Multiple internship offers - trying to decide

[mfrobo]

Hi everyone!

I'm currently a Ph.D. student at one of the top 4 CS schools (CMU, Berkeley, Stanford, MIT) and have received internship offers from several places:

Citadel (I'd be working as a "quant" intern, not FTAP)
Goldman Sachs
Two Sigma
Jump Trading

I'm curious -- what's the perceived "prestige" of each of these places? I've heard that GS is a little different, since it's an investment bank, but is it like comparing apples and oranges when comparing to the other firms on this list?

Also, is anyone familiar with the full-time compensation structure for the above places? I've heard that compensation heavily depends on performance, but is someone familiar with actual figures?

In particular -- the internship offers are ludicrously high (~$9-10K a month, plus corporate housing for two of the above firms -- not sure I'm allowed to say which). I've checked on Glassdoor, but the true numbers seem a bit low.

- mfrobo

 

[mhy]

Is it GS Strats?

For a PhD graduate a salary of 9k a month doesn't seem unnatural. That translates to $100-110k a year and if you live in NYC you will quickly realize that it isn't as much money as you think (speaking from experience here)

Not sure how comp works at Jump. For GS/Two Sigma/Citadel I imagine they are similar-a base salary + bonus. If they're paying you 9k-10k a month as an intern then a base of 100k-120k seems reasonable (Maybe in the mid-high end especially for a new graduate but definitely in the range). Bonuses are wildly variable and can go from 0% to 100%+ of base, it just depends on your role (traders will have more volatile bonuses than quants) and individual/group/firm performance and politics. Also depends on the firm type - I imagine Jump bonuses will 'jump' around quite a bit more compared to the larger firms. One year you might get 20% and the next year 50%.

I think Citadel and Two Sigma are on the same level, and Jump and GS are both different beasts (Jump is a prop-only shop, GS is a full blown IB) so not easily comparable. Prestige-wise the name everyone would know is GS. Most people in finance, and more importantly the people who matter for your career, know Citadel/Two Sigma/Jump.

 

[moretodo]

Either Citadel or Jump. GS if the role is really good (quantitative portfolio management/trading) and not a strats role.

 

[pingu]

what are you trying to get out of the internship? What is your role going to be?

 

[mfrobo]

Sorry for the delay in replies -- I wasn't alerted by email.

mhy: Yes, this is GS strats. Yeah -- I've heard that $100K doesn't go very far in NYC Thanks a bunch for the advice!

moretodo: Cool! Thanks a bunch! Why not strats? Could you say what the differences are between strats and quantitative portfolio management/trading?

pingu: I'm trying to assess whether finance is a good fit for me. So far, my plan is to go into finance for a few years after graduation to see if it's for me. If it's not, I'll likely switch to tech. I figure that doing an internship would help me go through this decision a little faster. At GS, I'd be in their strats group. I'll likely turn down Jump, since I haven't heard very positive things about their program. At Citadel + Two Sigma, I'd be working on writing code to trade. Both are HFT positions.

Edit: meant to say Two Sigma.

 

[didje]

@moretodo @mfrobo There are some cool strats role and some are... well less cool . Really depends on the Strats team. I don't know if the Quant Portfolio Management/trading team is whithin Strats or not.

 

[C S]

GS, I'd be in their strats group. I'll likely turn down Jump, since I haven't heard very positive things about their program. At Citadel + Tower, I'd be working on writing code to trade. Both are HFT positions.

I'd definitely take Tower over the rest. But you said Two Sigma earlier, not Tower.

 

[mfrobo]

Sorry, I meant Two Sigma; they get me confused with each other sometimes.

Curious though; why would you take Tower over the rest, though (if Tower were an option?)