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I work in finance. The “Goldman discount” is well known. People will accept lower comp for that brand on their resume. Otherwise, the places you can really make

I work in finance. The “Goldman discount” is well known. People will accept lower comp for that brand on their resume. Otherwise, the places you can really make the most money are at small private firms without public shareholders. There are so many cash machines out there with very little public scrutiny.

smabie 6y ago
I work in HFT and my experience is like yours: the most well known firms pay the least. Right now I'm at a very small prop firm as a partner and compensation is much greater than I would have gotten at Jane St, Citadel, etc. Generally people only seek at prestigious firms like Goldman early in their career and switch over to more obscure but lucrative opportunities: prop firms, pe, hf, etc.
- npip99 6y ago
  Wait a second, am I missing out right now? I have an opportunity at Jane Street, but I haven't been exposed to any of the other small name firms. Where do I look to find the higher paying jobs?
  - smabie 6y ago
    If you're early in your career, then you should probably just take the Jane St opportunity. They are very well respected and it looks very good on your resume. If you're later in your career, you should have enough contacts and know enough people to get in the door at a small firm. If you don't know their name, you'll have a hard time getting in. These kinds of places don't post job openings on indeed. You kind of have to know someone.
  - rhizome 6y ago
    One of the first things you might notice in some of the job ads for those firms: instead of "Compensation: competitive salary, 0.0x% equity," you'll start seeing phrases like "extremely high compensation." Then you'll start really feeling like you're not in Kansas. In this vein, the tech industry screws its employees as far as their share of revenue-per-employee goes. Apple makes 10x per employee what Jane St. does, and I doubt the small firms achieve the difference.
    - smabie 6y ago
      the joke goes that finance firms are employee run co-ops. And for the most part it's true: you end up keeping quite a high percentage of the money you earn for the firm. Profits are paid out to everyone, not just a few at the top.
    - Tinyyy 6y ago
      From someone working at Jane Street, Apple definitely does not make 10x per employee what Jane Street does.
      - rhizome 6y ago
        These numbers are easy to find, but sure, let's break out our calculators. By recent generic numbers, Jane street does $171MM revenues across 900 employees. Apple has $274B revenues across 137,000 heads. $190,000 vs. $2,000,000. Netflix is even higher: $2.4MM. What numbers do you have?
        deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
        srtjstjsj 6y ago
        Profit matters, not revenue.
        icedchai 6y ago
        Where do you think most revenue goes? Employees.
        username90 6y ago
        Depends on the company. For example most of Walmart's revenue goes to buying goods to sell. Apple sells physical products and hence will spend a lot of money acquiring the physical parts etc, you can't really compare their revenue to for examples Facebooks revenue.
  - kyawzazaw 6y ago
    RenenTech?
eganp 6y ago
I wish I knew this coming out of school. I think this is also another reason why people prefer prestigious schools. Those who own and operate these cash machines tend to send their children to elite schools. I can't even begin to count the number of people I've met at Stanford whose parents own "X," where X is a little publicized, privately held business with >$10M in revenues.

smabie 6y ago

I work in HFT and my experience is like yours: the most well known firms pay the least. Right now I'm at a very small prop firm as a partner and compensation is much greater than I would have gotten at Jane St, Citadel, etc. Generally people only seek at prestigious firms like Goldman early in their career and switch over to more obscure but lucrative opportunities: prop firms, pe, hf, etc.

npip99 6y ago
Wait a second, am I missing out right now? I have an opportunity at Jane Street, but I haven't been exposed to any of the other small name firms. Where do I look to find the higher paying jobs?
- smabie 6y ago
  If you're early in your career, then you should probably just take the Jane St opportunity. They are very well respected and it looks very good on your resume. If you're later in your career, you should have enough contacts and know enough people to get in the door at a small firm. If you don't know their name, you'll have a hard time getting in. These kinds of places don't post job openings on indeed. You kind of have to know someone.
- rhizome 6y ago
  One of the first things you might notice in some of the job ads for those firms: instead of "Compensation: competitive salary, 0.0x% equity," you'll start seeing phrases like "extremely high compensation." Then you'll start really feeling like you're not in Kansas. In this vein, the tech industry screws its employees as far as their share of revenue-per-employee goes. Apple makes 10x per employee what Jane St. does, and I doubt the small firms achieve the difference.
  - smabie 6y ago
    the joke goes that finance firms are employee run co-ops. And for the most part it's true: you end up keeping quite a high percentage of the money you earn for the firm. Profits are paid out to everyone, not just a few at the top.
  - Tinyyy 6y ago
    From someone working at Jane Street, Apple definitely does not make 10x per employee what Jane Street does.
    - rhizome 6y ago
      These numbers are easy to find, but sure, let's break out our calculators. By recent generic numbers, Jane street does $171MM revenues across 900 employees. Apple has $274B revenues across 137,000 heads. $190,000 vs. $2,000,000. Netflix is even higher: $2.4MM. What numbers do you have?
      - deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
      - srtjstjsj 6y ago
        Profit matters, not revenue.
        icedchai 6y ago
        Where do you think most revenue goes? Employees.
        username90 6y ago
        Depends on the company. For example most of Walmart's revenue goes to buying goods to sell. Apple sells physical products and hence will spend a lot of money acquiring the physical parts etc, you can't really compare their revenue to for examples Facebooks revenue.
- kyawzazaw 6y ago
  RenenTech?

eganp 6y ago

I wish I knew this coming out of school. I think this is also another reason why people prefer prestigious schools. Those who own and operate these cash machines tend to send their children to elite schools. I can't even begin to count the number of people I've met at Stanford whose parents own "X," where X is a little publicized, privately held business with >$10M in revenues.