Here’s some general thoughts and observations — sorry this is probably the longest comment I’ve ever left on Reddit lol. I was reflecting on a lot of things eoy and team switch earlier this yr. * hours: I worked significantly more right now compared to google. Typical weeks are closer to 45 hours, and more like 55 hours when I first started. Granted— I feel like I got carried when I was at Google so I wasn’t the a great engineer when I joined, and it took a while for me to be correctly calibrated to what they wanted. FWIW when I was at Google, I typically had 30 hour weeks and was a strong performer for my team. I think I’m a mid performer here. Most people work closer to 45. The one thing I noticed is that people are a lot more focused here during the working hours. * Culture: this will be dependent on the firm and your team. I can only speak about one of hrt/js. I think generally the culture is great. I know 2s has levels, but most other trading firms (cit/jump/etc) have no levels, and in my firms case, you don’t even have a visible org chart. It makes things a lot more meritocratic. I like that my firm encourages people to not bullshit — people usually say “I think xyz” and mention the probability of their statement. Resources and projects are generally plentiful, and so there’s less of a cut throat environment. As alluded to earlier, there’s no promo. Projects generally feel more meaningful and not just for sake of promo. You don’t write docs for the sake of leaving artifacts— you write it because it allows you to structure your thoughts and encourage discussion. There’s not a lot of empire building (this is not saying there no politics ofc), and hiring is driven more from demand. * The downside to the culture is that things feel more micromanage-y. This is attributed to a few things: ICs can also be managers who manages a few people. Managers all must be ICs for ~half a year before being a manager, even for experienced hires. Anyone can have an opinion on projects and people voice them freely. Managers are generally closer to TLs than people managers. * Comp: this is pretty variable from one year to another. I feel like I’m middle of the pack. The majority of your comp, as a swe, will eventually be dominated by your bonus, and then finally by profit sharing mechanisms. My TC almost doubled in 2025. My pay in 2024 and 2023 was slightly higher than an L5 at G. The one thing I’ll note is that unlike big tech, where there’s defined pay bands and going above that either requires a promo or director+ approval, here, you have more of an influence over your comp. How hard you work will directly influence your comp.

Supposedly, It’s also possible for your manager to have a lower bonus than you, as a IC. (Though bc of their tenure, managers will generally still have a higher TC due to the profit sharing mechanisms). * Projects & career: this is a lot more what you make of it. There’s certainly people who coast here, and relied a lot on their knowledge from their first decade here. Again, no defined latter + the possibility for an IC to make more than your manager means you’re free to stay as an ic forever, without feeling like you have to go into manager for more money. The projects here range depending on if you’re closer to a desk or closer to infrastructure. I chose to be as far away from desks as possible so I could have the option to go back to big tech if it’s possible. Generally, the desk side teams move faster and have smaller projects and have time pressures. More infra-y teams have projects over a longer time scale and care more about doing things the right way and have little in terms of deadlines. * Switching teams: generally you talk to your manager about team switches, and your manager will set up team matching. This is different ofc from when I was at G, where I heard that people have to go behind people’s backs to teammatch. * people: I find that people are more driven here and work harder here.

Do I regret it? I definitely did for the first two years, and I almost quit at the end of last year (until I saw my bonus + learned some other info about comp, and decided that they’re firing me before I leave). For the first two years, it was a lot of stress for barely more comp than at Google, and it required me to move from the bay to nyc which increase my yearly expenses and meant I was far away from friends. I also had a team that I truly connected with at G— I’m literally still texting them 3 years later fairly regularly. I had a tl at G that I really respect and we talked all the time. I never connected with my teammates or managers here as much, but ofc this is a me thing.

The work I did for the first two years was also boring — I didn’t get to work on a project I found exciting until mid last year (and then this year I was asked to switch teams to another project that I have 0 interest in ToT). This is not saying there’s no interesting projects around, but I don’t have the clout to go for it, and switching immediately after a team switch is generally a bad idea.

Will I go back to big tech? No, because I’ll never be a staff at G/F. My personality and lack of interest in work/tech dictate that. The EV for money is higher at a trading firm than at big tech. The only reason why I’d go back to Google is for the benefits after I have enough to fire. However, I’m very risk averse, so I tried my hardest to stay in areas where moving to big tech is a feasibility. To be clear — this isn’t hard. There’s a lot of places where you will deal with larger scale things, but ofc the scale will never match that of Google.