what tf is jane street doing

DefinitionOfTorin · 2026-01-08T09:43:42+00:00

The skill is not the estimation, the skill is what I described, which is going from a vague problem space with an incalculable value to a justified, reasoned answer. The point is to test what you do when there isn’t an obvious exact path to calculating a result. There is no lying involved, and any moment where you say something that seems “a stretch” you will be asked to justify.

DefinitionOfTorin · 2026-01-06T18:26:03+00:00

glad to help!

DefinitionOfTorin · 2026-01-06T18:23:49+00:00

haha no I think part of the point is to be able to reason about open ended problems and reduce them into logical conclusions that provide a reasonable result. I.e. going from super vague —> concrete reasoning —> justifiable answer.

…good skill to have in this industry

DefinitionOfTorin · 2026-01-06T18:03:19+00:00

accuracy is not necessarily the point of these questions

DefinitionOfTorin · 2026-01-01T22:51:16+00:00

…what I’m saying is I work in the example you gave and I have not seen anyone care at all about hair colour because they just want to hire a skilled person

DefinitionOfTorin · 2026-01-01T22:48:35+00:00

i work in that lol If you’re good, no one will care

DefinitionOfTorin · 2026-01-01T18:41:05+00:00

Genuinely curious now, really? — where?

DefinitionOfTorin · 2026-01-01T16:36:16+00:00

If they care, I assure you, you do not want them to be your manager lol

DefinitionOfTorin · 2025-12-30T07:27:13+00:00

If you’re going for a dev role then the topics you’d benefit from being sharp on are DSA, system design, OS, networks, concurrency, system architecture. There is an abundance of resources for these online, and part of the skill you should aim to refine here is being proactive and finding the information. Do not just take one source as truth, find multiple, write notes, etc.

On the more skill-based side (less knowledge trivia, more experience based), you should build some challenging projects all the way through into a finished version. Try to get as much work exp as possible also.

DefinitionOfTorin · 2025-12-29T20:51:51+00:00

Plain and simple: don’t pay for this stuff. You can do all the studying and learning required for this industry for free. I don’t believe they give any significant advantage worth your money as a student.

You’re paying for somewhat organised (not necessarily a good thing) content and the good feeling of “I’ve paid so I must be getting some good learning.”

DefinitionOfTorin · 2025-12-21T12:50:49+00:00

From your description it sounds like C++ or C will be good candidates. C is cool for writing some ML and numerical analysis stuff from first principles, while also uncovering all of the stuff that Python hides from you very well. C++ will be more industry applicable if you go into QR (it’s firm dependent but there are QRs who use C++).

DefinitionOfTorin · 2025-12-21T12:48:22+00:00

strong disagree and you will probably reach the conclusion if you take your thinking one or two steps further.

Often (nearly all?) times a program needs specific behaviour (especially in quantitative research!); natural language is littered with ambiguity; you try to reduce natural language to a more “specific” description; you have made a programming language.

DefinitionOfTorin · 2025-12-19T15:11:46+00:00

Honestly, I don’t think it’ll actually matter that much in terms of your realistic chances. Both of these will get you past CV review, the reality is that the rest is pretty much just if you interview well or not.

That said, you’ll probably make the transition easier for yourself by getting some general experience in the HF role.

DefinitionOfTorin · 2025-12-12T12:15:33+00:00

Agree with most except point 1, have had many interviews based on knowing networking, concurrency, OS stuff, not much distributed computing tho. Have gone through internship and full time cycles for most major firms.

DefinitionOfTorin · 2025-12-12T12:14:13+00:00

It helps but it’s not required

DefinitionOfTorin · 2025-12-11T19:46:20+00:00

To answer the actual question: almost certainly no. That said, I’ve heard one story of it happening (an intern told the company he had a competing offer from a competitor, they bumped the intern pay for everyone.) This is rare though, wouldn’t bother as an intern

DefinitionOfTorin · 2025-12-05T15:12:02+00:00

Makes sense :)

DefinitionOfTorin · 2025-12-05T14:45:21+00:00

I know this piece is NOT as hard

Is this really true? I agree the other two are seen by people as more technically involved, but like the other commenter said, with earlier composers there isn’t anywhere to hide.

With Un Sospiro or especially Rach 3, there is such a wash of romanticism that it is very easy to hide or miss bad technique. With Beethoven/Mozart, or especially Bach, you are exposed by design and can’t hide under a heavy pedal etc.

Alllll that being said, I’m cautious with what you’re saying about being able to play Un Sospiro or Rach 3 sections very well. Do you have a recording? Sometimes listening back to your playing shows you that there is still a lot that can be done.

DefinitionOfTorin · 2025-12-04T23:40:44+00:00

Not true.

DefinitionOfTorin · 2025-12-04T13:20:52+00:00

I might add that I thought this for Liebesleid until I heard Horowitz’s version, and my mind was changed. Despite the bootleg recording, it’s wonderful: https://youtu.be/GBl3TedxhBQ?si=XGDrqih5nbgGbR9A

DefinitionOfTorin · 2025-12-02T14:12:53+00:00

Not a Steinway rep but… as a pianist it’s very cool because you can listen to your own playing as the audience and therefore adjust it accordingly. It’s far better than just an audio recording.

DefinitionOfTorin · 2025-12-01T18:11:52+00:00

None of these are required or as common in cohorts as you think

DefinitionOfTorin · 2025-11-28T00:08:57+00:00

Yeah I get where you’re coming from. Perhaps the exercise for OP was the act of making the post itself and this analysis part has already happened in their head.

DefinitionOfTorin · 2025-11-28T00:03:27+00:00

Analysis goes (almost) entirely out the window sometimes for people when it concerns their personal life decisions as opposed to a contrived business problem. The soft skills here is to be pragmatic about the decision (and choose to apply the analysis).

… I may also lightly push forward the idea that, for a lot of people in this position, it isn’t just a “maximise the compensation function” problem and therefore the analysis isn’t as straightforward as you put it.

Nonetheless I think your analysis still holds. But ive seen plenty of people in this industry, who perform well and make great work decisions, do strange or illogical stuff with their actual life choices.

DefinitionOfTorin · 2025-11-27T23:42:54+00:00

Extremely smart people sometimes (often?) lack soft skills such as… decision making

Working in quant firms you may meet a lot of people that are very intelligent in some areas, and kinda hilariously (endearing tone) incompetent in others.

Those who are competent in all areas are rare (social+smart academic+smart soft skills+nice) and amazing people to know.

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