the USA (http://jobs.efinancialcareers.com/job-4000000000891095.htm - broken link)

If it's legit, then I could easily be able to get a sizable bump in salary if I can really show them I am worth that much.
My firm doesn't specialize in Prop Trading, so im not an expert, but $400K is not the norm for the position. At most, top 15-20% of guys are making that kind of money as a Software Engineer.

$70K seems to be near the lower end of the average, but still quite well for 26. Looking for a pay raise is a good idea, but 400K is a long shot, imo.
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Old 10-16-2011, 08:04 PM
 
Location: Cornelius, NC
1,045 posts, read 2,657,362 times
Reputation: 679
Here's what I think about all of this ... I still don't believe anyone here. I know how these types of people operate. They take advantage of the fact that everyone else thinks they are only making a little more but in reality a lot of people who don't deserve the salary have it and they got it somehow. Whether it was because they had a buddy who was starting up a hedge fund somewhere and trusted him even know he wasn't the biggest rockstar programmer in the world. Maybe it's because he really is just that damn good for his age and he was able to get multiple offers from multiple firms at the same time and arbitrage the offers to a point where he was a good $50K ahead of his crowd. Salaries are all screwed up at these places and they vary widely. You can see it on Glassdoor.
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Old 10-17-2011, 07:17 AM
 
1,210 posts, read 3,061,472 times
Reputation: 651
Quote:
Originally Posted by Caldus View Post
Here's what I think about all of this ... I still don't believe anyone here. I know how these types of people operate. They take advantage of the fact that everyone else thinks they are only making a little more but in reality a lot of people who don't deserve the salary have it and they got it somehow. Whether it was because they had a buddy who was starting up a hedge fund somewhere and trusted him even know he wasn't the biggest rockstar programmer in the world. Maybe it's because he really is just that damn good for his age and he was able to get multiple offers from multiple firms at the same time and arbitrage the offers to a point where he was a good $50K ahead of his crowd. Salaries are all screwed up at these places and they vary widely. You can see it on Glassdoor.
I know of one HFT firm here that have paid obscene amounts (800k+) of money for developers, but these are guys with degrees from MIT and 10 years of Goldman under their belts and a lot of quant knowledge.

It really comes down to how good you are to be frank. A lot of these guys just aren't programmers, they are very brilliant guys with PHDs in physics that are great with anything technical/math oriented. If you aren't that, then a realistic salary at your level is probably more like 100k. If you get a lot of trading-specific experience under your belt then 150k-200k is doable from what I've seen.

On a side note, do you work at Peak6? If so they generally don't seem to pay anything extraordinary like some of the other shops which might also be part of the problem.
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Old 10-17-2011, 02:04 PM
 
28,455 posts, read 85,339,930 times
Reputation: 18728
It is pretty clear that ad is looking for a PhD Quant.

Now some firms might have a handful of super code jockeys that have worked with quants so long that they are considered just as valuable as the quants and are paid a similar amount, but for the majority of the trading firms in Chicago or elsewhere they flat out cannot risk that kind of compensation.

End of year bonuses are structured so that the quants whose strategies were BIG winners take home probably 3-4X salary and those that had more normal records but still positive results get about 1.5X salary and those that had losing strategy but are nice guys get 25% of salary and losers that rare PITA are given nothing as a warning to do better or move on...
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Old 06-08-2013, 03:52 AM
 
32 posts, read 84,623 times
Reputation: 18
I used to work for an elite Chicago prop trading firm. Our college hires got a base of $100K but made a lot more after bonus. These were usually top computer science/math/physics students from the best colleges: Harvard/mit/Stanford/Princeton. Bonuses can vary wildly, and it was dependent on not just individual performance but also that of the group and the firm as a whole. It was not uncommon for 25-26 year olds to make $500K+ including bonus.
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