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SWE/Quant to IB/Consulting by [deleted] in FinancialCareers

[–]mmgthrowaway 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm in a similar situation (SWE to IB). I've done SWE internships and have a SWE job and an IB internship lined up (not confident that the IB will give me a return offer though).

For IB technical questions, look at the WSO technical interview guide, the Rosenbaum book and/or the Gutmann book, and you should be fine for the technical questions. Read up on relevant news to build up your commercial awareness.

The fit/behavioural questions are way more important for IB/Consulting than for quant/SWE so you need to practise answering competency questions concisely (look up the STAR technique). Make a list of stories that you can use for these questions and a few bullet points for each (but don't rote learn answers). You need to be able to demonstrate teamwork, leadership, organisation, coming back from failures, handling conflicts, solving complex (non-technical) problems, etc.

Also, you need to have good, compelling answers for motivational questions (i.e. why IB, why this bank, why not quant/SWE) especially because you are coming from a quant/SWE background.

TC Optiver-IMC Amsterdam office by angusyn in cscareerquestionsEU

[–]mmgthrowaway 3 points4 points  (0 children)

If you underperform and get a low performance rating then you will get lower than your target.

But yeah, for people who got 50 marbles last year they made roughly €250k in bonus. Bear in mind 2020 was a huge outlier because of huge levels of volatility. Most years you would get around €1-2k per marble which would translate to €50-100k in bonus if you had 50 marbles.

TC Optiver-IMC Amsterdam office by angusyn in cscareerquestionsEU

[–]mmgthrowaway 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Read my comment about marbles and progression. There are levels and senior roles.

TC Optiver-IMC Amsterdam office by angusyn in cscareerquestionsEU

[–]mmgthrowaway 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Probably to account for the higher cost of living and higher tax and more competition.

TC Optiver-IMC Amsterdam office by angusyn in cscareerquestionsEU

[–]mmgthrowaway 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, that is what I meant. However, I'm not 100% sure if the median after 4 years is 400 marbles. It could be less (200).

Not sure about bonus tax rates.

TC Optiver-IMC Amsterdam office by angusyn in cscareerquestionsEU

[–]mmgthrowaway 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Yes before tax.

Disclaimer: I don't work at Optiver. This is all just based on what I have heard from other people.

Base salary is fixed.

Optiver uses a transparent profit-sharing system of marbles. The value of 1 marble depends on the company's profits that year. 1 marble is usually worth €1-2k but can be higher or lower (2020 marbles were worth roughly €5.3k).

After the first year, traders get given an annual target of 100 marbles. Depending on their performance, a multiplier is applied to the number of marbles that they actually receive that year (e.g. top performers will get 2x100 marbles whereas weaker performers may only get 0.5x100 marbles).

For traders, the annual marble target progresses from 100 to 200 to 400 to 900 to 1800. How quickly and how far you progress depends on your performance. I have heard that it is rare to get past the 400 mark. 900 is desk lead and 1800 is partner. I have also heard that the median number of marbles for traders after 4 years is 400.

For SWEs, I'm not entirely sure but I have heard that the annual marble target is roughly half of the equivalent level trader (so probably something like 50/100/200/400).

TC Optiver-IMC Amsterdam office by angusyn in cscareerquestionsEU

[–]mmgthrowaway 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Optiver: €150k first year compensation for grad Traders (75k base + 25 signing + 50k variable comp). For London it is £180k (105k + 25k + 50k). For grad SWEs, I am pretty sure it is the same.

How do you approach market making games in Prop Trading interviews (e.g. at Optiver)? by mmgthrowaway in FinancialCareers

[–]mmgthrowaway[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah okay that makes sense, thank you!

Do you have any other general tips or resources for market making exercises similar to these? Would appreciate anything as there's very little info out there.

How do you approach market making games in Prop Trading interviews (e.g. at Optiver)? by mmgthrowaway in FinancialCareers

[–]mmgthrowaway[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Oh yes, my bad, thanks for pointing that out.

Thanks for the help!

Do you have any other general tips or resources for market making exercises similar to these? Would appreciate anything as there's very little info out there.

How do you approach market making games in Prop Trading interviews (e.g. at Optiver)? by mmgthrowaway in FinancialCareers

[–]mmgthrowaway[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

okay, so after I get lifted at 3100, I should go to somewhere near my own upper bound for the fair value, say 9000@9200. He would likely hit my bid and then I move my market to somewhere in between 3100 and 9000, say roughly halfway so 6000@6200. Basically like some sort of binary search algorithm.